Evaluation Dread: How to Process Negative Feedback
Recently I received an email to do a review for a journal and I'm going to be reviewer number 3. As an academic all I could do was laugh because I started thinking about the journal writing process and how we view reviewers. The next thing I thought about was how we are evaluated all time during the academic process. Since we are looking at another person's trajectory we also tend to compare ourselves. In this article, we will talk about some ways to process feedback in a healthy way.
There are many ways you can receive feedback as a new early career faculty I've listed some of those areas below. I will try to give some pointers for each. I'm hoping that this will also help you to be mindful of how you give and receive feedback.
Annual Report Evaluation
Student Evaluations
Grants
Journal Paper Submissions
Mentors
Annual Report
The annual report is submitted every year for a specific time period. You give an account of all the things you are able to accomplish during that time for teaching, research and service. It is important that you keep track of what you are doing throughout the year. Once all the reports are submitted you are evaluated by your department head. They will have a form that highlights the criteria used to evaluate you on those three key areas. Then they will schedule a meeting to go over their recommendations.
My suggestion
Let's say you did not get the feedback you wanted I would take a day to just acknowledge what you are feeling. Then the next day or two I would start breaking down the feedback (highlight what is going well vs. what you are lacking). Why? because this will help you to see the problems areas that need to be beefed up before going up for tenure. This can help you to adjust your tenure plan accordingly.
Student Evaluations
So initially when I first started on tenure track I dreaded student evaluations. Like many I just didn't read them because that is normally where you can find all the disgruntled students. The first time I actually read mine was preparing my third year review. It took me to a sunken place that I desperately tried to come back from. Hearing a lot of negative feedback can make you doubt yourself as a professor. Its already a lot of pressure given you were trying to do your best to just get your slides ready for your first time teaching! You even probably over-prepared but sometimes that is not felt.
My suggestion
Here is the process I take to process when looking at student evaluations. I open up word or excel.
Write out the comment from the evaluation exactly as you see it in the first column.
The second column I try to write without any bias and taking my feelings out of play what the comment is actually trying to say. (Try not to make up stories or make any assumptions!)
The third column write out an affirmation in relation to this comment that speaks to the type of professor you know you are.
Another avenue I try is to ask for student feedback around midterm time and try to incorporate one or two things into the second half of the class. This can lead to more engagement and free feedback to improve the class.
Grants/Journal Submissions
Most journals and grants are peer-reviewed. At this point you might be submitting several at a time. If you were not awarded a grant or you paper not readily accepted it can kind of be a downer. But, the key is to process through the feedback to create a better submission for the future. If can't submit one place try again somewhere else!
My suggestion
For journal papers if I am working on a revision. I open an excel spreadsheet and put the feedback into two categories. Those categories are major and minor revisions. Minor revisions are for small changes like words or punctuation or even formatting. Major revisions would be related to the anything that would require you to research or rewriting sections. These would normally take more than a day to correct. Doing this approach gives you a better picture of what you need to focus on or what can possibly remain unchanged.
For grants I would try to find the commonalities among the reviews. Solicit feedback from a mentor or program manager to get more insight into what the reviewers were asking. You can also use this feedback to get more research ideas as well.
Mentors
We seek out mentors to help guide us in different area in our lives. Given the circumstances we may seek out their advice. The key is to filter it through the lenses of our values and take into account what is realistic.
My suggestion
Write out everything down that your mentor shares with you. Consider your values, time, and what is realistic for you. But I would caution you also to keep an open mind. You might not like everything they share but if you trust them then know they have your best interest in mind.
No one likes negative feedback or tough conversations. But, we have two options we can shrink back and wallow in feelings of perfectionism or not feeling good enough or we can use the feedback and process it a way that we create change and thrive.
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