Managing director Hora Tjitra of management consultancy Tjitra and Associates said that emotional control – our ability to refrain from reacting emotionally– should be on top of mind whenever we hear or read another’s criticism about our work or performance.

“There are some people who are too quick to be defensive on being criticized by a coworker. Even if somebody is criticizing you merely to vent their negative emotions, it’d be helpful if you to practice active listening to really hear what that person is really saying to you, to assess whether what they are saying is useful to you or not,” Hora told The Jakarta Post in a phone interview.

In order to do so, Hora said, you should probe them with questions for further details on how you might be falling short of professional expectations and how you might improve.

Feli, a 24-year-old content writer at a creative agency, does exactly this whenever she receives feedback from her coworkers.

She was recently asked to help out with a client’s digital marketing campaign on a new product, which helps human resource professionals transition from working from home to working partially from the office.

But Feli was used to writing “long-form” content that could go over 1,000 words, whereas this copywriting assignment required her to write five- to seven-line sentences for posting to the client’s social media accounts.

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