Before I write a long feedback for a colleague or a direct report, I always try and reread some of the books or articles that helped me on the way.

I’m trying to reread and finish these books before writing the full EOY feedback for Noon’s engineers and managers. Books are:

1. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie
2. Radical Candor by Kim Scott
3. Revising Prose by Richard A. Lanham (A short book on writing. A gem.)

If you only have 15 min to spare and that is, then read chapter 1 on Criticism from How to Win Friends and Influence People. It really does help how to communicate a difficult conversation in a constructive manner.

A note I keep telling myself is:

Feedback is not about the list of values and metrics of the company and how a person scores on each and what he should do. It’s about the way we deliver the feedback. How it sounds, inspires, and changes the person. It’s the same kind of feedback we ask ourselves to help us improve. People (engineers) owe us a detailed and inspiring review after a year’s work.

Pictured above is Hammurabi.