I don’t necessarily feel like people are scared of criticism, but more so scared of being attacked. In my experience, a large number of people don’t know how to give constructive criticism in a way that’s actually helpful.

Lets say you’re training somebody at work and your trainee makes a mistake. I’ve seen trainers respond to this in two different ways:

• (Laughing) “Really?! No, why would you do that. This is the right way to do it.”
• “That might work in some cases, but that’s not exactly right. A more efficient way is like this.”

Humans are emotional creatures, some more than others, and our emotions influence how we handle criticism. It’s a fact of life. Most people want to learn from their mistakes, not be put in a position where they feel like they need to defend themselves. It feels a lot better to think “Okay, I’m making a mistake, but I know how to keep myself from doing it again” instead of “Wow, this person thinks I’m a piece of shit.”