We Stopped Tolerating the Lack of Feedback

Something we stopped doing and honestly, something we don’t understand how others still tolerate is staying quiet when things aren’t working.

And we’re not just talking about the obvious stuff. We’re talking about feedback. Real feedback. The kind that says, “This part needs work.” Or, “You crushed that, and here’s why.”

Most teams don’t get enough of either.

You hear it in every employee engagement survey. You see it in exit interviews. You feel it when there’s tension, confusion, or detachment in a team. People are craving feedback. They want to be told how they’re doing what’s working and what isn’t. But most agency leaders don’t give it. Not because they don’t care, but because they don’t have a habit, a model, or the comfort level to do it.

We used to be there too.

We’d say things like, “They’re doing fine” or “Let’s wait and see how it goes.” Or we’d sugarcoat things, hoping people would just figure it out. They didn’t. And the longer we waited, the more things festered.

The result? Quiet frustration. Small resentments. Side conversations. Judgment that didn’t get voiced directly. People guessing at what others were thinking. Or worse, people thinking they were doing great while struggling silently, with no one saying a word.

Eventually, we realized we were enabling the problem.

So we made the change.

We started building feedback in from the start, not as a one-time performance review or end-of-project reflection, but as a core part of how we operate.

And not just constructive feedback. Positive feedback too. Because here’s the reality, people need both.

They need to know when they’re doing something well, and why it matters. Otherwise, they second-guess themselves. They don’t lean into their strengths. They wait to be noticed instead of showing up fully.

And when someone isn’t doing something well? They need to know that too. Respectfully. Directly. In the context of growth and improvement. Not punishment. Not ego. Just clarity.

But for feedback to land, there has to be trust. That’s something we had to earn. You can’t just drop in with a list of “areas for improvement” if you haven’t built the relationship first. If someone doesn’t know you care about them, if they don’t believe you’re rooting for them, then any feedback, no matter how well delivered will feel like a threat.

So that’s where we started: with relationships. With trust. With small, daily conversations. With asking questions before offering advice. With being honest ourselves, and modeling that we could take feedback too.

And it worked.

Today, feedback is something we expect at every level. Not in a harsh, rigid way. But in a clear, grounded, helpful way. And it’s changed how our teams operate. People move faster. They recover from mistakes quicker. They get better. And most importantly, they trust each other more.

We don’t always get it right. But we talk about it. And that’s the difference.

So no, we don’t tolerate a feedback-free culture. We don’t sit on problems. We don’t wait until someone’s halfway out the door to tell them what they needed to hear six months ago.

We talk. We listen. We adjust. And we get better, together.

Richard