Dealing With Negative Feedback From Students

If you want to become a Zumba® instructor, you should know that feedback comes with the territory. Feedback is an opportunity to grow and improve how you deliver lessons to your students. But as good as it can be for growth, it's not always easy to hear or appreciate. You've put your best foot forward and worked tirelessly to perfect complex routines, and the last thing you expect to hear is negative feedback about your performance as an instructor. 

First, remember that negative feedback doesn't define you as a person or instructor. However, how you deal with it will go a long way in shaping your growth experience. 

Understanding the Effects of Negative Feedback

Negative feedback from students can affect you and your perception of yourself. Unless you respond to it productively, it can have a ripple effect reaching other areas of your life. Before exploring ways to respond to negative feedback, it's essential to understand its mental, psychological, and emotional impact. Doing so will help you make sense of what you're feeling so that you're better equipped to handle it. 

Some of the potential impacts of negative feedback are: 

• Self-doubt: Studies have shown that negative feedback can be self-threatening. Because it can indicate unmet standards, negative feedback can leave you doubting yourself and your ability as an instructor.
• Loss of motivation: Depending on the severity of the negative feedback you receive, you could lose motivation to continue teaching the dance you love. 
• Anxiety, anger, and tension: Do you feel your emotions heighten when you hear a not-so-great comment from your student?Studies show that it's normal to experience emotional states of anxiety, anger, and tension after receiving negative feedback. These affective states and stress reactions result from strain levels caused by negative feedback.
• Resistance and defensiveness: When dealing with negative feedback, you may feel a bruise to your ego, causing you to want to be defensive and resist. While this is a normal reaction, it can stop you from embracing growth opportunities. 

Tips for Dealing With Feedback

How do you deal with criticism in a way that benefits you and your students? Let's explore some tips for dealing with negative feedback that will come in handy when you get to that bridge. 

1. Manage Your Reaction

Different instructors respond to feedback differently. Some may be calm and collected, while others may take it personally, leading to harmful and upsetting emotions. You must take responsibility for your reaction when you receive negative feedback about a dance routine or any other aspect of your instruction process. If you need time to process your feelings and emotions, by all means, take it. 

Remember that negative feedback is just feedback. It does not reflect your worth as an instructor, so it's OK to be open-minded rather than defensive. At this stage, you want to evaluate what kind of feedback you have received. Consider the following: 

• Is it the first time you've heard that specific feedback?
• Is it constructive or destructive?

2. Seek Clarity 

You've just received negative feedback from group exercise participants. But what does it mean? One helpful tip for dealing with negative feedback is listening actively and asking for clarification from the person giving it. Sometimes, there can be a misunderstanding, and asking the right questions can help you clarify any misconceptions or understand the feedback better. You can explore some or all of these tips for seeking clarification:

• Ask the student to construct the feedback differently if their first delivery was unclear.
• Repeat the feedback to confirm that you understand it as they meant it.
• Ask for clear examples and explanations where necessary.
• Seek suggestions to understand potential solutions from their point of view. 

3. Reflect on the Feedback

There is no rule that you must respond immediately to negative feedback. After getting all the clarity you need, you can sit with the feedback and reflect on it. Consider elements that stand out the most and assess areas you can improve to fix them.

Remember that the longer you instruct students in Zumba®, the easier it becomes to identify common patterns in the negative feedback as you reflect. It's good practice to note these patterns and your reaction to common negative feedback. If it is recurring feedback, view it as an opportunity to learn, improve, and grow.

4. Adopt a Growth Mindset

Whether as a Zumba® instructor or in any other area of your life, you can respond to feedback in two ways — maintain a fixed mindset or adopt a growth mindset. While a fixed mindset limits you to believing that your abilities and skills as a Zumba® instructor are fixed without room for improvement, a growth mindset opens you up to a world of growth possibilities and opportunities.

In cases of negative feedback, you're better off adopting a growth mindset. Here's how you can do that:

• Acknowledge what you're good at: One piece of negative feedback doesn't mean the end of the road for you as a Zumba® instructor. Acknowledge your strengths and the positive feedback you have received from students previously. 
• Embrace the challenge: When you adopt a growth mindset, negative feedback means new challenges. Note the areas your student has raised concerns about and actively seek solutions to improve them. 

5. Create an Action Plan

The secret to change is acknowledgment combined with the right action. With or without your students' help, you can set goals to tackle the new challenges the negative feedback addresses. What new skills or lessons must you learn to improve? Keep an open mind and learn how you can change the feedback from negative to positive over time. 

Types of Feedback You Can Expect

In Zumba® instruction, you can expect all kinds of feedback, from positive and valuable to critical and even nit-picky. Whatever the case, how you respond matters.

Now that you know how to deal with negative feedback, let’s examine some feedback scenarios you might experience and how to respond to them:

• Scenario 1 — Choreography difficulty: Say you’ve just introduced a new routine, and one of your students mentions that it was too difficult or fast. Instead of telling the student how easy the routine is, you can try slowing down the build and repeating the complex parts. 
• Scenario 2 — Inclusivity: One of your students feels left out in the class and expresses displeasure to you. See it as an opportunity to familiarize yourself with your students' names and improve your gaze and positioning in the class. You can try scanning the room more in your next class and calling names while you coach. 
• Scenario 3 — Offensive feedback: You’re scrolling through your social media and see a harsh comment degrading your skills as a Zumba® instructor. Suddenly, you start feeling like a failure and maybe even want to quit. In this scenario, remind yourself that such offensive comments are a reflection of the commenter and not you. You can ask your students for constructive feedback and assess areas for improvement.
• Scenario 4 — Positive feedback: Now and again, students might approach you and tell you how awesome an instructor you are. See such positive feedback as an opportunity to learn about the things you’re good at, so you can strengthen them even more. 

Become the Best Zumba® Instructor You Can Be

You take the limits off yourself when you start seeing negative feedback the way you should see it — as growth opportunities. At Zumba®, we believe you have what it takes to become the best instructor you can be, regardless of negative feedback. We reflect this belief in everything we do to get you on board as an instructor, from our in-depth training and licensing process to our ongoing support.

Register to become a Zumba® instructor and step into the world of possibilities with everything you need at your fingertips. 

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