Tell Me How I'm Doing: A Fable About the Importance of Giving Feedback

This book illustrates the importance of feedback using a simple fable in which a beleaguered manager recognizes the enormous impact feedback can have in his organization…by experiencing firsthand what it feels like to go without it.

Tell Me How I’m Doing provides step-by-step guidance for how you can improve your own ability to relate to the people around you and become more effective in every sphere of your life. This guide helps you take a personal inventory of your own feedback style, and introduces you to the four distinct types of feedback -- supportive, corrective, abusive, and insignificant -- and clarifies when to use the first two, and how to avoid the others.

You'll also learn about the ten essential dimensions of feedback, including how to:

• Use a Plan -- Give your feedback some preparatory thought, and then deliver it with a clear solution in mind.
• Be Specific -- Get your point across by citing particular examples of the behavior you’re discussing.
• Focus on Behaviors -- Target the factors that can be seen or measured, rather than concentrating on personalities, attitudes, or labels.
• Determine Time and Place -- Know when and where to give feedback for maximum effect.
• Give Balanced Feedback -- Provide the right mix of supportive and corrective feedback.

By understanding how to interact more constructively with your peers, you can create a positive, productive, and dynamic culture that serves everyone well. Tell Me How I’m Doing is an engaging story and an essential guidebook for understanding how to use feedback to communicate goals, improve performance, and achieve greater success in every aspect of your life.

Richard L. Williams, Ph.D., is an internationally recognized business consultant specializing in leadership development, performance coaching, quality and process improvement, and organizational development/diagnostics. He has conducted over 6,000 workshops to more than 250,000 managers and executives around the world. He lives in Sandy, Utah.