Gain in pain.

• Position: UPFRONT - Team development

By many accounts, Steve Jobs was a jerk. He occasionally referred to employees as "shit-heads" and once told a development team, "You should hate each other for having let each other down." I guess he wasn't much for team building.

Behind his vitriol was a mania to produce the best products. "We have an environment where excellence is really expected," he said in 1983. "What's really great is to be open when [the work] is not great. My best contribution is not settling for anything but really good stuff, in all the details. That's my job--to make sure everything is great." That willingness to reject mediocrity--to scrap two prototypes of the iPhone before approving it--is why the Cupertino, Calif.-based tech giant's brand value is No. 2 in the world after Coca-Cola.

I don't support calling co-workers shit-heads--even those who deserve it--but Jobs' example shows that while being nice is nice, real improvement can come through criticism. That's supported by a recent study published in the journal of Consumer Research, which claims positive feedback is best employed when someone is learning. It keeps novices engaged. But experts--people committed to their careers, such as most Apple employees--respond to negative feedback.

It's natural to take criticism personally, especially in the workplace, as job performance is a large part of self-worth. For example, I think I've sacrificed a lot to be an editor, taking on student loans, moving away from my family, spending hours determining the appropriate placement of a comma (and, if you ask my boss, still not figuring it out). So my face gets red when...