How are you doing? Or, more importantly, how am I doing?

It’s a question that, if answered honestly, specifically, and actionably, can help aspiring business leaders take their careers to the next level. But getting good feedback can be tough, especially for women in the workplace.

This week, Ellen Taaffe, a clinical associate professor of management and organizations at the Kellogg School, gives tips on how leaders can solicit feedback that really matters.

Plus, how leaders can build movement cultures within their organizations.

Soliciting effective feedback

When seeking feedback from colleagues and supervisors at work, candor matters. It’s much better to have a colleague care enough to give it to you straight and not pull any punches, even if their evaluation may not be as positive as you would like, Taaffe writes in a recent LinkedIn Pulse post.

“Research indicates that women receive less-actionable and vaguer feedback than men do,” she writes. But “without it, we risk missing opportunities to step up with confidence and take full ownership of our careers.”

Taaffe recommends being grounded and ready to receive feedback with an openness to what may be useful to you. For women, these discussions may often include some biases, Taafe warns. But that doesn’t mean it’s all useless.

“When that bias rears its ugly head during a feedback session, it can be frustrating, but do your best to keep your cool,” Taafe says. “If you can remain grounded, you can see feedback more clearly, act on it, and even shift perceptions.”

Taafe also advises to always ask for (and provide) specifics when soliciting or giving feedback. The more concrete your conversations are, the more helpful the feedback can be for changing behaviors and building trust.

Creating and sharing a transparent process for providing feedback at logical points also allows everyone involved to provide specific, actionable feedback regularly—and in all directions.

“Set up a give-and-take of feedback after project milestones or during your one-on-one meetings,” Taaffe writes. “Showing openness to others’ ideas encourages them to be open to yours, and they’ll be more willing to offer timely, actionable insights on how you can improve.”

Read more here.

Aligning purpose and profit

While every company is driven to thrive financially, some also place great importance on making an impact—whether that’s socially, culturally, or environmentally. Balancing those priorities can be difficult for any leader. In a Kellogg Insight article, Brayden King, a professor of management and organizations, describes how success relies on creating a culture that mobilizes both team members and people beyond the organization to get behind the purpose.

“Strong cultures will have alignment between their strategic rationale and the organization’s broader purpose,” King says.

Creating and sustaining this alignment requires making the cultural link between the company’s core business and the purpose explicitly clear—both internally and externally. It also helps to get the company’s rank-and-file behind the purpose. King recommends taking a bottom-up approach to get buy-in.

“You’re never going to get the culture you want if you’re just telling people what to do,” King says. “You also need to listen to the employees and have them be a part of that process.”

And once you have a purpose established within the organization, it takes a lot of effort to ensure that you are being consistent and practicing what you preach.

“Companies that make these choices have to make sure that what they’re saying on the outside is solidified by what they’re doing internally.”

Read more at Kellogg Insight.