What do you do if your team members are hesitant to provide feedback?

There are some really great articles out there about psychological safety and how imperative it is for a team environment. Without regular feedback and actions people don't feel like their opinions will matter and they stop giving feedback. Something I found interesting and helpful is that building psychological safety is very much about consistency, follow up and modelling. If we as leaders consistently seek feedback on ourselves, follow up on it, and model psychologically safe behaviors we begin seeing a shift in culture that feels a lot more collaborative.

To encourage feedback from hesitant team members, create a safe and open environment that values and respects everyone's input. Implement anonymous feedback tools or regular one-on-one meetings to offer more private channels for expression. Demonstrating active listening and constructive responses to any feedback shared can also reassure team members that their opinions are valued and can lead to positive changes.

If my team members are hesitant to provide feedback, I would try to create a safe and open environment where they feel comfortable sharing their thoughts. I would encourage open communication and actively listen to their concerns. It's important to build trust and reassure them that their feedback is valuable and will be taken constructively. I would also lead by example by being open to feedback myself and demonstrating how it can lead to positive outcomes for the team. Ultimately, I would work to cultivate a culture of feedback and continuous improvement within the team.

If team members hesitate to share their opinions, I first aim to create a supportive and open environment where they feel comfortable expressing themselves. I encourage open communication and actively listen to their concerns. Building trust is crucial, so I reassure them that their opinions are valued and respected. Additionally, I lead by example, demonstrating openness to feedback and actively seeking input from team members. I may also facilitate smaller group discussions or one-on-one meetings to address any reservations and encourage participation. Ultimately, my goal is to empower each team member to feel confident in sharing their thoughts and ideas.

In my experience, the main barrier to giving someone else feedback is that it has developed a negative connotation over time. People see it as a form of confrontation and therefore something uncomfortable. If we can take the time to change that perspective and show other leaders that feedback is a gift you're giving to someone else, we can take away that uncomfortable feeling that comes with it's delivery. I talk to my people leaders constantly about how feedback shouldn't be avoided but embraced. We are not serving our teams by making them and ourselves comfortable all the time. When we learn to live in the uncomfortable spaces we can learn and grow so much more.

This topic has a lot of opinions so I'll try my best to talk about what has worked for my teams in the past. Your approach to feedback is the most important part and will set the tone for the whole interaction. If you approach it wrong your team member may only walk away with the feeling of confrontation and not the message you wanted. I always tell my leaders to approach these conversations from a place of curiosity and love. Yes it's cheesy but it really helps to start by asking your team member questions to discover their barriers. What walls are they hitting that put them in the position of needing constructive feedback? From there we give them tools to overcome, time to practice and we follow up by recognizing improvement.

I really like the way the example above is framed. I think the only thing that is really important to add is that when we get feedback we cannot go into problem solving mode or become defensive. We should really look to the 80/20 rule. Listening 80% and asking questions to discover more the other 20%. If you're able to ask the right questions you'll come out of that feedback session with a lot of really great information and you'll build strong psychological safety with your team in the process.

Act as an example: show them the value of feedback by developing and applying your giving and receiving skills. Use quick exercise to trigeer the feeedback process like speedbacks.

Be one among them! If they believe and see you as one of them, hesitation won't even cross their minds. Feedback will naturally come to you without having to request it.