If your child, employee, or colleague asks you that question, you can be sure that he or she is sincere, wishes to learn, and will succeed. The person who asks, "How am I doing?" is asking for constructive feedback. That person is expressing a need to know whether or not he is doing a good job, and if not, what he can do to correct his work.
I am sure that you, dear reader, have had the occasion to come across a book which you simply could not put down. Something so fascinating, so gripping, that you were compelled to read it cover to cover in as short a time as you could manage.
It is difficult to tell you much about my high school friend without disclosing his identity. He is now world-famous, having become a major figure in the field of high finance. So, in the interests of protecting his privacy, I will alter some of the facts of the story I am about to tell. For starters, let's call him Eugene.
It was another one of those park bench discussions. I hadn't seen my old friend Eli for quite some time. We would run into each other every couple of years, not because we planned it, but because we lived in the same city.
He was one of my closest friends back in my graduate school days. I was training for a career in psychology, and he was pursuing a degree in business management. We confided in each other regularly. He knew that to succeed in business, he would have to understand what "makes people tick," and to gain that understanding, he wanted to "pick my brain."