Asking for advice or feedback is often a wise and prudent thing to do when you are unsure about the quality of your work or a decision you need to make. But we have to be very careful about who we ask advice from and we must be willing to hear the advice good, bad or otherwise. 

Additionally, we shouldn’t run around asking for feedback from people who are unqualified to give it to us. Not only that, we should be aware that all advice is subjective and based on that person’s personal experience and background. An article in the Harvard Business Review points out this phenomenon, calling it the “idiosyncratic rater effect.”  

The key here is two things: first, trust your gut and your experience. If you have honed a craft or an expertise and you know that the work you have done is solid and inspires you, then you don’t always need to run to someone for reassurance. And when you do need advice? That’s when you need a strong network of people you trust who will give you the truth so you can be confident that the feedback you're getting is grounded in that person's understanding of you and the issue. 

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