Negative Feedback and Your Brain

Apr 8

We tend to over-index on negative feedback. Neuroscience proves we're wired to do so. In fact, negative information causes a surge in activity in the information process portion of our brains.

This plays out daily in my coaching practice. High performers often skip quickly past their positive feedback, giving it less importance than the negative. Sometimes they even forget the positives and have to be reminded of them.

A trick I learned from my professional acting days: if you're going to read the bad reviews, you have to give equal attention to the good ones.

So, the next time some negative feedback is consuming your thoughts, hold it side-by-side with a positive. Literally, take a pen and paper. Write the negative on the left and a positive on the right. Give equal weight to the feedback facts before the negatives take you down a black hole.

Keep perspective.