Creating a Feedback Culture Within Your Team

Management Behavior: Feedback

Giving and receiving feedback are critical to being a great manager. However, great managers go beyond giving and receiving to create a culture of feedback in the entire group. The team doesn’t just go through the motions, but takes feedback to a deeper, more impactful place.

What does it mean to have a feedback culture?

Having a feedback culture means it is in the DNA of the group to constantly be searching for ways to provide feedback and ask for feedback. It means giving and receiving feedback is like breathing, something we do naturally and consistently. Feedback cultures are constantly hearing what they did well and what they can try next time. It isn’t harsh or brutal, but all feedback comes from a place of simple communication.

Criteria for a feedback culture

While there is no definitive checklist that can prove you have a feedback culture, there are some signs to look for:

• Psychological Safety – If this doesn’t exist between everyone on the team, starting with you, then you will never truly have a feedback culture. This is a requirement that must be actively worked on every day.

• Seeking Feedback – Is your team constantly asking for and looking for feedback. Do they look like they are craving it and soaking it up like sponges. When feedback is ingrained in the culture, people start to seek it out and demand more of it.

• Encourage Others – Do your employees encourage others to give feedback to people and talk about the benefits of feedback to other teams. You can’t go out there and tell other managers what to do, but when their employees are exposed to yours and they hear about the benefits of feedback, they may start to ask you questions and seek ways to incorporate it in their team.

Ways to create a feedback culture

• Lead by example – give feedback, receive feedback well, and constantly be asking for feedback. Many managers find asking for feedback easier if they frame it as if they are asking for advice (takes a bit of the fear away that an employee may feel).

• Regularly hold and lead feedback training – we all need to refresh skills on occasion and need to “Sharpen the Saw”. This doesn’t have to be a full class, but maybe taking 10-15 minutes during a staff meeting to do a case study. One great habit is for the manager to share a scenario and then ask people how they would provide feedback.

• Highlight feedback success stories – have people share stories where they got feedback and used it to change or continue a behavior. Try to focus on how the individual reacted and how the change took place. The key is to show people that feedback works.

• Regular check-ins – this can be part of the one-on-one or a separate meeting but check in with individuals and ask a few questions: are they getting enough feedback, are they getting the feedback in a way that helps them, and are they getting feedback in the areas they are working on improving.

The data behind the benefits of a feedback culture

• According to Gallup, employees who receive feedback on their strengths are 12.5% more productive.¹

• 92% of the respondents agreed with the assertion, “negative (redirecting) feedback, if delivered appropriately, is effective at improving performance.”  ²

• 63% of employees in one study said they wanted more feedback. ³

Conclusion

The benefits of creating a feedback culture are clear. This is a key factor in differentiating your group and setting them up for long-term success.

1. https://explodingtopics.com/blog/employee-feedback-stats

2. https://hbr.org/2014/01/your-employees-want-the-negative-feedback-you-hate-to-give#:~:text=But%20how%20it%20was%20done,deliver%20negative%20feedback%20also%20were

3. https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2016/08/08/65-of-employees-want-more-feedback-so-why-dont-they-get-it/?sh=6b1f31d914ad