Why Asking for Feedback Will Jumpstart Your Career
There are a lot of skills that appeal to employers. But there is only one skill that is in demand in all the different work areas: asking for feedback and taking action on it. It could be the one thing that helps you develop your career further than anything else.
Throughout your career, it is paramount that you continuously strive for further development. In whatever situation you are, whether you have a new job or you’ve been waiting for your next promotion, it is important to impress your employer while advancing your personal growth. To ensure that you know what to focus on and how to improve, feedback from others is essential. Let’s explore 6 reasons why feedback might just be your secret weapon for career advancement:
You always know where you stand
“Only 50% of employees clearly know what is expected of them at work every day.“
- Gallup
When is your boss giving you feedback? At the end of the year during performance reviews? This seems like a long time where you’re wondering if you’re doing the right things or not. By requesting feedback, you’re breaking free and don’t have to worry about your upcoming review because you already know how well you are performing. That is the key as to why real-time feedback is so valuable: It allows you to course correct your performance during the year and ensures that you maximize your effectiveness. You’ll be one step ahead of everyone else.
You show that you’re passionate about your job
Unengaged employees don’t work as efficiently as engaged employees do. Your manager knows that, too. By reaching out to her, you can prove that your position matters to you and that you are an employee worth investing in and promoting. You demonstrate that you’re proactively looking for opportunities to play an active and creative role in the company. Furthermore, you identify with your business and your place in it. People like that are sought after and rewarded.
You improve your performance
For your performance to be as effective as possible, it’s incredibly valuable to find your blind spots, and nothing is more effective in doing that than asking for feedback. We all have those spots and are often held back by them. Still, only a chosen few truly want to acknowledge and work on them. By identifying these blind spots early, you can put yourself in a better position to succeed and improve on them.
You become more objective
The great thing about feedback is that receiving perspectives from others is a tremendous gift. Self-perception and outside perception can widely differ from one another. That’s why you should try for these two variables to coincide as much as possible, and as a result, to become more aware of your skills and your flaws. Your newly-gained objectiveness will prevent you from overwhelming yourself and open new opportunities for improvement.
You strengthen your relationship with your bosses and peers
When you inquire about your performance, your boss, direct reports, and peers feel like their opinion matters to you. And who doesn’t like to feel valued? You are perceived in a positive light as you keep an open mind for feedback from others and show humility.
By being able to talk openly with your bosses and peers, you enable honest communication between you and them. It will result in more casual conversations throughout your workday and better relationships, which you can benefit from in your ongoing career.
You maximize your learning experience
Instead of counting on coaching or training programs from your company, you can teach yourself a lot of skills merely by receiving feedback. Feedback is proven to be one of the most effective methods to learn. It will provide you with a more individualized training than any corporate program will ever be able to offer you. Go for it.
As you can see, there are a lot of advantages in teaching yourself this skill. If you want to know how to receive the valuable real-time feedback that you deserve, feel free to contact us. We’re offering a cloud-based application enabling ongoing, real-time feedback and frequent conversations between managers and employees.
