Asking “How am I doing?” is a useless question.

“How do you think I’m doing?” you ask your manager.

They reply, “I think you’re doing ok.”

Now, I ask you. How is that feedback helpful?

How many times do you miss opportunities to improve your performance, help position yourself as a leader, and demonstrate your commitment to your career, because you either don’t ask for feedback or don’t know HOW to ask for feedback?

Feedback is an essential component of professional development and career advancement. It serves as a tool for reflection, growth, and improvement, enabling you to understand your strengths and areas needing improvement. Constructive feedback can be a powerful catalyst to help you achieve your career goals.

With good feedback, you gain insights into your performance from an external perspective. This external viewpoint can often reveal blind spots, areas that you may not even recognize as needing improvement. Those blind spots have the potential to derail your career, or at the very least, keep you stuck where you are.

How to get useful constructive feedback.

Let’s be honest. what can you possibly conclude from the above response to your request for feedback?

You might conclude that your manager either is too busy to give proper feedback, doesn’t know how to do it, or could care less about your professional development.

But giving your manager the benefit of the doubt, you need to accept that it’s your responsibility to improve the way you ask for feedback. It’s also your responsibility to ask!

Read the full article on Substack.com.