"Why Asking for Advice Is More Effective Than Asking for Feedback"

By Jaewon Yoon, Hayley Blunden, Ariella Kristal, and Ashley Whillans

Harvard Business Review, Sept. 20, 1019

https://hbr.org/2019/09/why-asking-for-advice-is-more-effective-than-asking-for-feedback

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Interesting insights on what we get when we ask others for feedback vs. advice. According to the authors, when we ask people to provide feedback, they think more about past performance and therefore give less critical and less actionable input. In contrast, when we ask them to provide advice, they focus less on evaluation and more on possible future actions. “So, if you ask someone for advice, they will be more likely to think forward to future opportunities to improve rather than backwards to the things you have done, which you can no longer change.”