The feedback you think you're giving isn't the feedback they're getting.

Every leader believes they give feedback. Ask their team what they've heard lately and the answer is usually silence. The gap between what you think you're delivering and what's landing compounds quietly. Growth doesn't happen because the feedback wasn't specific enough to act on. Problems drift because nobody named them while they were still small.

Most of it isn't avoidance. It's feedback that's vague, late, or softened until the point disappears. Your team gets warmth, not signal. So they guess at what good looks like, hedge their recommendations, and bring you decisions they should be making on their own.

This is a field guide for feedback that lands. It's built around 5 practices, each aimed at a specific way feedback breaks down:

The Two-Sentence Rule.

The 48-Hour Window.

Reinforcing vs. Corrective.

Receiving Feedback.

Feedback Across Power Dynamics.

Start with the 5-statement diagnostic to find where you break down, then go straight to the practice that fixes it. Every practice includes coaching questions, a 48-hour experiment you can run this week, and a 30-day build that turns the change into a habit. Section Three names the 5 feedback traps, the seams where 2 practices quietly fail together, and a 20-minute quarterly Feedback Audit to keep the practice from sliding back.

The stories are drawn from coaching conversations with leaders stuck in exactly this spot.

This is for the leader who cares about their people and wants that care to show up as signal. The point was never to understand feedback. It's to give the piece someone on your team needed a month ago. 2 sentences. 48 hours. Repeat.

Part of The Right Altitude Field Guide series: short, practical guides by executive coach Don Eash, MCC, ACTC.

Human Resources