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We primarily receive feedback for what we deliver, but not how we deliver, how we can improve, what we can improve, and how we work (except if it's a serious lack of discipline of course). I am now increasingly in situations where I feel stuck at work and don't know what I can do to progress... and this has been going on for about 4-5 months now (I am in the company since 3 years and have been promoted once). My mistakes at work are increasing, too, but I don't know what I need to do to stop collecting them...

Sorry to put it this way, but my manager is also incredibly vague or unempathic when I try to approach him. Based on other questions I have asked here and elsewhere at some point in the past, many comment he is either not concerned with improving his team or doesn't know the steps to do so.

I am slowly getting frustrated and afraid of my job safety as I am losing sense of direction.

I love the job and the company - I just feel I am currently not 100% competent at what I have been assigned to do, and have no guidance on how to improve myself. I am not delivering an excellent work.

What can I do to understand how I can improve? Should I try approaching senior management / my boss' superiors?

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Welcome to the world of "managing your manager"!

I think there are two slightly separate problems here, and how you approach this depends on which one you want to solve:

  1. You want some immediate feedback on how to improve in the short term
  2. In the longer term, you want your manager to be giving you better feedback (which is something he should be doing)

For 1, if you can't get anything from your manager, have you tried talking to your peers / teammates? That's obviously not an ideal solution, but it's better than what you're currently getting.

For 2, certainly talk to someone else in your company - whether that be more senior management or someone in HR will depend a lot on the specific structures in your company and which people you feel comfortable talking to.

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  • +1 for writing basically what I would have been answered :-) Talking to peers might actually turn out to be more useful than talking to your manager, as they probably know more about your daily work than your manager. Even if you tend to be working alone, try to find colleagues in a similar position whom you trust and respect, and ask advice from them. Basically if the company doesn't have a mentoring program to help you, you need to find your own mentor.
    – Péter Török
    Aug 13, 2014 at 9:46
  • In general, I'd hope that someone's manager is talking to their peers to get feedback about them. But I strongly suspect that won't be happening here.
    – Philip Kendall
    Aug 13, 2014 at 9:59

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