I found Tell Me How I’m Doing by Richard L. Williams at the local library. It’s a book about giving feedback, told as a story. To condense a lot, the technique they teach is to think of everyone having a ‘feedback bucket’ that has holes in the bottom. If a manager doesn’t put enough feedback in, the bucket runs dry. The story was surprisingly effective at demonstrating how powerful the lack of feedback (or poorly given feedback) can be. It also shows that feedback at work isn’t much different than feedback at home – both are about people after all.

I’ve always struggled to provide good feedback and struggled to provide enough of it. I don’t know that I’ve fixed that entirely, but it helped me reframe my views so that I’m a lot more conscious of the need to deliver feedback in a manner and volume suitable to the person. It’s $14 new at Amazon, worth buying.