What a great question! And when others ask it of you, what do you say? I ran across this great post The Essential Component of High Performance:
When someone asks how they did, I realize I haven’t done well at giving feedback. I’ve been passive not active.
I’ve never heard high-performers say, “I get too much feedback.” They crave more. On the other hand, I’ve never met a leader who gave enough.
What a simple, yet so logical observation. Leadership Freak‘s Dan Rockwell goes on to describe the different between nitpicking and feedback. I also enjoyed one of the comments which notes that the word “feedback” has gotten a negative connotation: When someone says, “May I give you some feedback?” do you assume it’s going to be negative? How unfortunate! Positive feedback is the way to go—although of course you may also need to give negative feedback at times. But my question for you is, are you giving enough feedback to employees, colleagues, even friends? Do think about it as you read the post.
A Life in Libraries 