How to respond to critics 🖊️
Plus: Why employees are staying where they are, and is AI hurting job performance?

As you’re probably well aware of by now, criticism just comes with the job when you’re in an entrepreneurship or leadership role.
Let’s talk about how to respond online with grace and take back control of the narrative.
Today’s agenda:
⛽ Criticism as fuel
🤖 Is AI hurting job performance?
🧑💼 Employees are staying put — here’s why
💼 Briefly — our quick news roundup
⏱️ Up & coming
💬 Say this to your critics
It’s not easy to put your ideas, products, and services out into the world only to hear what people hate about them.
But the worst thing you can do is swing back — especially via very public comments on Google or Facebook.
Strategies for navigating criticism
“Serial entrepreneur” Chris Kille encourages the following:
Uncover the motive — does the critic genuinely appear to want to help, or just tear you down? What can you learn from it? Is there truth to it?
Maintain tireless positivity — you have to believe in yourself and refuse to give in to the self-doubt
Thank them — you have their attention, so thank them for it and “surprise them with your resilience,” Kille says
Tap into your “growth mindset” — understand your potential despite the criticism and setbacks
Check yourself — defer to your trusted network of professionals to help you translate the critiques
Emotional detachment — let it roll off you like water on a duck’s back
How to reply to bad reviews
Many consumers today trust a Google review as much as they would trust a personal recommendation from a friend. Put your best foot forward — always.
Using the strategies above, consider how this translates to actual responses to your critics:
Don’t take the review personally
Don’t lash out at customers
Try to understand what went wrong
Encourage the customer to call or email to resolve the issue
We’ve all seen a nasty review with an even nastier reply from the company — don’t be this company. Never divulge personal information or attack the customer.
Use what you can and discard the rest!
👀 Be careful with AI
New research from Boston Consulting Group found that some white-collar workers who use ChatGPT don’t check for errors, which is impacting their job performance.
The problem:
AI’s capabilities are “uneven” — while it can be great at helping with some tasks, others fall “outside the frontier” of what it can do
Consultants using AI for tasks outside the frontier were 19 percentage points less likely to produce accurate results than those without AI
The major problem was that the consultants “indiscriminately” listened to the output even if it was wrong
The solution for your business depends on your current approach. Is AI encouraged? Taboo? Somewhere in the middle?
Encourage transparency among those using AI so you can accurately navigate its benefits and downfalls within your organization.
🙂 What’s keeping employees happy?
The Great Resignation is turning into the Big Stay.
A B2B Reviews survey found that 70% of workers are not looking for a new job.
Why they are staying:
Work-life balance (51%)
Job stability (48%)
Job security (41%)
Team/co-workers (38%)
Current salary (35%)
64% of HR professionals say positive relationships with supervisors best fosters employee loyalty and retention, while 62% say a toxic work environment or negative company culture drives employees away.
Briefly
✍️ Watch this writer attempt to use ChatGPT to write a blog post
💬 X (formerly Twitter) raises concerns by removing the option to report a post for misleading information
💰 22% of Americans haven’t contributed anything to their retirement savings in the past year, Bankrate survey finds
🤖 LinkedIn unveils new AI features involving its job hunting, marketing, and sales products
✉️ Google prepares to enforce new Gmail rules to reduce spam, make it easier to unsubscribe, and boost security starting in February 2024
Up & Coming
Federal Reserve officials are warning that interest rates are more than likely to stay high for “some time.”
How long, exactly? Well, that depends on the strength of the economy, says Cleveland Fed President Loretta Mester.