How to Take (and grow from) Difficult Feedback - Fast Company Article

Early in my (Chantal’s) career, my manager, Scott, shared something in my annual review that I’ll never forget. My sarcastic sense of humor made some people uncomfortable. He recommended that I “tone it down a bit.”

I felt embarrassed and defensive. Since I was young, I’d always leveraged humor to connect and signal mental acuity. The feedback made me question what I thought I knew. Was my presumed superpower actually a liability? The conversation rattled me, and I didn’t know what to do with the feedback.

So often, early-career professionals enter the workforce and receive technical feedback from managers: fix code this way, prepare for a check-in using this template, sequence slides like this for a presentation. This type of feedback is helpful. Too often though, managers are nervous to share behavioral feedback…

Click here to read the complete article I co-wrote in Fast Company.