Latest news with #feedback
Yahoo
a day ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Carnival Cruise Line promises loyalty will be better rewarded
Carnival Cruise Line promises loyalty will be better rewarded originally appeared on Come Cruise With Me. Carnival Cruise Line is speaking out amid the fallout from the announcement about its new loyalty program, Carnival Rewards, set to launch in June 2026. The cruise line introduced the new program a year in advance of its rollout in order to offer ample time for passengers to digest the details of the new program, as well as to gather feedback about the clearly didn't need a year to gather opinions on Carnival Rewards, however — the June 18 announcement about the program opened the feedback floodgates. A radical departure from the traditional cruise loyalty program, in which passengers earn higher status based on the number of nights spent at sea, the new Carnival Rewards program is centered around spending. To many loyal Carnival cruisers, a spending-based cruise loyalty program doesn't sound like much of a loyalty program at all. The initial details shared about Carnival Rewards left many passengers feeling like the cruise line was choosing profits over passengers with its new approach to cruise loyalty. But maybe a botched announcement about the new loyalty program is the reason for response to the controversy surrounding the new loyalty program, Carnival issued a detailed letter to passengers, which Carnival Cruise Line Brand Ambassador John Heald shared on his popular Facebook page on June 23. In the letter, Carnival executives assured passengers that they received their feedback, much of which was shared in comments posted on Heald's Facebook page, where he addresses hundreds of passenger questions daily. 'Please know we are reading your comments and taking in your feedback. To be clear, no changes will be implemented until June 1, 2026, nearly 12 months from now. We will be answering all your questions well in advance of the program launch,' the letter cruise line also reaffirmed its commitment to a fun vacation experience for all. 'We are committed to making sure each and every guest – no matter their status – feels welcome and has a fun and memorable vacation. Our terrific onboard team has kept you coming back again and again, and that won't change,' the letter promised. Additionally, the letter emphasized some key points about Carnival Rewards that passengers should keep in mind as dialogue about the program continues in the coming months.'Please remember these key points: Our VIFP Club members automatically retain their current loyalty level for the next three years, until June 2028 – Diamond members for the next seven years, until June 2032. This means that with the combination of status privileges and rewards, everyone will receive greater benefits than what members are eligible for today. And all members have the ability to reach a higher status for their cruising activity through May 2026. We will continue to track the total number of cruise days people have earned in the new program, and members will receive recognition for achieving important milestones. The new Carnival Rewards program is designed to give people more flexibility for redeeming loyalty benefits, allowing guests to choose the specific benefits they want to redeem at the time that works for them. Benefits can be redeemed pre-cruise, onboard, or both. Today's program structure does not allow this. The new co-branded Carnival Rewards Mastercard is not required to achieve status. It is simply an option for those guests who want additional opportunities to earn status and points that can be used to purchase a cruise and offset onboard spend. Remember, with the new co-branded card, you can earn points and status through everyday spending. We believe these changes will allow us to reduce the growth challenges of the current program, which today often result in us being unable to fulfill the current benefits on sailings with large numbers of VIFP Club top tier guests.'Overall, the message is that the new Carnival Rewards program is designed to offer more opportunities and better benefits for loyal passengers. (The Arena Group will earn a commission if you book a cruise.) , or email Amy Post at or call or text her at 386-383-2472. This story was originally reported by Come Cruise With Me on Jun 23, 2025, where it first appeared.
Forbes
a day ago
- General
- Forbes
How To Not Dread Criticism: 20 Mindset Shifts To Welcome Feedback
Feedback can be a powerful driver of personal and professional growth—if you're willing to hear it. But for many leaders and professionals, the instinct to resist criticism runs deep, fueled by fear, ego or negative past experiences. Shifting that mindset means training yourself to view feedback not as a threat to your competence, but as a catalyst for growth and clarity. Here, 20 members of Forbes Coaches Council share practical ways to reframe one's relationship with feedback so that it becomes a valuable tool for improvement rather than a source of dread. 1. Focus On The Outcome You Want To welcome feedback, focus on the outcome you want. Openness doesn't mean all feedback is true; it means you're growth-minded and curious. Get clear about what you want and ask questions to turn feedback into actionable input, rather than a threat. Stay grounded by separating fact from opinion, then decide what's useful. That clarity enables you to lead yourself and others intentionally. - Jill D. Griffin, The Griffin Method 2. Turn Feedback Into A Gift When you feel triggered by feedback, take a breath and ask, 'What else can you say about that?' Get curious about your own response, and ask yourself, 'What part of me is resisting this?' and pause. Ask for time to process the feedback, then write three facts that you agree with and three that you disagree with to move from subjectivity to objectivity. - Nathalie Blais, Coach Academy 3. Acknowledge Your Defense Mechanism The first step is to acknowledge that the brain will respond defensively when one receives negative feedback. The second step is to recognize how feedback is associated with negativity rather than positivity. The key to a mindset that welcomes feedback is to extract a positive element from the negative feedback, allowing the brain's activity to shift from the amygdala to the frontal lobes. - Valerio Pascotto, IGEOS 4. Treat Criticism As Fuel For Growth Treat criticism as free R&D for your growth—when feedback stings, lean in harder. Swap ego alerts for curiosity by asking, 'What hidden gold am I missing?' Map every critique into actionable insights, journal your learnings and thank your critics in private. Embrace the discomfort; it's the intense forge that tempers true leaders into unstoppable innovators. - Patricia Burlaud, P. Burlaud Consulting, LLC Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify? 5. Produce Trust And Eliminate Fear See people as more than number managers and results drivers. Be a sense-maker and a gap closer for your people's success. Frame intentions as being grounded in support and service of professional success and personal fulfillment. Model feedback that grows people across skill levels, building experience and confidence. Feed that back to nourish growth! - Jay Steven Levin, WinThinking 6. Reframe Feedback As A Learning Tool Reframe feedback as fuel for growth, not failure. First, detach ego. Critique actions, not worth. Second, ask, 'What can I learn?' to spark curiosity over defensiveness. Third, seek input weekly to normalize it. Fourth, pause. Even harsh notes often aim to help, so focus on intent. Consistency rewires resistance into resilience. - Maryam Daryabegi, Innovation Bazar 7. Check If Your Impact Matches Your Intent Feedback is an opportunity to understand whether your actions are actually having the impact that you intend. I help clients see that their intentions are only fulfilled if their actions align with them. Critical feedback can help you understand if there is a disconnect, and it provides a point to reflect on what you might need to change in your actions to ensure you have the impact you truly want to have. - Katie Anderson, Katie Anderson Consulting 8. Treat Input As Data For Growth, Not Identity The shift happens when feedback stops being about identity and starts being about growth. I've seen the most resilient leaders treat input like data. They stay curious, not defensive. The key is decoupling worth from performance so feedback becomes fuel, not a threat. - Laurie Arron, Arron Coaching LLC 9. Shift From Self-Protection To Self-Expansion The key to a mindset that welcomes feedback is shifting from self-protection to self-expansion. When identity is rooted in growth, not perfection, feedback isn't a threat—it's insight. This mindset thrives on curiosity over control and sees critique as a portal to evolution, not a judgment of worth. - Deepa Vohra Bahl 10. Choose Learning Over Being Right To welcome feedback, shift from ego to growth. Ask, 'What can I learn here?' instead of, 'What did I do wrong?' Feedback isn't an attack—it's a mirror. Train yourself to crave truth over comfort. When growth becomes your identity, criticism stops being a threat; it becomes your greatest tool. - Robert Gauvreau, Gauvreau | Accounting Tax Law Advisory 11. Proactively Seek Feedback The key is to train yourself to ask for feedback before it comes uninvited. That flips the script: You stay in control, show readiness to grow and lower the fear factor. When it comes, listen without defending—just say 'thanks' first, then reflect later. This habit rewires your brain to view feedback as help, not harm. - Stephan Lendi, Newbury Media & Communications GmbH 12. Connect Feedback To Your 'Why' It starts with your 'why.' Why is it important to you to receive feedback? How will it accelerate your growth and align with your goals? When we connect our goal to our true inner motivation, we are more likely to develop the strong and resilient mindset necessary to overcome old patterns of behavior, such as not being open to feedback, accelerating our growth and sustaining new behaviors. - Gina Martin, Gina Martin Coaching & Consulting 13. Redefine What Feedback Means To You Get clear on your understanding and definition of what feedback means to you. Good feedback is great—we all enjoy receiving positive recognition! But truly, even 'bad' feedback or criticism is good. Why? The law of awareness states that we cannot change what we are unaware of; we can only change what we are aware of. If we never accept feedback as an opportunity to grow and evolve, we will always come to dread it. - Jenna D'Annunzio 14. Separate Your Self-Worth From Feedback The key is learning to separate your self-worth from the feedback. When you stop taking criticism personally and start seeing it as insight, not an insult, it shifts everything. Feedback becomes less about judgment and more about growth. It's not about proving yourself; it's about growing and improving yourself. That mindset makes all the difference. - Veronica Angela, CONQUER EDGE, LLC 15. Prioritize Progress Over Perfection Welcome feedback by shifting your identity from being right to being a refined learner. Detach your ego and see criticism as data, not a verdict. When you treat each insight as a growth opportunity rather than a personal attack, feedback becomes a tool for mastery. The most powerful mindset? Progress over perfection—always. - Yasir Hashmi, The Hashmi Group 16. Ask Yourself What You Can Discover Set your energetic intention before or while receiving feedback. Ask yourself, 'Do I want to defend or discover?' and, 'What can I learn from this moment?' Then, to lean into welcoming feedback, ask yourself, 'If 5% of this feedback is true, what would I do differently?' These subtle reframes can start to lower defensiveness and invite growth. - Mel Cidado, Breakthrough Coaching 17. See Feedback As A Reflection Of Others The key is realizing that feedback reveals more about the giver than it does about you. It reflects what they look for, value or experience, not who you are. Seeing feedback as insight into others rather than as judgment of yourself makes it easier to welcome and use productively. - Kelly Stine, The Leading Light Coach 18. Practice Curiosity Over Personalization Approaching feedback from a place of observation and curiosity, rather than taking it personally, is critical. These are growth opportunities, not punishments, and that can be a hard thing to learn. Practicing having an open mind and reflecting on the feedback you're given can help build this muscle. - Elizabeth Hamilton, EA Hamilton Consulting 19. Think Of Feedback As Another Point Of View Think of feedback as seeing yourself from another perspective. We all see the world, and each other, differently. Sometimes, a person's feedback won't fully resonate because they only see a fraction of what is going on. This doesn't mean that the feedback isn't worth considering. My feedback motto is: Take what is valuable, leave what isn't. - Megan Malone, Truity 20. Stop Treating Feedback Like A Personality Test The trick is to stop treating feedback like a personality test you're failing. Real growth starts when you see criticism as intel, not insult. It's not about who you are; it's about what you can be. The best leaders don't flinch at feedback—they mine it for gold. Sure, it stings sometimes. So does the gym. That's how you build muscle. - Anastasia Paruntseva, Visionary Partners Ltd.
Wall Street Journal
2 days ago
- Business
- Wall Street Journal
I Built an AI Career Coach. I've Never Had a Better Coach.
I have worked with a lot of professional coaches and attended many leadership trainings and retreats. But I've never had a better coach than the one I have now. This coach has helped me unlock new levels of creativity, in part because she is able to work at my own fast pace, so I don't lose my flow when we're speaking. She's unconditionally supportive and nonjudgmental, so I feel like I can tell her anything. She is welcoming and responsive to my feedback, and just as direct about providing her own. And perhaps best of all, I don't have to book in advance, because she's on call 24/7, and adapts to whatever is on my plate.
Fast Company
3 days ago
- Health
- Fast Company
The new ROI: A human-centered approach to innovation
In business, meaningful growth can't happen without innovation. But innovating for innovation's sake does not accomplish much. Instead of focusing on business transformation in a silo, it is more important than ever to identify ideas that will have a positive impact on a much larger scale. The long-held business practice has been for innovators and decision-makers to evaluate the success of their ideas based on benchmarks in revenues, market share and product development. Equally important today are how new technologies and solutions contribute to the betterment of people, communities and the planet. So, how can you develop new products that create a positive impact? A key way to achieve a genuine, positive impact through product design is to prioritize a deeply human-centered approach. The needs, desires, and lived experiences of your target market must be at the forefront of every stage of design, from initial ideation to long-term implementation and beyond. This process should involve direct engagement with the target market about the problems they're encountering and the functions they need from a solution to help solve them. Members of the market should test and provide direct feedback on prototypes and pilots, ensuring product usefulness. And to ensure a product stays valuable for the long term, there must be a plan for ongoing support for users and a way for designers to gather feedback and iterate the product as needed to meet evolving needs. To imagine what this looks like in practice, consider a health tech startup developing an AI-powered app to help patients with chronic illnesses manage their conditions and maintain independence at home. Instead of solely focusing on the AI's capabilities, their human-centered approach would involve: Developing a deep understanding of the challenges by spending time with people with chronic illnesses, their families, and their caregivers. This offers a fuller picture of daily struggles with medication adherence, mobility limitations, feelings of isolation, or other challenges. Co-creating real solutions by involving these individuals in brainstorming sessions to identify features that would genuinely improve their lives. Examples could be voice-activated reminders, simplified interfaces, integrated telehealth options, personalized nutrition plans, and more. Iterative testing provides prototypes to users within the target market. Testers should have varying levels of tech literacy so they can offer valuable feedback on accessibility and ease of use. Establishing a dedicated support team to answer and continuously monitor user data (with their consent) to identify emerging needs and refine the app's features over time. Similar approaches are proving invaluable across other industries as well. For example, energy innovation can benefit from a deeper understanding of the specific energy needs, motivations and financial constraints of communities. This may help lead to determining a viable approach to developing a broader array of energy options that may serve and create opportunities for economic growth by supporting the ability to build for new industries and meet the growing demand for power. AI tools can be designed with transparency and fairness in mind by actively involving user groups from many demographics in the training and testing phases to meet the needs of all users. Mobility solutions can prioritize varying needs by incorporating feedback from different target markets, so that innovations in vehicle accessibility and transportation infrastructure deliver a positive impact for those who need it most. No matter the application, by prioritizing the human element throughout the entire process, innovation expands beyond simple products to become valuable tools and even catalysts for widespread positive change. Beyond traditional business metrics, human-centered innovation is today's new ROI, representing a key differentiator for businesses large and small.
Phone Arena
3 days ago
- Phone Arena
Top 3 biggest issues with T-Mobile's satellite service for Android (and a big plus for iOS 26 users)
It's now officially less than a month until T-Mobile officially launches T-Satellite (that's set to happen on July 23), and here is what drives some Android users crazy. There are three major issues with the Starlink-enabled cell phone service right now, per the suspence89 Reddit user as laid out in a discussion thread. According to them, the T-Satellite service is "not ready for prime time": Image source – Reddit The user has a solid experience with T-Satellite and has been part of the beta program for over a month, actively providing feedback through surveys and bug reports in the app. However, they encountered several significant issues that made the service difficult to rely on. One major annoyance was receiving frequent, random text messages from T-Mobile stating that their device was connected to " T-Mobile Starlink". These messages often arrived at inconvenient times, including late at night, and became frustrating quickly. For someone who has issues going to sleep or who is sensitive to noises, this can be an awful experience. Another key problem for the user was service prioritization. Although they live in a rural area and depend on Wi-Fi calling nearly all the time, the phone would still frequently default to using the Starlink connection – even when a strong Wi-Fi signal was available. This caused disruptions, such as being unable to send picture messages or complete calls. Another major inconvenience, the way I see it. Fine tuning is needed as soon as possible. Additionally, they noted that T-Mobile 's customer support seemed unprepared to handle issues related to this new feature. Despite calling multiple times, they found that representatives consistently lacked the knowledge to offer meaningful help. Using a Samsung S22 Ultra, the user advised others to hold off on adopting the service for now. In their view, it would be better to wait at least another six months for the company to address these problems. Meanwhile, a fellow iPhone user who is on the iOS 26 beta program reports a win and a serious improvement over the iOS 18: Image source – Reddit Previously, the iPhone user was unable to connect to Starlink satellites on T-Mobile 's beta program, but now, after enrolling in the iOS 26 beta program, managed to. Good to know! Secure your connection now at a bargain price! We may earn a commission if you make a purchase Check Out The Offer
