Soliciting Advice Rather Than Feedback Yields More Developmental, Critical, and Actionable Input

Asking for feedback is a popular way to solicit third-party input at work. However, feedback seeking is only weakly related to performance, and employees often report that the feedback that they receive is unhelpful. Addressing this discrepancy, across six studies (N=2,014), we illuminate a suboptimal feedback-seeking-and-giving process, in which requesters’ typical input-seeking strategies hinder providers from delivering the type of input that requesters desire. Across two studies, we find that most input seekers desire developmental (i.e. critical and actionable) comments to improve their performance, and most often seek out this information by asking for “feedback.” Yet, a request for “feedback” limits the criticality and actionability of providers’ insight because it fails to increase their future orientation. Critically, we observe a simple yet powerful alternative: feedback seekers can ask for “advice” instead. Across four studies, including a field experiment, we find that input is more developmental (more critical and actionable) when providers are asked to give advice (versus feedback)—due to a greater future focus. Together, these data suggest that framing an input request as advice seeking is a promising way to better align feedback-seekers’ information-seeking strategies with their communication goals.