Is Your Feedback Culture a Bit Rubbish? Here’s How to Fix It
- Laura Alliss
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
It’s no secret that feedback helps teams grow.
When people receive clear, timely feedback, they work with more direction. Confidence builds. Misunderstandings reduce. Performance improves.
In short - it's a no-brainer.
And yet, many organisations still feel frustrated with their feedback culture.
Maybe feedback only shows up when something goes wrong.
Maybe it’s inconsistent.
Or maybe it doesn’t happen at all, because you're not quite sure how to do it properly.
The good news is that feedback doesn't need to be formal, heavy, or one-directional. The organisations with the healthiest feedback cultures treat feedback as a normal, ongoing part of how they work - flowing between team members, managers, peers, and leaders. Not just top-down. Not just once a year. And definitely not only when there’s a problem.
So how do you get there?
Why Feedback Cultures Break Down
Before we talk about how to fix feedback culture, it helps to understand why it breaks down in the first place.
At the heart of every strong feedback culture is psychological safety. People need to feel safe to speak up; to give feedback, receive it, and ask questions without fear of blame, embarrassment, or repercussions.
When feedback cultures struggle, it’s rarely because leaders don't care. More often, it's because:
● Leaders worry about knocking confidence
● They’re unsure how to say things well
● Feedback feels awkward, emotional, or time-consuming
● There’s no shared understanding of what "good feedback" looks like
So feedback gets watered down, delayed, or avoided altogether.
Most managers recognise the moment: you notice something isn’t quite right, you tell yourself you'll address it later - and suddenly weeks have passed. By then, the conversation feels more of an event, and harder than it ever needed to be.
Model the Change - It Starts at the Top
Feedback culture doesn’t start with policies or frameworks. They come later.
It starts with behaviour.
One of the easiest places to begin is peer-to-peer feedback at leadership or management level. This allows leaders to experience both sides of feedback - giving it and receiving it - in a lower-risk environment.
When leaders model openness, curiosity, and calm responses to feedback, it sends a powerful signal:
This is normal. This is safe. This is how we work here.
Culture follows what leaders do, not what they say.
Make Feedback Regular (and Boring - in a Good Way)
If feedback only happens when something has gone wrong, or when it's time for an annual review, it will always feel loaded. Being called in for a performance evaluation will come with a hefty side of apprehension and negative feelings, which doesn’t make for a constructive environment.
To be effective, feedback needs to become integrated as part of the normal rhythm of work.
That means addressing things when they happen (or as close as possible to when they happen), whether it's praise, a course correction, or a reflective conversation. Waiting for a formal review weeks or months later often strips feedback of its usefulness and turns it into something people dread.
When feedback is regular, people know where they stand. They don't second-guess. They adapt faster, with less anxiety and more confidence.
Over time, feedback stops feeling like a "moment" and starts feeling like part of the process.
Keep Feedback Specific and Grounded
One of the most common challenges I see is feedback without clarity. A vague "Well done" feels nice, but it doesn’t help someone repeat the behaviour because they don’t know what went well. Similarly, "that could have been better" creates confusion, not improvement - what elements could have been better, and why? You might think it's obvious, but it rarely is.
If something worked well, explain why. Was it the clarity of communication? The way a problem was handled? The speed of response? Digging into the behaviour you’d like to see repeated means that your team know exactly what they’re aiming for - with no ambiguity.
If something needs to change, be clear about what didn’t meet expectations and the impact it had. Avoid exaggerations like "you always" or "you never" - they tend to trigger defensiveness rather than reflection.
Specificity also matters when discussing solutions. Telling someone to "be more professional" or "communicate better" isn’t helpful unless you can describe what that actually looks like in practice.
Clarity builds confidence. Vagueness erodes it.
Small Changes Create Big Cultural Shifts
Changing your feedback culture shouldn't require a big launch or a dramatic overhaul.
In fact, it usually works best as a series of small, consistent changes:
● More regular check-ins
● Feedback given closer to the moment
● Leaders actively asking for feedback themselves (and being open to receiving it!)
● A shared understanding of how feedback works
While it may feel like a significant shift as a manager or leader, it’s often far less noticeable - and far more welcome - than you might expect.
When feedback flows both ways and is treated as learning fuel rather than judgement, teams tend to follow suit. This is the foundation of psychological safety: knowing you won’t be punished for honesty.
Is It Worth the Effort?
The short answer is the only answer in this case. Absolutely.
When feedback culture is done well, it:
● Builds confidence and capability
● Strengthens trust and connection
● Reduces conflict and misunderstanding
● Improves engagement and performance
Most importantly, it creates a workplace where people feel supported to learn, grow, and do their best work. For most organisations - big or small - this is something they can’t afford not to embrace.
If you'd like support with how to create a great feedback culture in your organisation, I'd love to help. My workshops and leadership programmes are designed to help you understand how to make giving feedback more effective, practical, and a key part of your culture.
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