Episode 626 - The Feedback Flywheel: Turning Conversations Into Momentum

At first. You push it and it barely turns. You push it again, and it moves a little more, and after enough consistent force, it starts spinning on its own. Once it is moving, it creates energy and momentum that is hard to stop. Feedback works the same way. Most leaders treat feedback like a fire extinguisher, something you grab when there's smoke. Someone makes mistake, morale dips, performance slides, and then you rush in with corrective comments. That is

not a flywheel. That is crisis management. A feedback flywheel has four simple components. First, observation. Leaders who build momentum pay attention. They are not buried in email. They are not hiding behind closed doors. They are in the room, on the floor, in the cockpit, in the station bay, wherever the work is happening. In aviation. I've said this before. One degree off course does not look like much in the first mile. Ten miles later you're in a different city.

Feedback starts with noticing small deviations early. Second, immediate conversation, not dramatic, not emotional, direct and calm. You see something done well, you say it. You see something off, you address it in real time, not three weeks later during a scheduled meeting when the moment has lost oxygen. When I was teaching scuba diving back in the day, if a student's buoyancy was off by a few feed I

corrected it immediately under water. If I waited until we were back on the boat, the learning window was gone. Leadership is the same. Delay kills development. Third, ownership. This is where most leaders break the flywheel. You cannot give feedback and then disappear. If you tell a supervisor to tighten up their documentation, you need to circle back. If you tell a team member their tone and meetings need adjustment, you follow up and ask how it's going. Feedback without

follow through is just noise. Ownership also means you invite feedback about yourself. If your team cannot tell you the truth about your blind spots, your flywheel is already rusted. Fourth repetition Momentum only builds with consistency. You cannot give feedback once a quarter and expect a culture of growth. You cannot hold one tough conversation and think accountability is handled. The flywheel spins because you keep pushing. Now Here is

the leadership lesson inside. This feedback is not about correction. It is about energy transfer. Unwrite feedback does three things. It clarifies expectations, It tightens standards. It builds trust. Yes, builds trust. Most leaders are afraid feedback will damage relationships. The opposite is true. Silence damages relationships. Confusion damages relationships.

Inconsistency damages relationships. Clarity builds trust. In my world, whether it's ems aviation, we're running an organization, ambiguity is dangerous. The same is true in business, healthcare, education, or any industry. If your people do not know where they stand, they will assume the worst, or they will drift. The feedback flywheel prevents drift. Now let me give you a tactical way to implement this starting to mo Step one, schedule

two daily observation windows. Ten minutes in the morning, ten minutes in the afternoon. No phone, no laptop, walk the floor, listen and watch. Step two deliver one piece of positive feedback and one piece of corrective feedback every single day. Small as fine, specific is required. Do not say good job, Say I notice how you handled the customer's frustration without escalating it. That protected the brand. Do not say you

need to improve communication. Say when you send reports without a summary, the leadership team spends extra time to coding them. Add a three sentence executive overview next time. Step three track follow up. Keep a simple notebook, write the name, the issue, the date. Revisit it in a week. That is how you create accountability without turning into a micromanager. Now here's the red key moment in all of this. High stakes leadership moments are not always dramatic. Sometimes they

are quiet. A comment you avoid, a standard, you lower, a behavior you tolerate because you are tired. Those are red key moments. Every time you choose silence over clarity, you slow the flywheel. Every time you lean into the conversation, you add force. Over time, something powerful happens. Your team starts self correcting, peers start holding peers accountable. Standards become culture not personal. When that happens, you're no longer pushing

the flywheel alone. The team is pushing it with you. That is when leadership shifts from supervision to stewardship. And here's the final warning. If your flywheel is not spinning, something else is gossip, complacency, mediocrity, feedback energy does not disappear at either fuel's growth or it fuels dysfunction. So ask yourself today, is your leadership build on annual reviews in occasional tough talks, or are you intentionally building a

feedback flywheel? Seven minutes a day is enough to change this. Observe speak, follow up, repeat, Momentum will take care of the rest. So leadership is not about grand speeches or dramatic interventions. It is about small corrections made early and often. Start pushing the flywheel today. Have one real conversation that you have been avoiding. Give one precise piece of praise that reinforce this is your standard. Keep it moving every day. That is how you build a culture that does not stall.

This has been the seven minute Leadership Podcast and I thank you for listening.