Have you ever been in a situation where you have had to offer your opinion of someone else’s work? Were you comfortable offering criticism? As the art director of an exhibit design-build firm, it is my responsibility to ensure a high level of quality is maintained so offering constructive feedback is a major part of my job. For others, however, I understand they may not be as comfortable offering their opinions on others’ work.

Growing up my brothers and I always heard “Say something nice or don’t say anything at all.” It was my mother’s attempt to get us boys to stop being mean to each other. I understand this logic and have even said it to my children on occasion. It works sometimes and I feel it can call attention to our behavior and how we are possibly speaking to others at times.

With all that said, I think we may use it too much or take it too far sometimes in our professional lives. We have to be able to tell each other we are wrong or that something can be better if we want to continue to improve. We must have a safe working environment that fosters respectful feedback and criticism.

This goes with client relationships as well. Our clients and team members have to feel safe to critique our work and tell us they don’t care for something we have done. We need to hear criticism from our clients and we need to make it safe for them to offer constructive criticism. It’s far better to hear the what clients like or don’t like up front than further along in the project when it becomes more difficult and costly to make changes.

I love my mother and her advice, but this time I’m going to disagree. I’m going with, “Say how you really feel respectfully and don’t not say anything at all.”

Do any of you have examples where clients or team members held back on their comments and things ended up complicated down the road?