Hello Career Growth Guide,
Each week, You're reading Career Growth Guide. Each week, we take one small moment from a normal workweek and pull it apart.
We look at what happened and how you can handle it better next Monday. These issues are written for people in their first few years at work, and each one is short enough to read between tasks. Small fixes like these add up, and over a career they can take you a long long way.
Today, we talk about the moment you ask "any feedback?" and get a thumbs-up back. You'll end up with three questions to copy and a plan for the day after.
A one-word reply on a Thursday
It's 5:40 on a Thursday. Travis, a junior marketing analyst, sends his campaign report to his manager. At the bottom he types the line he always types: "Any feedback?"
Ten minutes later, the reply lands: "Looks good. 👍"
Two weeks later, in his review, the same manager says his reports "could be sharper." Travis nods along. On the bus home, he asks the question he'd never say out loud: why didn't she just tell me?
Why a big question gets a small answer
"Any feedback?" sounds open and polite. For the person reading it, though, it's homework. They have to reread your work, decide what matters, and find a kind way to say it.
At 5:50 on a Thursday, nobody has time for that. So they give the smallest true answer: looks good. Travis's manager wasn't hiding anything; she just had no easy way in.
People want more honest input than they get. In research from the Center for Creative Leadership, employees wanted about 35% of their feedback to be critical. They were getting closer to 23%.
Part of that gap is the question. Travis had asked the biggest possible version of it every Thursday for a year.
"Any feedback?" asks about everything at once. "Which slide would you cut?" asks about one thing your manager already has an opinion on. She can answer it in ten seconds.
That's the whole idea of this issue: ask a question small enough to answer in one breath.
Three narrow questions to copy
If you want the feedback to be anything other than “looks good," use these after any piece of work you hand in. Pick one per task, because asking all three turns it back into homework.
- "If you had to cut one part of this, which would go first?" Use it for reports, slides and long emails. People always know what they'd cut, and it's usually the weakest part.
- "What's one thing you'd change next time I do this?" Use it after a meeting, a client call or a presentation. "Next time" points at the future, which makes honest answers easier to give.
- "Was anything here different from what you expected?" Use it when the task or the person is new to you. It catches the gap between what they asked for and what you heard.
Put the question in the same message as the work, like this: "Here's the report. If you had to cut one part, which would go first?"
This reads as a five-second favour, and it gets a five-second answer.
When you ask in person, wait after the question. Let the silence sit for a few seconds. Don't rescue them with "it's fine if there's nothing!"
But not only your boss; ask the same question to your peers as well. A colleague one desk over sees your work more often than your manager does. The same three questions work on them, and peers often answer more bluntly.
The 24 hours after someone answers
But getting feedback isn’t enough. What you do next decides whether they'll be honest with you again.
If the answer stings, wait an hour before you reply. Write a draft, make a cup of tea, then reread it. A calm reply protects the next honest answer.
Within the first hour, reply with one line. Thank them and repeat back what you heard: "Got it, cut the methods section and move the chart up." This shows you listened and catches misunderstandings early.
The same day, make the change if it's small. Send it back with a short note: "Moved the chart, cut the methods page." Your manager just watched her ten seconds turn into a better report, so she'll answer faster next time.
If the change is bigger, give it a date. "I'll rework the structure by Monday." Then deliver on Monday.
Before the 24 hours are up, write it down. One line in a notes file is enough: the date, who said it, and what you changed.
After a month, patterns show up. Three people saying your intros run long is a habit worth fixing. A line can be as plain as "12 Oct, Nadia: intro too long, cut to two sentences."
Skip one thing: defending the original. "I did it that way because..." feels like context to you, but to them it sounds like an argument. If there was a real reason, mention it once, after the thanks.
When to ignore feedback
But you don’t always have to act. Some answers aren't worth acting on, and that's fine.
The University of Waterloo's guide to receiving feedback says to weigh what you hear, then decide. The response is yours to choose. It also suggests a second opinion when you disagree.
You can politely set feedback aside when:
- It's about taste, and the person doesn't own the work. A colleague prefers blue charts, and your manager doesn't care. Keep your grey.
- It clashes with what the work's owner asked for. Go with the owner, and tell the other person why.
- It came once, from one person, and a second opinion disagrees. Note it and watch for it again.
Act on it when the same point comes up twice. Act on it when it comes from the person who rates your work. Discuss later if you need to.
When you set something aside, you still owe a reply.
Try: "Thanks, that's useful. I'm keeping the grey this time because the client asked for it." It's honest, and nobody feels dismissed.
Keep that feedback in your notes anyway. Sometimes it makes sense three months later.
Travis's next Thursday
The next report went out at 5:30. At the bottom, he wrote: "If you had to cut one part of this, which would go first?"
Four minutes later: "The second table. Nobody reads it."
He cut it and sent the new version before six. At his next review, nobody used the word "sharper." The question now sits at the bottom of every report he sends.
See you next week!
