Why you need to stop asking for feedback and instead, ask for advice.

and instead ask for advice. So a few months before starting my own business, I applied for a job as an innovation consultant with a global firm. I made it to the last round of the selection process, where I had to run a mock workshop for a group of consultants. Afterwards, I asked for feedback on my performance and received some damning and utterly inactionable comments. I left feeling related and

needless to say, I didn't get the job. But like many workers, I've been told throughout my career that asking for feedback was important. It's how we learn and grow. But according to research, feedback has little impact on our performance and over one third of the time actually negatively impacts performance. For women in particular, feedback can be unhelpful.

Research by Professor Shelley Coral and Caroline Simmered from Stanford analyzed over two hundred performance reviews across three high tech companies and a professional services firm. Compared to men, women received feedback that was less likely to be tied to business outcomes and was also more vague and thus challenging to implement. Now, one reason why feedback can be ineffectual

is because it is backwards looking. So when giving feedback, we anchor ourselves in the past and reflect on past behavior. This makes it harder to focus on the future and imagine what could lead a person to perform well. So for this reason, feedback tends to be less actionable compared to asking for advice. Now, in some other research from Harvard Business School, they had two hundred people in the lab and they were asked to provide input on a

job application for a tutoring position. Participants had to either provide feedback or advice on the letter. Those who were asked to give feedback tended to give vague comments along with general praise. But in contrast, those who were asked to provide advice were more critical and actionable in their comments. So specifically, advice givers suggested thirty four percent more ways to improve the application and fifty six percent more ways

to improve in general. The researchers suggested that advice giving leads us to thinking about few to actions that the person asking for advice could take. As such, when asked to give advice, we're more likely to think critically and specifically about strategies the person could do to improve. But it's not just as simple as asking for advice. I want to give you a few specific ways to optimize the advice that you receive. Okay, So first, be specific

in the type of advice you are seeking. So when asking for advice, specifying the category of help you want will make it more useful. For example, are you looking for a sounding board for an idea, or are you looking for methods that you can improve your communication skills, or perhaps you're looking for alternative solutions to a problem you're facing. So when preparing to ask for advice, reflect on what type of advice will lead to the biggest improvement.

This will also help you decide who is the best person to approach for the advice. Okay, my second tip or piece of advice been asking for advice is to create a personal board of directors. So just like a company's board of directors lends their experience and wisdom to the organization they serve, a personal board of directors plays the same role for an individual. So it's a strategy that I first came across when I had Columbia University

strategy professor Rita McGrath on the show. So it's something she did a few years ago. So she explained to me that it's much more intense of a relationship than a standard sort of networking relationship, and what they say and what they say to reader really makes a material difference. But it doesn't have to be time consuming in nature. So she might only talk to her personal board of directors a couple of times a year, but for her

really big decisions. So to assemble a personal board of directors, aim for cognitive diversity, people that think really differently. Look for people that have different experiences and expertise, so that you can be strategic in who you go to. Four

different types of ad ice giving. Okay, final thing, don't ask multiple people for advice on the same issue, which might seem counterintuitive because when asking for advice, we're often told to seek multiple points of view, but research has found that this leads to us being more likely to avoid applying the advice or discounting it. In addition, if you share with your advisors that you're seeking multiple opinions, it makes you appear less competent because the person assumes

you probably won't listen to their advice. So instead, reflect on the problem or topic you're seeking advice for and consider who is the best based person to provide good advice, rather than spreading your net wide. So the next time you're looking to improve an area of your work or your life, resist the temptation to ask for feedback and instead be specific on your needs and who is best served to give you actionable advice. That is it for

today's show. If you found it useful, and maybe share it with a friend or a coworker that might be looking for advice. And if you are enjoying How I Work and you're not one of the hundreds of people that have left a review in Apple podcasts, I would be so grateful if maybe today's the day that you think, Ah, I'm going to leave a review for How I Work.

It's super simple, just go to the podcast and scroll down to the bottom and then you can click on the star rating or you can even write some lovely words to leave a review there. I read every single one and they really are a highlight of the day, so thank you for everyone that has done that. That is it for today's show and I will see you next time.