Listen to the criticism and get the +ive/-ive

When someone criticizes you, instead of attacking the other person(s) for their words and building a hostile atmosphere try to calm it down. Try to remain level-headed, open and figure out how this can help you. Even when someone blurts out something not too constructive like “Your work/blog/product stinks!” you might want to ask a few open-ended questions like:

- Why does it stink?
- How can I improve it?
- How can we solve this?

If they can’t answer your questions then they are probably just lashing out. But there is sometimes valuable information in negative criticism. Try to get practical and concrete details about what’s wrong. Perhaps there is already a solution to the problem but you need more information to realise that. By improving the communication and making it more specific and detailed you can come closer to understanding each other and solving the problem. If you can understand, help and change the mood of the one delivering the criticism he or she will probably appreciate it quite a bit and you may have turned a potential conflict into a valuable relationship.