Building a Feedback-Rich Culture: Practical Steps for Managers

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I'm your host, Greg Gillum, and today we're diving into a topic that, frankly, too many teams skip over, how to build a company culture that encourages feedback. A lot of companies, especially back in my consulting days, wanted to sweep feedback under the rug. This is an article that says we ought to be promoting and encouraging feedback.

We'll draw on the HBR article, Building a Feedback-Rich Culture, and highlight three key lessons and actionable tips that you can take back to your team today, whether you're a new manager or a seasoned leader. If you want your people to feel safe, valued, and evolving, this episode is for you. So number one, why feedback culture matters? Why focus on it? Well, because culture isn't just what you say you value, it's what you live.

And according to Batista, the author, a feedback-rich culture is one where giving and receiving feedback is not a rare event, but a normal part of how people work together. He points out that even individuals who aren't initially good at giving or receiving feedback will participate and improve when the culture supports it. So why does it matter? Here, here's three key benefits to driving this feedback-rich culture. Trust and psychological safety, number one. People feel safe to speak up.

Especially when they do not agree with what's going on. Number two, learning and growth. Mistakes get surfaced, addressed, and then hopefully corrected and learned from. And then better performance. Teams communicate more candidly when they pull together. If feedback is only once a year in a formal review, you miss way too many opportunities during the year for connection and improvement.

So in this article, Batista highlights four essential elements for a feedback-rich culture. Let's walk through each, and then we'll translate them into practical tips for you. So A, safety and trust. The foundation here is that people must feel safe to give and receive feedback. The author says to give and receive truly candid feedback, people have to have a sense of safety and trust.

That doesn't mean only comfort and no challenge. It means being attuned to emotional readiness and having a culture where feedback doesn't feel like punishment. Second one in here is balance. Too often, feedback is only critical. What about positive feedback? The article emphasizes that meaningful positive feedback is missing in many organizations. So think about your organization. What's the balance there? In fact, positive and developmental feedback have to go hand in hand.

Third one is candor and respect. Feedback has to be honest. It has to be direct. Better if it's very specific, but also respectful. You want to avoid generalities here. Address behaviors, not personalities. Link, always link to impact. One of my favorite things about great feedback is that it's always linked to how that person has affected or impacted the organization, the culture, if you will. And the last one here is embedded practices. Culture is not built by saying, give no feedback.

Once. It's built by embedding feedback practices into a rhythm during one-on-ones, peer-to-peer feedback, in after-action reviews. The author argues that culture is more powerful than skill training alone.

So number three, we talk about actionable tips for managers. So this is where you get practical. Here are five actionable tips that you can start implementing right away. Tip number one, model feedback behavior yourself. You cannot ask your team to give and receive feedback if you don't. Offer to receive feedback from your direct reports. What's one thing that I could do differently to support you better? And wait on answers. When you do, respond, thank them, act on it.

When leaders model this vulnerability and openness, it sets the tone for the rest of the team. Tip number two, normalize frequent check-ins. Don't wait for quarterly reviews. Incorporate micro-feedback moments. So after meetings, projects, sprints, hey, good job on that meeting. One thing I noticed, when you ask for input earlier, the team seemed to respond better. Keep that up. And perhaps next time, you know, and then offer a suggestion.

But you can see how that's a positive way of giving someone really good coaching feedback. This makes feedback a rhythm, not just an event. Tip number three, ensure positive and developmental feedback balance each other out. Make sure that for every piece of developmental feedback, so what to improve, you're also giving positive feedback. What's working well? There's a five to one rule suggesting that positive interactions help build trust so criticism doesn't undermine your relationships.

So that the idea is the more you have positive interactions in this sort of balance of five positive to one critical, that's really what sets the right tone. So the author references research on positive feedback promoting development of people. Tip number four, prepare for feedback conversations and set the context. So before you give feedback, clarify the behavior, clarify its impact and how it relates to team or organizational goals.

Use something like the situation behavior impact, the SBI, if you've ever heard that tool. Ask for the person's perspective first. How do you feel that went? And then after they've gone through their analysis, then you can share your views. Afterwards, then ask, what does good look like next time? And how can I help you? This aligns with best practices and feedback delivery. And then finally, tip number five, create channels and rituals for peer and upward feedback.

So encourage your team members to give one another feedback. Not just manager to direct report. Give feedback to each other. Build rituals. At the close of a project, ask, what's one thing I appreciated about you and one thing that we can improve next time? So always putting feedback into the culture. Also building upward feedback. Perhaps every six weeks, ask the team, what could I do differently? When you act, you reinforce the culture.

Okay, so of course, even the best intentions hit obstacles, here are some very common challenges to implementing this type of approach and how to address them. So number one is fear of giving feedback. Research shows people underestimate how much the recipient will appreciate it and overestimate the risk. So the solution there is to train and normalize. Start with safe, positive feedback to build confidence. The second challenge is feedback only when things go wrong.

So if feedback is only when someone's underperforming, it becomes very threatening. So the solution there is to embed positive feedback and frequent rhythm into your feedback so that it becomes routine. Third, leader's not modeling the behavior. You've got to walk your talk. So make sure that you are getting feedback. Make sure that you're giving feedback in balance and make sure that you've got a commitment to that process.

And then finally, lack of follow-up. If you give feedback but nothing changes, people stop taking it seriously. So create follow-up. At our next check-in, we'll revisit how you apply the suggestion and then you revisit it, making sure that you're keeping track. All right. So that's it. If you start small, maybe one peer feedback ritual this week and one leader ask for feedback conversation, you'll begin to really shift the culture incrementally. And over time, those small rhythms will compound.

I hope you found this episode helpful and that you're motivated to take one concrete step this week toward building a feedback-rich culture on your team. And until next time we meet in the Manager Lab, do good work.