The Tumbleweed Theory of Giving Feedback
Counting tumbleweeds with my sister on our family treks to El Paso could only hold our attention for so long, so we slept most of the way. Except once. I heard Dad tell my mother that the highway was so straight that if he fell asleep at the wheel he would wake up in the same lane.
I knew this wasn’t true once I saw him make the little adjustments on the wheel as he was driving. So I decided to stay awake to make sure the car didn’t end up buried in a cactus. There really wasn’t much for else for us to hit.
Like Dad’s hand on the steering wheel, managers should use feedback to make small adjustments in behavior or to encourage behavior that they would like to see more of. Many managers avoid giving feedback until a major adjustment is necessary to correct a problem.
Major adjustments require a formal discussion, and would be a lot less necessary if managers would give feedback more often.
junkie, and jet-lag wimp (here is
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