A BOSS ONCE TOLD HER SHE WASN'T REALLY GOOD AT ANYTHING INCLUDING 'HUMAN INTERACTION'

摘要

How'm I doin'?" Ed Koch, the late mayor of New York, would famously shout to his constituents. Cynics say the tic was rhetorical, that hizzoner wasn't really interested in anything but praise. And judging from American bookstores, Koch was before his time. The nation is obsessed with feedback-how to give and receive it without descending into awkwardness or crushing self-esteem. "One in four employees dreads their performance review more than anything else in their working lives," write Douglas Stone and Sheila Heen in their book, Thanks for the Feedback, out on March 4. That's why some companies now refer to it in more euphemistic terms: the "performance appraisal" process or, worse, a "midyear check-in."