At the workplace it is vitally important that we do not invoke the hatred of any employee by careless criticism and negative attitude.

When we are in a family business, we need to be careful because we are to take care of the family members as well as other non family employees.

Criticism without invoking the hatred of others requires lots of patience and at the same time it must be effective to solve the purpose of the act.

We come across many situations where we need to change and/or modify the attitude of our family members, friends or relatives. It is a delicate situation to tackle when we are dealing with people who are close to us.

Certain things should be kept in mind when criticizing so that it does not backfire or hurt the feelings of others.

1. Select proper words - We need to be careful and cautious about the language we use when dealing with others.

2. Be transparent - Instead of making judgment and negative remarks about others let them understand the affect on you regarding their mistakes.

3. Language Matters - Using foul language is a complete no-no, think about yourself in the situation and how you would feel.

4. Express Directly - Directly tell the person in question about the problem so that the message does not get twisted, modified, and lose its intention and originality.

5. Criticize in private - Always criticize in private so it gets diluted and feelings of humiliation and insult do not arise.

6. Praise in Public - Appreciating a person in a group will have a positive and long lasting effect on that person.

7. One Thing At a time - Bombard only one issue at a time so the affect is proper and the issue get resolved.

8. Do not sound apologetic - We do feel sorry for criticizing our near and dear ones but that will defeat the very purpose of criticism so don't sound apologetic.

9. Do not compare - Comparison does not necessarily lead to healthy competition.

10. Do not use words like always and never - they dilute the power of statements leading to total disregard for your ideas and opinions.

11. Do not be sarcastic - Being sarcastic fails to convey the message and hurts the feelings of others, for Sarcastic means expressing the praises like comments.

Criticism is an art that can be learned through one's personal mistakes and experience, through discussions and most importantly an empathetic attitude towards others.