I recently wrote a post about how to give constructive feedback.  It reminded me of a personal experience I had with a lack of feedback.  As an extremely driven individual, I am motivated by feedback.  I actually crave it.  I want to know what I’m getting right and what I’m missing so I can continuously improve.  Here’s a story of what happened when I didn’t get it.

I once worked for the President of a company, with whom I had daily conversations about the business and about our team and how they were doing.

I never received feedback about how I was doing.  When I asked, I was told everything was good, we didn’t need to talk about my performance because there were no issues.

After a while, I left.

When I told my boss, he was shocked and upset, and told me that it was as though I had cut off his right hand.  He asked what he could do to keep me.  He told me he needed me on the team.  It was too late.

Leaders, don’t miss your chance to give your team feedback or to let them know that you value them.

Pic from Sxc user Kikachi