Ask for advice instead of feedback
Conventional feedback tends to be vague and less actionable, whereas advice provides more critical and specific suggestions for improvement.
Why Asking for Advice Is More Effective Than Asking for Feedback
Conventional wisdom says you should ask your colleagues for feedback. However, research suggests that feedback often has no (or even a negative) impact on our performance. This is because the feedback we receive is often too vague — it fails to highlight what we can improve on or how to improve. New research suggests a better approach. Across four experiments — including a field experiment conducted in an executive education classroom — researchers found that people received more effective input when they asked for advice rather than feedback.
Jaewon Yoon,
The research by the authors of this HBR article, based on four experiments, indicates that advice-seeking results in 34% more areas of improvement and 56% more ways to improve compared to feedback. The preference for advice over feedback is attributed to the association of feedback with evaluation, leading to a focus on past performance. Seeking advice, on the other hand, prompts people to think forward and consider future opportunities for improvement.