I was on a coaching call this week supporting a participant who was navigating next steps after sitting with the results of an anonymous culture survey.
I also received an excited download from an executive who went to dinner with a colleague and found themselves on the receiving end of poignant, well-scripted, constructive feedback.
I spoke with a couple of Elevate members who know their team is giving feedback—but the form could use some refinement. (Follow form to prevent injury.)
Four distinct teams. Each in a different place when it comes to their culture of feedback.
I paint this picture because it’s important to recognize that creating a feedback-rich culture is a process.
We can’t simply go to our teams and will them to get better at feedback. Become more transparent. Step into hard conversations.
We need to put up guardrails, build trust, walk the walk ourselves, and create the space and safety that allow tighter feedback loops to emerge.
Getting Started & My Vision of a Feedback-Rich Culture
Let’s go back to that first example, because it’s an incredibly relatable jumping-off point.
I know tons of teams who leverage anonymity to collect unfiltered views from their people. And I don’t inherently see the use of an anonymous survey as a bad thing by any stretch.
But I told my participant exactly what I’ll tell you: it was the perfect tool for where they are today—and I want to help them get to a place where they don’t need it anymore.
My vision of a feedback-rich culture is one where we’ve built the trust, skills, and infrastructure for feedback to flow freely, person to person.
In my experience, feedback is most impactful when we hear it directly from the person—when we can see their body language, get curious, ask questions, and lean into active listening and perspective-taking.
When feedback is given and received effectively, it builds trust. It becomes a deposit in our emotional bank accounts because it communicates, I care about our relationship and your growth.
And in the absence of strong trust, feedback can be incredibly difficult—and often leads to withdrawals in those same accounts.
Which brings me back to today’s focus: the use of anonymous feedback.
Leveraging Anonymous Feedback
As I said earlier, anonymous feedback isn’t all bad—but it should be used sparingly and intentionally.
What doesn’t work:
Sending out anonymous survey after anonymous survey, circulating results among management or HR, and never directly addressing them with the broader team.
That approach leads to less engagement and less trust. It actively damages credibility and self-orientation scores. Employees stop seeing value in sharing their thoughts—and rightfully so.
What does work:
Soliciting feedback through an anonymous survey, sharing the results transparently, inviting additional perspective, and committing to next steps.
Do you need to act on every piece of feedback? No. But that doesn’t mean you can’t acknowledge every piece of feedback.
If we want our teams to be transparent, that begins with our own willingness to be transparent with them.
Let people see and hear how you’re processing what they’ve shared. Make public commitments around what’s changing, and be explicit about the role their feedback played in those changes.
That’s how we use anonymous surveys to build trust. Show gratitude for constructive feedback. Demonstrate that challenging perspectives are welcomed.
Build the foundation that eventually allows you to retire the need for anonymity.
The Impact of Transparency
When we can give and receive feedback without barriers or buffers, our teams move faster. Our people grow. We save copious amounts of time and energy.
No two teams are in the same place—we’re all working with different personalities, emotional bank accounts, organizational contexts, and skill levels.
But I’ve worked both with and within teams that have made the leap from reliance on anonymous feedback to open, robust, healthy feedback loops.
And with intentionality and practice, I believe most growth-minded teams can get there too.
Have questions about how to build that culture on your team? Don’t hesitate to reach out or drop a comment.
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