Career Readiness · Communication · Lesson Plan

Giving and Receiving Criticism

A free lesson plan introducing the key factors for giving and receiving criticism in the workplace — how feedback aids learning when handled constructively, and how it becomes destructive when handled badly. Students take a self-assessment and develop a personal action plan. Free to read and reproduce.

HS Business Ed · Adult Ed · College
Lesson + Self-Assessment
30 min
Free Lesson

What Students Learn

Learning objectives

Why giving and receiving criticism both require tact and openness — not negativity on one side, not defensiveness on the other
The value of feedback — it helps us learn how others perceive our behavior, which helps us develop and adapt
How badly handled criticism can be destructive — and why learning the constructive version is a real workplace skill
The two-sided nature of criticism — how to give feedback constructively, and how to receive it in a way that aids personal growth
The honest warning: do not criticize others simply because you are good at fault-finding — criticism without a constructive purpose has no value
How to use a self-assessment to identify your own habits — and turn that into a personal action plan for improvement

For Teachers

How to use this lesson

Method: Introduce the topic by explaining that giving and receiving criticism both require tact and openness. Have students read the comprehension passage. Have them complete the exercise — including the self-assessment piece that anchors the action plan.

Debrief: ask for some pairs of students to act out their dialogues with a partner. Gather group ideas about each new dialogue and the alternative phrasings students invented. The collective wisdom of the room usually produces better phrasings than any individual would alone — which is the lesson’s quiet point about constructive feedback.

Best taught alongside How to Be Assertive and Dealing with Difficult People — together these three lessons cover the foundational workplace skill of handling tension without damage. The most useful pairing is the self-awareness conversation: am I a person who gives unhelpful criticism, receives it badly, or both? That self-assessment is what makes the action plan stick.

Free Lesson