The 5 Tenets to Build a Culture of Feedback

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“Feedback done well inside organizations is imperative to building trust, transparency, honesty, and constant improvement.”

Any company that is interested in high-performing teams and exceptional culture has to embrace and become great at giving and receiving feedback.

Feedback done well inside organizations is imperative to building trust, transparency, honesty, and constant improvement. It accelerates personal and professional development, and also reduces a lot of unnecessary conflict on teams.

Healthy teams build a “culture of feedback” where feedback is not viewed as criticism, but an opportunity to improve and contribute to each other’s growth and success. Teams and leaders have to collectively establish an environment that is open and receptive to feedback, where it’s productive, safe, welcome, and sought after.

There are so many positive outcomes for teams who embrace this, here’s a great article from 15Five highlighting the impact that feedback has on increasing employee retention and problem solving.

From the article:

“Employee feedback loops empower your company, people, and team to be agile. You’ll position your organization to see problems before they occur or when they just start to happen — you’ll be better positioned to keep your company running efficiently. When your organization is positioned to react swiftly with an effective problem solving method, your employees will feel supported and empowered.”

The benefits are plenty, it is a must for companies who want healthy, high-performing teams. Here are the five tenets and mindsets that you need to adopt to build a culture of feedback inside your team and organization.

The 5 tenets of a culture of feedback.

1. Feedback is an opportunity, not a threat.

All feedback needs to be seen as a chance to grow, improve, eliminate our blind spots, and enhance the experience of the people around us whether they are our employee, leader, colleague, customer, etc. We establish an environment where feedback is 100% safe to share and we actively seek it out

We do not become defensive or feel threatened by feedback, it is a not an exposure of our failures. It’s a gift to know that someone else’s experience with us is less than perfect because it gives us a chance to improve; not only their experience, but our own awareness and the impact that we’re having on others.

2. All feedback must come from a place of care, support, and investment in each other’s success.

We care about each other as human beings and colleagues. We want to see each other succeed and know that we’ll get there faster and more efficiently when we help one another. We prove through our words and actions that we’re invested in supporting others, and our feedback comes from a place of genuine care and in service of the other person’s growth.

3. Feedback is given and received as coaching, not criticism.

We don’t see ourselves as critical judges and evaluators, swooping in to criticize and point out what others are doing wrong. We give feedback as coaching and in partnership. That means that we’re invested in positive outcomes and the language we use looks like, “These are areas of opportunity to improve and the things that from my perspective are getting in your way. How can I support you, what do you need from me, how can I help you get there? We’re in this together.” We take ownership of the success of everyone on the team.

4. Consistent growth requires consistent feedback.

Feedback cannot just be given once every six months or a year, it needs to happen on a semi-regular, ongoing basis. This allows us to address issues in their infancy and deal with things right away. We don't want to have important conversations one, two, three, or six months after the fact. We adopt the maxim that it’s easier to blow out a match than to put out a forest fire. When things need to be said, we say them now.

“It’s easier to blow out a match than to put out a forest fire. When things need to be said, we say them now.”

Giving each other guidance and feedback on a regular basis allows us to celebrate what’s going well, and highlight our biggest areas of opportunity to improve. Each member of the team should always know where they stand. We are proactive about the ongoing maintenance required to make sure the team and everyone’s individual performance is on track.

5. Nobody is exempt.

Whether it’s the CEO, someone on the executive team, a person who's worked for the company for 20 years, or an entry level employee who’s only been there for 3 days, in a culture of feedback, nobody is exempt. We cannot create empowered and truly invested teams if ‘higher ups’ are not eligible to receive feedback.

Every person’s experience matters and the impact that every employee makes on others matters. Feedback ensures that every single person in the organization is held accountable to each other in how they perform their role, and impact others on the team.

“...every single person from every direction needs to have a voice that is empowered to say, ‘This is how I think we can be doing better here.’”

Every single one of us has blind spots and areas of opportunity to improve. In a culture of feedback, every single person from every direction needs to have a voice that is empowered to say, “This is how I think we can be doing better here.”

Healthy, thriving teams actively seek out and welcome that feedback.

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This article was created by Galen Emanuele for the #culturedrop. Free leadership and team culture content in less than 5 minutes a week. Check out the rest of this month's content and subscribe to the Culture Drop at https://bit.ly/culturedrop 

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