Receiving negative feedback is extremely painful

A strong feedback culture is one of the major advantages of MBB firms. It helps consultants grow extremely fast. But some people abuse that culture by constantly focusing on negative aspects.

My manager always sees only the negative aspects of my work. His feedback is nasty and snarky.

That’s what one consultant shared with me.

He looked stressed, anxious, and sad. You could see him experiencing mental and physical pain. His confidence was completely destroyed.

I felt his pain and could relate.

I remember my time as a first-year consultant.

It seemed like everything I did was wrong.

My managers and partners constantly gave me negative feedback.

There were so many things to improve that I didn't know where to start.

I felt completely hopeless and desperate.

I had a 'good boy' complex. I always did everything right, following all the rules and always getting straight A+s in my studies and work.

So it all felt like a constant mental torture.

Don’t get me wrong.

I loved the feedback culture!

I wanted to learn as quickly as possible.

But, the feedback should be constructive and balanced.

It couldn't be that I did everything wrong. Everything?

It felt extremely unfair.

I craved some validation and recognition.

I wished to get at least something right.

One solid win to soften that constant stream of negative feedback.

It took me 18 months to become comfortable and start feeling slightly better.

But, the first months of constant negative feedback were traumatizing.

Now, after working nine years in this profession, I know that it all was not necessary.

All the pain and struggle weren't a normal part of the job, as I had thought.

It's possible to teach consultants to work well without traumatizing them.

The secret is teaching them to avoid common mistakes that trigger negative feedback.

In our coaching program for MBB consultants, 22 consultants learn to work well and become successful and confident.

As a first step, they learn reliable routines and techniques to eliminate the most obvious mistakes.

They do a series of practical exercises. These exercises test important elements of the consulting toolkit: analytical, conceptual, structuring, research, storylining, and others.

Then, I explain the right techniques for preventing typical mistakes. We practice again and again, ensuring they fix them for good.

As a result, consultants quickly start producing meaningful outputs.

Leaders stop providing negative feedback and start providing positive one.

This helps consultants to start feeling much better. Their confidence and motivation improve.

Higher confidence and motivation allow them to perform much better.

That’s the first time I see them actually smiling.

Now, they can focus on achieving higher performance through delivering impeccable outputs and impressing leaders.

If you are an MBB consultant and want to achieve high performance, please Book a 1-1 Discovery Session to learn more about the coaching program.

Learn more about the Hero's Journey coaching program.

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