Speaker 1: Welcome to How I Work, a show about the tactics
Speaker 1: used by the world's most successful people to get so
Speaker 1: much out of their day. I'm your host, doctor Amantha Imba.
Speaker 1: I'm an organizational psychologist, the founder of behavioral science consultancy Inventium,
Speaker 1: and I'm obsessed with finding ways to optimize my work day.
Speaker 1: Today's episode is another mini episode, and I want to
Speaker 1: talk about why you need to stop asking for feedback
Speaker 1: and instead ask for advice. So a few months before
Speaker 1: starting my own business, I applied for a job as
Speaker 1: an innovation consultant with a global firm. I made it
Speaker 1: to the last round of the selection process, where I
Speaker 1: had to run a mock workshop for a group of consultants. Afterwards,
Speaker 1: I asked for feedback on my performance and received some
Speaker 1: damning and utterly inactionable comments. I left feeling related and
Speaker 1: needless to say, I didn't get the job. But like
Speaker 1: many workers, I've been told throughout my career that asking
Speaker 1: for feedback was important. It's how we learn and grow.
Speaker 1: But according to research, feedback has little impact on our
Speaker 1: performance and over one third of the time actually negatively
Speaker 1: impacts performance. For women in particular, feedback can be unhelpful.
Speaker 1: Research by Professor Shelley Coral and Caroline Simmered from Stanford
Speaker 1: analyzed over two hundred performance reviews across three high tech
Speaker 1: companies and a professional services firm. Compared to men, women
Speaker 1: received feedback that was less likely to be tied to
Speaker 1: business outcomes and was also more vague and thus challenging
Speaker 1: to implement. Now, one reason why feedback can be ineffectual
Speaker 1: is because it is backwards looking. So when giving feedback,
Speaker 1: we anchor ourselves in the past and reflect on past behavior.
Speaker 1: This makes it harder to focus on the future and
Speaker 1: imagine what could lead a person to perform well. So
Speaker 1: for this reason, feedback tends to be less actionable compared
Speaker 1: to asking for advice. Now, in some other research from
Speaker 1: Harvard Business School, they had two hundred people in the
Speaker 1: lab and they were asked to provide input on a
Speaker 1: job application for a tutoring position. Participants had to either
Speaker 1: provide feedback or advice on the letter. Those who were
Speaker 1: asked to give feedback tended to give vague comments along
Speaker 1: with general praise. But in contrast, those who were asked
Speaker 1: to provide advice were more critical and actionable in their comments.
Speaker 1: So specifically, advice givers suggested thirty four percent more ways
Speaker 1: to improve the application and fifty six percent more ways
Speaker 1: to improve in general. The researchers suggested that advice giving
Speaker 1: leads us to thinking about few to actions that the
Speaker 1: person asking for advice could take. As such, when asked
Speaker 1: to give advice, we're more likely to think critically and
Speaker 1: specifically about strategies the person could do to improve. But
Speaker 1: it's not just as simple as asking for advice. I
Speaker 1: want to give you a few specific ways to optimize
Speaker 1: the advice that you receive. Okay, So first, be specific
Speaker 1: in the type of advice you are seeking. So when
Speaker 1: asking for advice, specifying the category of help you want
Speaker 1: will make it more useful. For example, are you looking
Speaker 1: for a sounding board for an idea, or are you
Speaker 1: looking for methods that you can improve your communication skills,
Speaker 1: or perhaps you're looking for alternative solutions to a problem
Speaker 1: you're facing. So when preparing to ask for advice, reflect
Speaker 1: on what type of advice will lead to the biggest improvement.
Speaker 1: This will also help you decide who is the best
Speaker 1: person to approach for the advice. Okay, my second tip
Speaker 1: or piece of advice been asking for advice is to
Speaker 1: create a personal board of directors. So just like a
Speaker 1: company's board of directors lends their experience and wisdom to
Speaker 1: the organization they serve, a personal board of directors plays
Speaker 1: the same role for an individual. So it's a strategy
Speaker 1: that I first came across when I had Columbia University
Speaker 1: strategy professor Rita McGrath on the show. So it's something
Speaker 1: she did a few years ago. So she explained to
Speaker 1: me that it's much more intense of a relationship than
Speaker 1: a standard sort of networking relationship, and what they say
Speaker 1: and what they say to reader really makes a material difference.
Speaker 1: But it doesn't have to be time consuming in nature.
Speaker 1: So she might only talk to her personal board of
Speaker 1: directors a couple of times a year, but for her
Speaker 1: really big decisions. So to assemble a personal board of directors,
Speaker 1: aim for cognitive diversity, people that think really differently. Look
Speaker 1: for people that have different experiences and expertise, so that
Speaker 1: you can be strategic in who you go to. Four
Speaker 1: different types of ad ice giving. Okay, final thing, don't
Speaker 1: ask multiple people for advice on the same issue, which
Speaker 1: might seem counterintuitive because when asking for advice, we're often
Speaker 1: told to seek multiple points of view, but research has
Speaker 1: found that this leads to us being more likely to
Speaker 1: avoid applying the advice or discounting it. In addition, if
Speaker 1: you share with your advisors that you're seeking multiple opinions,
Speaker 1: it makes you appear less competent because the person assumes
Speaker 1: you probably won't listen to their advice. So instead, reflect
Speaker 1: on the problem or topic you're seeking advice for and
Speaker 1: consider who is the best based person to provide good advice,
Speaker 1: rather than spreading your net wide. So the next time
Speaker 1: you're looking to improve an area of your work or
Speaker 1: your life, resist the temptation to ask for feedback and
Speaker 1: instead be specific on your needs and who is best
Speaker 1: served to give you actionable advice. That is it for
Speaker 1: today's show. If you found it useful, and maybe share
Speaker 1: it with a friend or a coworker that might be
Speaker 1: looking for advice. And if you are enjoying How I
Speaker 1: Work and you're not one of the hundreds of people
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Speaker 1: be so grateful if maybe today's the day that you think, Ah,
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Speaker 1: It's super simple, just go to the podcast and scroll
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Speaker 1: the star rating or you can even write some lovely
Speaker 1: words to leave a review there. I read every single
Speaker 1: one and they really are a highlight of the day,
Speaker 1: so thank you for everyone that has done that. That
Speaker 1: is it for today's show and I will see you
Speaker 1: next time.