Any advice?

Giving advice can be surprisingly easy - and dare I suggest, feels fantastic when you feel like it helped. Someone describes a problem and you can see a few things they could try immediately. Nice work me, you may silently say.

Meanwhile, a fairly similar problem in your own life remains unresolved.

Researchers tested whether giving advice could help the person offering it. High-school students spent around eight minutes advising younger students on how to stay motivated and do well at school.

Over the following academic quarter, the advice-givers earned higher grades in maths and a subject they had chosen to improve, compared with students in the control group.

The researchers suggest several possible explanations. Giving advice might build confidence, prompt us to form a plan or make us feel more committed to practising what we’ve recommended. The study doesn’t establish which explanation accounts for the improvement, but the result gives us something useful to consider.

When someone is struggling, we often assume they need more advice. Sometimes they already know useful things to try, but haven’t connected that knowledge to their own situation.

In a development conversation, you could ask: “What would you suggest to a colleague dealing with this?” Then explore which parts of their answer might work for them.

You can try it yourself, too. Think of something you’re finding difficult and write a few sentences of advice to someone in the same position. Read it back and choose one suggestion you’re willing to act on.

I’m off to go act on this advice, immediately.

Reference

Eskreis-Winkler, L., Milkman, K. L., Gromet, D. M., & Duckworth, A. L. (2019). A large-scale field experiment shows giving advice improves academic outcomes for the advisor. PNAS, 116(30), 14808–14810.