As you’ve probably heard us emphasise on a Breakthrough Programme, in navigation one rule stands firm: to know where you’re headed, you must first understand where you are. Yet, in the whirlwind of daily tasks, meetings, and KPI tracking, it’s easy to lose sight of whether your efforts are truly making a difference. You can find yourself caught in the cycle of being busy without clarity on where your contributions are genuinely valued. This is where feedback becomes your compass. It bridges the gap between the impact you believe you’re having and the reality of the situation.
So, how do leaders build a healthy feedback culture?
For leaders, cultivating a healthy feedback culture within your teams and across your organisation is a game changer. It fosters growth and alignment and sets you apart as an effective leader. In this post, we’ll share our top three tips to help you build and sustain a healthy feedback culture that drives meaningful impact.
How to Build a Healthy Feedback Culture
Key Takeaways:- Make feedback consistent & specific
- Leaders must role model giving & receiving feedback
- Balance positive feedback with challenging insights.
To hear from Breakthrough Facilitator, Kate Arneil, watch here and uncover how to transform feedback into a tool for growth and success within your organisation.
Tip 1: Make Feedback Consistent & Specific
Feedback is often too vague, inconsistent or limited to a once-a-year appraisal. Generic praise or vague critiques lack the clarity needed to guide meaningful improvement.
Exploding Topics found that 75% of disengaged employees lack regular feedback to improve performance, while 73% seek greater clarity on goals and expectations from their managers. Without context or detail, you drastically limit the ability to understand what worked or how to replicate their success. Highlighting precise examples of success encourages people to excel further, while actionable guidance on areas for improvement drives growth.
For example, instead of vague comments like “Great job” or “You need to improve,” focus on details that offer clarity and direction, such as “In your presentation, the key data point wasn’t emphasised enough. Next time, lead with that to make a stronger impact.” Specific feedback provides direction and demonstrates that, as a leader, you’re present and attentive to your team’s contributions. Specific feedback also allows you to address challenges quickly, make incremental improvements, and align your team toward achieving their goals.
Tip 2: Leaders Must Role Model Giving & Receiving Feedback
Sharing feedback can be daunting, especially with managers, supervisors or senior leaders. However, building a healthy feedback culture is crucial for fostering psychological safety within your organisation.
Employees need to feel safe sharing honest feedback and as a leader, you play a key role in creating this environment. One of the most effective ways to do this is by modelling the behaviour yourself. By demonstrating healthy feedback practices, you set the tone for others to follow.
Share your experiences and learnings openly, including moments when feedback contributed to your growth. Transparency and vulnerability encourage others to embrace the same principles with less resistance. Receiving feedback from your team and then acting upon it demonstrates intentionality and a commitment to being a better leader. Remember, an organisation’s culture often mirrors its leadership. By prioritising healthy feedback, you nurture growth and cultivate a workplace where psychological safety thrives.
Jamie Bechtel demonstrates this excellently in the latest episode of the 3 Lessons from Breakthrough Leaders podcast. She shares her experience with being ‘Yellow Carded’ and the valuable lessons she’s learned along the way.
Tip 3: Balance Positive Feedback With Challenging Insights
Giving balanced feedback is vital for any leader, yet it requires a delicate approach.
Some leaders excel at delivering praise, while others find it easier to voice criticism. A truly skilled leader, however, understands the importance of both and knows how to deliver each in a way that fosters growth and trust.
Too much positive feedback can create an unrealistically high perception of performance, potentially leading to complacency. On the other hand, too much criticism can leave employees feeling confused, defensive, or overwhelmed. Neither serves the recipient or the project. Balanced feedback should provide employees with a complete picture of their contributions, guiding them toward greater self-awareness while reinforcing that their efforts are valued.
When structuring feedback, leaders should consider approaches that resonate best with their team:
- The Sandwich Approach - One of the most commonly used methods, constructive feedback is placed between two pieces of positive feedback to soften its impact. However, Radical Candor highlights unintended effects: employees in need of improvement may focus only on the positives, while high performers may fixate on the criticism.
- The 3-2-1 Rule - This widely referenced structure follows a countdown sequence: three positive observations, two areas of improvement, and one actionable next step. While it provides a balanced mix of encouragement and constructive criticism, its effectiveness depends on how well the feedback is framed. If not delivered thoughtfully, it may feel formulaic rather than genuinely insightful.
- The Breakthrough Feedback Framework © – At Breakthrough, we take feedback a step further with this proven Breakthrough Tool, used in our coaching workshops. This framework is our recommended approach for leaders and teams, designed to enhance awareness and provide a structured, reliable methodology for 1-to-1s, team reflections, and project reviews. As a core part of our coaching approach, it empowers individuals and teams to embrace feedback as a catalyst for high performance.
Tools like Insights Profiling can help leaders understand their team's communication styles and effectively tailor feedback. This methodology uses a simple and memorable four-colour model - red, yellow, green and blue - to help individuals understand their own and others' working styles, strengths and contributions to the team.
By recognising that negative feedback tends to carry more emotional weight and may trigger defensive reactions, leaders can frame their feedback constructively, ensuring it supports development rather than hindering it. Avoid reducing a healthy feedback culture to a checkbox during an annual appraisal. Cultivating meaningful feedback is an ongoing skill that demands self-reflection and consistent effort, but the rewards are undeniable. Small, intentional 1-degree shifts can significantly accelerate psychological safety within your team, foster stronger cohesion, and enhance alignment around shared goals.
Contact Us to Create a Culture of Feedback!
Conclusion
Incorporating these strategies into your daily leadership practices will result in immediate, positive changes. Your team will feel more connected, valued, and motivated, creating a workplace culture built on trust and collaboration.
What are your insights on encouraging healthy feedback? Share your experience with us at #mybreakthrough on LinkedIn or leave a comment on our Building a Healthy Feedback Culture YouTube Video. To hear more leadership insights, please enjoy our Insights Shorts playlist.
Thank you for reading and stay tuned for our next Insight Short where we’ll be sharing more Breakthrough tips and expert advice.
