Concept
Strategic Advice-Seeking
leadership negotiation feedback
Asking someone for their advice — rather than issuing instructions, or asking for their feedback on something already done — signals two things simultaneously: respect for their judgment, and humility on the part of the person asking. Adam Galinsky, with Katie Liljenquist, found that leaders who asked subordinates for advice generated more loyal support from them than leaders who didn't (see Liljenquist Galinsky 2007 Advice-Seeking Study). Galinsky describes the effect on the person asked as being "given Popeye's spinach" — a disproportionate boost to their sense of competence and investment, sometimes remembered for decades afterward.
Advice produces measurably better input than feedback, not just better feelings. A 2025 study by Ariella Kristal and colleagues asked 806 people to give either advice or feedback on the same work. Advice-givers produced more concrete, actionable suggestions, independently rated as higher quality than feedback-givers' suggestions (see Blunden Kristal 2025 Advice-vs-Feedback Study). Galinsky's explanation: feedback orients the giver toward judging past behavior, which tends to produce vaguer, more evaluative and sometimes more critical statements; advice orients the giver toward the future, prompting concrete, forward-looking, less condemning suggestions.
Discussed in
- Episode 267 — 267-five-science-backed-tips-to-become-a-better-leader