66 Feedback Quotes That Shape Better Workplaces

This curated gallery features 66 original feedback quotes by Cameron Conaway—author, professor, and one of the world’s leading feedback thinkers. Each quote is designed to spark better communication, strengthen leadership, and fuel innovation by highlighting how feedback shapes both personal and organizational growth.

Whether you’re a team leader working to build a strong feedback culture, an HR professional seeking to inspire meaningful dialogue, or an educator teaching feedback literacy, these shareable quotes about feedback offer practical wisdom grounded in research and lived experience.

Explore the gallery to see how effective feedback practices can drive performance, build trust, and unlock human potential.

Feedback quote card titled "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "When feedback hits hard, let your fallback phrase steady you. It’s how you pause the panic and stay present with the moment. A few calm words of choice can empower you as the receiver." Footer text: Develop Your Feedback Fallback Phrase.
Quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "When asked for feedback, pause, then ask clarifying questions. Rushed advice may feed the ego or silence more than the moment. A mindful, intentional response better serves giver and seeker." Footer text: How to Respond: Can I Get Your Feedback?
Quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "Have you received feedback that feels confusing to you? Seeking a new perspective may illuminate your understanding. Like all meaningful growth, clarity is a shared endeavor." Footer text: Getting Feedback About Received Feedback.
Quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "Giving feedback is easy. Giving it for impact is hard. It’s not just what you say— it’s how what you say travels. Great feedback doesn’t end when delivered. That’s when it begins." Footer text: Giving Feedback for Impact After Receipt (IAR).
Feedback quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "Why are you seeking feedback? For praise? To comply? To grow? The clearest insights only knock on the door when ego steps aside. A pure intention invites them in and sets the stage for growth." Footer text: Seeking Feedback with a Pure Intention.
Quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "Many feedback givers stay quiet, afraid of saying the wrong thing. But silence is also feedback—it's where assumptions take root. Givers: risk discomfort to create space for growth on both sides." Footer text: Attention: Feedback Givers! Don’t Become the 21%.
Quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "Positive feedback is sunlight—it highlights what's thriving. But left unsaid for too long, even strengths can begin to dim. Don’t save it for perfect moments. Use it as a mirror for momentum." Footer text: Being Intentional with Positive Feedback.
Quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "Feedback speaks once when said and then again in the quiet mind. Its power lives not in the receipt but in the way we turn and till it. If it hasn't broken the surface, perhaps it is still taking root." Footer text: 5 Questions to Ask After Receiving Feedback.
Quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "Challenging feedback may stir feelings we are taught to hide. But feelings can be trailheads that lead you to your next insight. New kinds of knowing can emerge when we pause to feel, not think." Footer text: Feeling Feedback.
Quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "You don’t need to use all feedback. Some can’t bear the fruit you need. The Feedback Decision Tree can help you decide what to prune. Sometimes, we grow the most by choosing what will not." Footer text: Leveraging the Feedback Decision Tree.
Feedback quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "The best feedback is not always given in the moment it arises. Sometimes, delaying is about deferring wisely—not avoiding. Share when they might best hear. Not just when you want to speak." Footer text: Giving Feedback: When to Delay.
Workplace feedback quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "When receiving feedback, adjust your lens instead of your armor. Widen the aperture of curiosity before narrowing into certainty. Clarity comes not from shielding, but from focusing and reframing." Footer text: The Feedback Receiver’s Mindset.
Quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "You might receive feedback that is more compass than map. Adopting it may not be right, but discarding it could be wrong. Some truths appear not in certainty but in traveling with ambiguity." Footer text: The Feedback Receiver’s Mindset.
Feedback quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "Some feedback acts like a mirror to reveal what we'd rather avoid. Based on your emotional state, looking away is completely fine. But growth waits in that mirror, quiet. Are you ready to see it?" Footer text: The Feedback Receiver’s Mindset.
Quote card featuring Cameron Conaway with the LinkedIn logo and the title "Feedback Tips Weekly." The quote reads: "Great managers tune their feedback to the frequency of each teammate. This means getting to know them and their feedback orientation. Feedback works when your signal matches their way of receiving." Footer text: What is Feedback Orientation?
Text reads: "The Brachistochrone Curve: curved paths can beat straight lines. Feedback can work the same way. Directness may feel efficient. But your candor may gain speed if curved to meet the receiver’s need." At the bottom: LinkedIn logo and the words "Feedback Tips Weekly."
Quote from Cameron Conaway: Applying feedback shows growth— but it’s rarely the final step. Without follow-up, you may think you got it right when you didn’t. People who grow the most always test if their change equals progress. From the article "Getting Feedback on Adopted Feedback"
Feedback quote by Cameron Conaway: Great leaders know not to mistake content intake for real growth. Information can fill your head— but feedback sharpens your action. Leaders develop when their ideas and actions are honed by feedback.
Quote about feedback from Cameron Conaway: Today’s careers are rarely linear. They twist, pause, and restart. Wanting to bloom where you are? Try reaching back to go forward. Feedback from past roles may be a torch that lights the way.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: In the AI age, long-term thinking beats out long-term planning. It’s about keeping the goal in sight, but not gripping the map too tight. The future belongs to those who seek feedback to pivot on purpose.
Quote from Cameron Conaway: Early in your career, a beaten path can build your foundation. But as role models light a way, practice the dark horse mindset. At some point, mimicry will meet feedback that lights your way.
Quote from Cameron Conaway: For an entire generation, AI may be the primary feedback provider. Some may stop seeking your input. Or they'll use AI to validate it. The managers who excel will give feedback for impact—not just task.
Quote from Cameron Conaway: They say people don't leave jobs, they leave managers. There's some truth to this. Let's pair it with data: 17% say insufficient feedback is their main reason for leaving.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: The Babble Hypothesis: those who talk more become the leader. Also: those who seek feedback are often seen as not ready to lead. Let's reward growth mindsets over faux knowing, insight over airtime.
Quote from Cameron Conaway: Growth often arises in the spaces between our meetings and work. But we can enhance our receptivity when we know feedback is coming (think scheduled performance review). Study: mindful breathing before can enhance how we grow from feedback.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: If your performance reviews only look back, you’re stuck in the past. The best leaders preview the future— projecting potential before it’s proven. Make the shift: a performance review must include a performance preview.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway The feedback sandwich may feel safe, but it often confuses. Hiding hard truths in praise can dilute both messages. Feedback lands best when given with clarity, not camouflage.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: New teammates may need connection and validation more than correction. Early positive feedback delivers on both at a critical stage. When it’s time for negative feedback, they’re more likely to field it well knowing you see their full picture.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: The org chart is not a dam limiting how feedback can flow. But egos, titles, and role-playing often make this the company norm. Great learning orgs break the idea that hierarchy must filter insight.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: Great feedback givers not only give helpful feedback, they model how to. And when they get feedback on how they give, they model how to receive. Behind strong feedback cultures are leaders who model more than preach.
Feedback quote by Cameron Conaway Innovation isn’t a lightning strike. It’s a fire built from many sparks. Each spark is feedback received, tested, and offered feedback again. Ideas come and go. Those made real are forged in feedback’s fire.
Feedback quote by Cameron Conaway: The moment you get feedback, you also get a choice. You can listen to understand or you can hear to defend. Listening won't hurt your case. It will sharpen your next move.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: Negative feedback can easily echo, while the positive is easy to let go. Negativity bias warps what we let in, and what we let in can shape the journey of who we become. The mind may cling to what stings, but we can rewire this ancient bias.
Feedback quote by Cameron Conaway: A feedback distorter: recency bias. It makes the new feel like the whole. And it can mean we bury weeks of data while centering the latest. Managers: a truer view can emerge if we zoom out before zooming in.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: Build a strong feedback culture, and you are laying the foundation for a strong speak-up culture. Flexing to give & receive feedback builds muscle for ethical dissent. People are more likely to speak up if doing so has become their habit.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: Trauma can alter feedback dynamics in ways that aren't always obvious. Genuine praise may feel manipulative. Gentle critique may feel like an attack. Trauma-informed feedback givers know: 1. Safety looks different for everyone. 2. Trust emerges when safety is honored.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: “I received feedback a decade ago that I’m only now learning to use.” Feedback that feels useless today may hold great value tomorrow. Before discarding it completely, ask: can part of it be composted?
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: Situation. Behavior. Impact. Many feedback givers start and stop with the SBI feedback model. But relationships shape how feedback lands, and reflection helps it take root. Consider trying R–SBI–R: begin with relationship context, end with an invitation for reflection.
Feedback quote by Cameron Conaway: The Pendleton Feedback Model: 1. Ask the receiver what went well. 2. Share what you think went well. 3. Ask what could be improved. 4. Share what you think could be. When givers lead by asking, growth feels more co-created than imposed. The result? It’s more likely to stick.
Feedback quote by Cameron Conaway: The Dunning–Kruger effect can mean: 1. Overconfident managers give feedback on topics they know little about. 2. Underconfident managers don’t give it on topics they know much about. Givers: if confidence alone is your cue, your feedback might mostly be noise.
Feedback quote by Cameron Conaway: Leaders eat last sounds noble, but it can feed distance and a me-them dynamic that divides. Leaders eat with. Because connection builds trust and allows feedback to flow in all directions, not just top down.
Feedback quote: When Apelles painted in ancient Greece, a shoemaker gave helpful feedback on the shoe of a person in a painting. Apelles adopted it, which emboldened the shoemaker to critique the legs. Apelles said: ne supra crepidam (not beyond the shoe). Giving good feedback can feel good. But becoming...
Feedback quote by Cameron Conaway: Narcissists progress to CEO 29% faster than everyone else. As they ascend, they tend to stifle healthy feedback cultures. In cultures of egos and corporate ladders, the most admired leaders are building stools and bridges.
Feedback quote by Cameron Conaway: "My door is always open" is often used to replace the real work of building strong feedback cultures. It also reinforces who holds power and who must approach. Great leaders open doors rather than only announcing they’re behind them.
Feedback quote: Let's retire Don’t take it personally. Feedback happens person to person. It works best when each person knows the other cares about them personally. This phrase is often a projection of our own discomfort with vulnerability. Managers: discomfort with emotion is a cue to turn on your own growth—
Quote about feedback by Cameron Conaway Feedback is a gift can guilt people into accepting something harmful. For some, it echoes abusers who insisted: This is good for you. Feedback is data. What it is beyond that is for the receiver to decide.
Quote about feedback by Cameron Conaway Giving feedback isn’t the final stroke, it’s the start of the sketch. Checking in shows you care about how it landed and where it leads. If feedback is the outline, checking in is the shared effort to add color.
Feedback quote: Narrative fallacy in feedback happens when we turn data into drama. It’s a cognitive illusion where: One late project = “They’re unreliable.” One tense exchange = “They’re difficult.” The best leaders don’t cling to quick labels or false stories. They stay curious and ask: What else might be true?
Feedback quote: Should direct reports be consulted before their manager is promoted? Many managers get 0 feedback training. Companies just hope they’re good at it. They’re promoted for tenure or delivery, not for how they develop their people. Hope alone can promote the unprepared, leaving the team to pay
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: HR loves collecting feedback data. Check-ins. Pulse surveys. Yes, please. But employee insights often sit untouched in systems and dashboards. When there’s no follow-up, asking for more feedback feels performative— and giving can become performative, too.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: Showing up late to 1-1s. Multi-tasking. Looking off camera. A few times? Maybe no big deal. But done routinely, it becomes a mosaic of who matters most. Behind all great feedback cultures are people who show up and make others feel that they matter.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: Feedback is a two-way street is ideal—but it can veil the terrain. Not everyone has the same voice, risk tolerance, skills, or power. Two-way can feel hollow when one lane is filled with potholes.
Cameron Conaway feedback quote: In the AI era, entry-level success won’t hinge on doing routine tasks. It will come from questioning how things are and modeling what could be. The days of passive obedience to hierarchy are fading fast. Those rising are pairing brave upward feedback with real solutions.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: Feeling professionally stuck is normal. But carrying it alone shouldn’t be. That stuck feeling is feedback. And, like all feedback, getting a fresh perspective on it—even from a trusted colleague, which may feel risky—can help you figure out what to do with it.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: Saying they can't handle the truth is often more mask than mic drop. Do we really know the truths someone’s capable of handling? Great leaders don't project their fear of tough feedback conversations, they move bravely into them.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: Our feedback culture is terrible, a manager once shared with me. My response: Rather than fall to the level of your feedback culture, rise to the level of your feedback literacy. Being deep in the mud means you have a chance to be a lotus.
Feedback Quote from Cameron Conaway: The feedback bubble that once fueled your growth may now be stunting it. Some say to keep exploring your edges, but that can be hard: edges quietly dull into comfort zones as we grow. Those always growing find new edges by seeking feedback from new places.
Feedback Quote from Cameron Conaway: Don’t bring me problems, bring me solutions... There is perhaps no faster way to shut down helpful negative feedback than by requiring those who have it to also have the solution.
Feedback Quote from Cameron Conaway: Smile and say thank you teaches submission, not how to receive criticism. This advice is still everywhere. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Great managers help feedback receivers: 1. Listen to understand 2. Handle arising emotions 3. Seek clarity with questions
Feedback Quote from Cameron Conaway: The best managers in my career didn't carry hard problems alone or pretend to have the answers. They bravely moved into the mess, seeking feedback and perspective to get us closer to solutions.
Feedback quote: The worst leaders I’ve worked with projected confidence at all times. When they lacked skills, they filled space with speeches and avoided asking questions. Real confidence isn’t constant. It rises, falls, and often involves the courage to seek feedback or step aside to let others lead.
Feedback Quote from Cameron Conaway: Behind most low-performing teams isn’t open conflict—it’s silence. Silence is often a leading indicator of a weak feedback culture. Managers: don’t wait for feedback. Go get it. Model it. Create safety before the silence costs you growth.
Feedback Quote from Cameron Conaway: Poor performance isn’t always about laziness or lack of skill. It may be due to a lack of feedback. Delayed feedback is often deferred leadership. It can erode growth, morale, and even retention. Feedback delayed may be growth denied.
Feedback Quote from Cameron Conaway: Disengaged employees are often lacking recognition—not criticism. Positive feedback isn’t fluff. And it’s not optional. It’s fuel. Giving it with intention and detail can reignite a smoldering fire.
Feedback quote from Cameron Conaway: They need more experience can be a way to bypass helping someone grow. Great managers go further. They ask: What skills are missing? Then they give specific feedback to help build them.