How to create a work environment that supports feedback
Summary: This article outlines strategies for hospitality leaders to create a feedback-friendly work environment. It emphasizes building psychological safety, normalizing regular feedback, and leaders modeling openness. By fostering a culture where feedback is normalized and valued, restaurant managers can enhance performance, strengthen relationships, and drive organizational success.
Giving effective feedback is one of the most important things we can do as a people manager. Effective feedback helps our employees know what’s expected of them, what they’re doing well, and how they can improve. However, according to Gallup, only 21% of U.S. employees strongly agree that they received meaningful feedback in the last week. This could be for a variety of reasons like managers offering unclear feedback, avoiding feedback conversations, or feeling ill-equipped to give feedback.
This is true in our experience coaching hospitality leaders, too. Giving feedback often comes up as a skill that people would like to practice and improve. We’ve found that the biggest roadblock to giving feedback is believing that the conversation will go poorly and that the situation will turn sour or get even worse.
What if we told you there was a way to make giving feedback less onerous AND more effective, all while creating engaged employees who more readily receive feedback?
It involves zooming out and focusing on the bigger picture. While it’s important to deliver feedback clearly and effectively in the moment, we would argue it’s even more important to create a work environment that encourages and embraces feedback regularly. If giving and receiving feedback is an accepted part of an organization’s culture, it will seem less scary for a manager to deliver feedback and for an employee to receive feedback—even critical feedback.
So what can you do as a hospitality leader to create such an environment? We outline 5 key steps below.
1. Build psychological safety
If you’re trying to build an environment that encourages regular feedback, psychological safety is the foundation. Psychological safety means that employees feel safe to ask questions, make mistakes, and share how they think and feel without fear of retribution.
Having psychological safety helps staff feel more confident in taking risks and sharing information transparently. When it comes to feedback, psychological safety allows employees to own up to their mistakes and see errors as learning opportunities, strengthening their resilience and making feedback easier to digest and act on.
Another key piece of creating psychological safety is being aware of and managing power dynamics as leaders. This means being open to varying perspectives and dissenting views, as well as acknowledging the privilege that might come with our position as leaders.
Overall, building psychological safety will minimize the feeling of danger around giving and receiving feedback.
Applying the remaining steps below will contribute to building psychological safety and transparency at your hospitality organization.
2. Deliver feedback frequently and as close to an event as possible
Giving frequent feedback lets our staff know that we’re genuinely invested in their growth, want to see them succeed, and are committed to hands-on management. Regular feedback also cultivates an environment of continuous improvement, where growth and change are seen as constants rather than exceptions.
Timeliness is also important. Delivering feedback as close to an event as possible helps the recipient to clearly link the feedback to the specific situation, enhancing its relevance and actionability. This allows us as managers to reinforce positive behaviors and swiftly address areas for improvement before incorrect habits take root.
When taken together, delivering feedback frequently and in a timely fashion normalizes feedback as part of daily work life.
Normalizing the feedback process has many benefits, including reducing anxiety around evaluations, fostering a more open, agile, and responsive work environment, and engaging employees around ongoing development and success.
3. Identify a time to consistently check in with team members
Although things are busy and schedules are tight, prioritize meeting with your team members one-on-one. Meeting regularly and predictably with your staff helps build trust, which makes delivering and receiving feedback easier.
It also provides a pre-scheduled time to give feedback on overall performance, including areas where an individual might be performing well and areas that may need attention. Note that regularly scheduled meetings shouldn’t take the place of giving in-the-moment feedback, which should be delivered as close to an event as possible.
Protect this time and do everything you can to keep your meetings with staff. Although things will inevitably come up, it’s important for you to demonstrate that one-on-one time with your team members is a priority.
4. Approach situations with a sense of curiosity
As managers, providing feedback can feel intimidating and challenging. However, entering a feedback conversation with a mindset that you might learn something new—something that could shift your perspective—can help build trust and ensure psychological safety for your team members.
One way to do this is by using open-ended questions instead of close-ended questions. Close-ended questions are questions that can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no," while open-ended questions invite deeper reflection and discussion.
For instance, instead of asking, "Do you think you performed well at work today?" (a close-ended question), try rephrasing the question in a way that can’t be answered with “yes” or “no,” like, "How did work go for you today?" This subtle shift encourages your employee to reflect on their workday, and allows you to gauge their self-awareness and potentially uncover insights you hadn't considered.
Approaching situations from a place of curiosity also helps people feel more engaged in the conversation because they have an opportunity to share their own perspective. It promotes self-discovery, strengthens relationships, and cultivates an environment where individuals are more likely to take accountability for their actions and growth.
By approaching situations with curiosity, we create a feedback culture that's less about judgment and more about collaborative improvement and mutual understanding.
5. Ask for and accept feedback regularly yourself
Creating a feedback-rich environment requires us to be active participants in the entire feedback ecosystem. The most effective leaders and managers don't just dish out feedback; they actively seek it from both their teams and superiors. While it can be daunting to open ourselves up to criticism, we must set the example for our teams by consistently seeking and graciously accepting feedback. This practice not only supports our own personal growth and improvement, but also helps us earn the respect of those around us.
A simple yet powerful way to do this is by concluding feedback sessions with a question like, "What feedback do you have for me?" This small gesture goes a long way in normalizing a two-way feedback flow, encouraging employees to voice their thoughts freely.
Another effective approach is to establish regular, dedicated times—such as "office hours"—where team members can drop in to provide feedback or engage in open discussions. These structured yet informal opportunities create a safe space for honest communication.
By consistently demonstrating our willingness to receive and act on feedback, we're not just talking the talk—we're walking the walk. This approach fosters a culture of continuous improvement, mutual respect, and open communication. It shows our team that feedback isn't a top-down tool for criticism, but a shared resource for collective growth.
Remember, the goal isn't just to be a good feedback giver, but to cultivate an environment where feedback flows freely in all directions, driving both individual and organizational success.
Creating a work environment that supports feedback involves building a foundation of psychological safety, delivering timely and frequent feedback, consistently prioritizing one-on-one check-ins, approaching situations with genuine curiosity, and actively seeking feedback ourselves as leaders.
By implementing these strategies, we can cultivate a culture where feedback is not a dreaded occurrence but a valued tool for continuous growth and improvement.
