As the world of work continues to change amidst a volatile landscape, feelings of fear and anxiety have deepened throughout the workforce. With ninety-eight percent of employees believing global trends affect their mental health at work and half of the workforce experiencing “layoff anxiety”, it is even more critical that workplaces are consciously working to decrease the distractions of these concerns by implementing psychologically safe practices.
Psychological safety is defined by the ability for workers to raise issues, ask questions, learn from mistakes, and bring their authentic selves to work, and it is the foundation for empowering employees and driving productivity.
This is particularly important during one of the most stressful times employees experience: performance discussions. As an example, one study from Sweden showed a marked increase in the stress hormone cortisol and mental fatigue among those receiving performance reviews vs the control group. They also showed a 92% lower perception of workload and 88% higher perception of their leader. In other words, when we put employees through the typical performance discussion, it negatively impacts them both personally and professionally.
In our work with teams, we’ve seen how challenging it can be to make feedback both effective and safe. Even experienced managers sometimes hesitate to have honest conversations, and employees often carry past experiences that make feedback feel risky.
Given the assumption that we cannot simply drop performance conversations entirely, what options exist for healthier conversations than the ones we conduct today? We would argue leveraging the pillars and approaches of psychological safety can be a game changer for effective feedback.
In this article, we will cover practical strategies managers can use to foster a feedback culture that reinforces the tenets of psychological safety by building trust and growth. Who are we? We are two entrepreneurs:
One of the clearest signs of a weak feedback culture is silence. When people don’t feel safe speaking up—whether to raise a concern or reflect on how things are going—progress slows. Feedback without psychological safety creates hesitation. It can shut people down and make even small conversations feel risky.
We’ve worked with a wide range of teams, and it’s easy to spot the difference between those that lean into feedback and those that avoid it. For the most successful, it becomes part of how they work together. But when people are afraid of how feedback will be received, they stay quiet. Their performance conversations turn into formalities and real issues stay hidden.
Enerflo approached things with a strong emphasis on coaching and leadership development. For them, feedback was the conduit by which they could identify and train better leaders. By gathering feedback more consistently, they were able to take a more thoughtful approach to growth in this area. It gave them direction and helped leadership become more intentional about where to invest their time.
These shifts don’t just help individual teams—they align with what research shows about high-performing organizations. As McKinsey has noted, psychological safety is a key factor in a team’s effectiveness and retention. When feedback becomes a habit instead of a one-off event, people feel more confident. They understand what’s expected and how they’re doing. But none of that can happen unless there’s a foundation of trust and safety.
The purpose and goals of psychological safety are to create an organization where workers can feel inclusion and belonging. This is based on decades of research that demonstrate the beneficial business outcomes of psychological safety.
However, because of it’s newness and some basic misunderstandings of the concept, there is a focus on “safety” without the psychology. Said simply, there is a belief that providing employees the freedom of having an opinion, agency, and being able to ask questions is counterproductive to the workplace. In fact, one researcher boldly stated “high levels of psychological safety may be counterproductive and actually hurt performance.”
Now this perspective makes an assumption that “where tasks are routine, high levels of psychological safety climate can harm in-role performance because it distracts employees from their core tasks first by focusing their attention on more novel tasks, and second by encouraging them to push boundaries in routine tasks where doing so is counterproductive.”
So the question is: does your organization require critical thinking, decision-making, or the ability to be agile and flexible on the job?
Is your organization one that never makes changes, lacks technological innovations, and simply stay static?
Most likely, the answer is no.
Given that, psychological safety continues to be a strong indication of a healthy culture for providing feedback. When employees feel psychologically safe, they are better able to critically evaluate and develop their skills. This is because they are safe to:
When psychological safety is prioritized, employees are more engaged, resilient, and willing to contribute to a culture of learning and development, ultimately driving the organization forward.
So, how does a leader provide critical or constructive feedback while keeping psychological safety alive? The answer is deceptively simple: approach feedback as an opportunity to grow vs a chance to fix what’s broken.
When feedback is approached as growth, it impacts all aspects of the performance conversation, as shown in the chart below.
A leader can begin this process by
This approach benefits the leader providing the feedback by diffusing defensiveness, enhancing trust with team members, and creating opportunities for learning on all fronts.
When teams treat feedback as a one-off event, it makes it much harder to be honest throughout the year. Not to mention, the lack of real-time engagement often leads to missed opportunities for growth.
In contrast, when feedback becomes part of the way teams work, it feels more natural. Conversations happen earlier and small adjustments are made before they turn into big problems.
Over time, we’ve seen that successful teams don’t rely on good intentions alone. They put some structure around how feedback happens.
Simple tools can make a difference here too. Systems that help request feedback, spot trends, and surface insights reduce the guesswork. They make feedback more consistent and more useful.
Of course, it’s normal for teams to hesitate before making a change.
One of the most common concerns is about adding more work. Leaders worry that putting more structure around feedback will feel like another task on a growing list. But when feedback is integrated into the flow of work, it can actually save time—waiting until a review cycle piles up small issues into big ones creates much more work in the long run.
Another challenge is staying consistent. It’s easy to kick off a new feedback approach with energy, but it takes commitment to stick with it once things get busy. The teams that succeed aren’t the ones that make feedback perfect from the start. They’re the ones that stay with it, even when other priorities compete for attention.
Here are a few ways we’ve seen teams maintain their feedback process:
For more ideas, check out SHRM’s article, Reimagine Feedback to Drive Engagement and Growth.
Building a structured feedback practice isn’t about creating more role or more work, it’s about setting up a system where people know how well they’re performing, can identify opportunities for improvement, and feel supported while taking chances.
Psychological safety within an organization is a direct reflection of its leadership and culture. When leaders foster an environment where employees feel safe to share their thoughts—without fear of punishment or humiliation—they lay the foundation for a culture of trust, learning, and continuous improvement.
This must start with the psychological safety of leaders themselves. Employees take cues from their leaders, so a lack of safety, such as fear of being judged, reluctance to admit mistakes, or avoiding difficult conversations, can undermine risk taking.
Furthermore, if leaders react defensively to feedback, dismiss concerns, or fail to acknowledge employee input, a culture of silence can quickly develop. However, when leaders model vulnerability, curiosity, and openness to feedback, they encourage employees to do the same.
Many organizations emphasize the importance of employees receiving feedback, but true psychological safety requires leaders to model the behavior they expect. Demonstrating openness to feedback means:
Encouraging employees to share feedback with leadership requires more than just saying, “My door is always open.” It takes intentional action to create an environment where employees feel safe and empowered to speak up. Strategies include:
Receiving feedback from one’s team is often easier said than done. Contributions reinforce that feedback is welcomed and valued. Leaders need to acknowledge that receiving feedback can have an emotional impact and have strategies for recognizing these reactions and bolstering skills for navigating these emotions. As with providing feedback, leaders can apply the mindset of growth vs fixing. Additionally, leaders can practice acceptance and self-compassion by:
Leaders set the tone for feedback culture. When they demonstrate openness, encourage upward feedback, and act on input, they create an environment where employees feel safe to share, grow, and contribute to the organization’s success. Psychological safety isn’t just a checkbox—it’s a leadership responsibility that, when prioritized, transforms teams and drives long-term results.
At its core, feedback is about growth. But growth doesn’t happen without trust. And trust doesn’t happen without psychological safety.
Throughout this guide, we’ve looked at how feedback and psychological safety are closely connected—how creating the right environment can turn feedback from something people avoid into something they value. We’ve talked about the role structure plays, the ways leaders can set the tone, and the small shifts that can make a big difference over time.
Building a healthy feedback culture isn’t about adding more to everyone’s plate. It’s about weaving feedback into the way teams already work, in a way that feels natural and supportive.
When feedback is structured, ongoing, and two-way, teams get stronger. People feel seen. Progress becomes clearer. And growth happens more often.
If you’re thinking about where to start, it can be as simple as asking your team:
“What’s one thing we could do to make you more comfortable sharing feedback?”
That one question can open the door to better conversations—and a better culture.
