Like every week we post a book review on a subject related to acting, health, personal growth or anything related to the showbiz industry. This time its about how to take and give more positive criticism.
The book “The power of positive criticism” by Hendrie Weisinger, P.HD shows you how to take or give advice that doesn’t turn people down or make them get on the defensive. It basically shows you how to “sugar-coat” your criticism to still get what you want from others. In a tone more appropriate to a 3 year old than a mature adult, the writer almost degrades its readers by treating them like incompetent and ignorant children.
After much sorting I finally found the part where then the book goes into talking about actual criticism and it did slightly improve. He explains his method of the "20 tips" and how to put them to work and includes plenty of real life examples. Such tips include things like:
- Be improvement orientated
- Criticize your criticisms
- Tell them what you want
- Acknowledge that its subjective
- Know your criteria for criticizing…
So, Is it worth reading? Well, it wasn’t exactly what I expected when I read the back-cover and the title. I expected more on dealing with criticism than on giving it. And its more business orientated than for personal growth, so I would say NO, don’t waste your money. As actors we deal with criticism constantly but unfortunately its mostly on the other end.
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