Business Book of the Month

Just ignore me. Who cares? I don't even like you.

But I did care. It mattered that my arrogant boss refused to merely acknowledge my pleasant "good mornings." And what about the brilliantly constructed employee-satisfaction survey-the one that took me weeks to complete? We won't go there.

Richard Williams, author of Tell Me How I'm Doing: A Fable About the Importance of Giving Feedback, suggests my "feedback bucket" was empty. In his quick-read fable touting the consequences of feedback, Williams insists that although feedback isn't rocket science, it is the foundation of how people "feel, think, react to others and fulfill daily responsibilities." Feedback is the psychological equivalent of our physiological need for air, water and food. Without regular feedback, both professional and personal, we drain the lifeblood of responsible, loyal, trusting and productive relationships.

Through short scenarios, Williams explains four types of feedback-supportive, corrective, abusive and insignificant-and how to use the first two and avoid the others. We learn supportive feedback is far more important than corrective feedback, and why it is essential to hold people accountable for their actions.

The book's preface provides an assessment instrument and scoring graph that help us evaluate our feedback strengths and challenges. The text then offers step-by-step advice about how to improve feedback skills such as planning, offering specific guidance, focusing on behaviors, determining appropriate time and place, and giving balanced feedback. The assessment instrument along with in-text exercises can be easily adopted as employee-training tools.

Although this short tale has a sickly sweet, knight-in-shining-armor Hollywood plot, it's worth the hour read time. It reminds us we should never take feedback for granted. Too bad my former boss didn't heed Williams' advice. Perhaps his corporate employee of the year would still be making him the lauded productivity poster boy.

-Judith Kolva, assistant professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, International College