49 best quotes on feedback (2024)

49 Best Quotes on Feedback

Great feedback is a critical element of best-practice performance management. This week, I’m sharing some of my favourite quotes on feedback – from Winston Churchill to Elon Musk, there’s some powerful thinking here on the how and why of giving better feedback.

At Cognology, as we design our product suite that allows hundreds of thousands of employees to give and receive feedback more effectively, these quotes inspire me every day.

They’re also great to read before giving feedback to your team (you’ll always find some advice appropriate to the situation you’re facing).

Have you got a favourite quote on feedback that I’ve missed? Let me know in the comments below – I’ll make sure it’s included.

49 quotes on the power of feedback

1. “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”
– Bill Gates

2. “Criticism, like rain, should be gentle enough to nourish a man’s growth without destroying his roots.”
– Frank A. Clark

3. “Feedback is the breakfast of champions.”
– Ken Blanchard

4. “Feedback is a gift. Ideas are the currency of our next success. Let
people see you value both feedback and ideas.”
– Jim Trinka and Les Wallace

5. “Mistakes should be examined, learned from, and discarded; not dwelled upon and stored.”
– Tim Fargo

6. “What is the shortest word in the English language that contains the letters: abcdef? Answer: feedback. Don’t forget that feedback is one of the essential elements of good communication.”
– Anonymous

7. “There is no failure. Only feedback.”
– Robert Allen

8. “Make feedback normal. Not a performance review.”
– Ed Batista

9. “No matter how good you think you are as a leader, my goodness, the people around you will have all kinds of ideas for how you can get better. So for me, the most fundamental thing about leadership is to have the humility to continue to get feedback and to try to get better – because your job is to try to help everybody else get better.”
– Jim Yong Kim

10. “True intuitive expertise is learned from prolonged experience with good feedback on mistakes.”
– Daniel Kahneman

11. “I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.”
– Elon Musk

12. “The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.”
– George Bernard Shaw

13. “Examine what is said and not who speaks.”
– African proverb

14. “Employees who report receiving recognition and praise within the last seven days show increased productivity, get higher scores from customers, and have better safety records. They’re just more engaged at work.”
– Tom Rath

15. “There are two things people want more than sex and money… recognition and praise.”
– Mary Kay Ash

16. “Criticism may not be agreeable, but it is necessary. It fulfils the same function as pain in the human body. It calls attention to an unhealthy state of things.”
– Winston Churchill

17. “To avoid criticism, do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.”
– Elbert Hubbard

18. “Words are singularly the most powerful force available to humanity. We can choose to use this force constructively with words of encouragement, or destructively using words of despair. Words have energy and power with the ability to help, to heal, to hinder, to hurt, to harm, to humiliate and to humble.”
– Yehuda Berg

19. “To effectively communicate, we must realize that we are all different in the way we perceive the world and use this understanding as a guide to our communication with others.”
– Tony Robbins

20. “Communication – the human connection – is the key to personal and career success.”
– Paul J. Meyer

21. “Whatever words we utter should be chosen with care for people will hear them and be influenced by them for good or ill.”
– Buddha

22. “Take advantage of every opportunity to practice your communication skills so that when important occasions arise, you will have the gift, the style, the sharpness, the clarity, and the emotions to affect other people.”
– Jim Rohn

23. “If you have an important point to make, don’t try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time – a tremendous whack.”
– Winston Churchill

24. “The two words ‘information’ and ‘communication’ are often used interchangeably, but they signify quite different things. Information is giving out; communication is getting through.”
– Sydney J. Harris

25. “Communication is a skill that you can learn. It’s like riding a bicycle or typing. If you’re willing to work at it, you can rapidly improve the quality of every part of your life.”
– Brian Tracy

26. “I’m a great believer that any tool that enhances communication has profound effects in terms of how people can learn from each other, and how they can achieve the kind of freedoms that they’re interested in.”
– Bill Gates

27. “Why did God give me two ears and one mouth? So that I will hear more and talk less.”
– Leo Rosten

28. “Listening, not imitation, may be the sincerest form of flattery.”
– Joyce Brothers

29. “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”
– John Quincy Adams

30. “Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man’s life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self.”
– B. R. Ambedkar

31. “All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual.”
– Albert Einstein

32. “Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one’s potential.”
– Bruce Lee

33. “The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.”
– Harvey S. Firestone

34. “Constant development is the law of life, and a man who always tries to maintain his dogmas in order to appear consistent drives himself into a false position.”
– Mahatma Gandhi

35. “Strive for continuous improvement, instead of perfection.”
– Kim Collins

36. “Excellent firms don’t believe in excellence – only in constant improvement and constant change.”
– Tom Peters

37. “Never be afraid to fail. Failure is only a stepping stone to improvement. Never be overconfident because that will block your improvement.”
– Tony Jaa

38. “He who busies himself with things other than improvement of his own self becomes perplexed in darkness and entangled in ruin. His evil spirits immerse him deep in vices and make his bad actions seem handsome.”
– Ali ibn Abi Talib

39. “The improvement of understanding is for two ends: first, our own increase of knowledge; secondly, to enable us to deliver that knowledge to others.”
– John Locke

40. “There is always space for improvement, no matter how long you’ve been in the business.”
– Oscar De La Hoya

41. “Improvement begins with I.”
– Arnold H. Glasow

42. “The pursuit of perfection often impedes improvement.”
– George Will

43. “To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe.”
– Marilyn vos Savant

44. “If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it.”
– Margaret Fuller

45. “It is beyond a doubt that all our knowledge begins with experience.”
– Immanuel Kant

46. “Knowledge rests not upon truth alone, but upon error also.”
– Carl Jung

47. “To become more effective and fulfilled at work, people need a keen understanding of their impact on others and the extent to which they’re achieving their goals in their working relationships. Direct feedback is the most efficient way for them to gather this information and learn from it.”
– Ed Batista

48. “In a growth mindset, challenges are exciting rather than threatening. So rather than thinking, oh, I’m going to reveal my weaknesses, you say, wow, here’s a chance to grow.”
– Carol Dweck

49. “We can’t just sit back and wait for feedback to be offered, particularly when we’re in a leadership role. If we want feedback to take root in the culture, we need to explicitly ask for it.”
– Ed Batista

Recommended articles on feedback

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360 Degree Feedback System

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Image Credits:

Bill Gates World Economic Forum Annual Meeting New York 2012 CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Elon Musk – The Summit 2013 By Heisenberg Media (Flickr: Elon Musk – The Summit 2013) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Tony Robbins The Twitter Conference – Tony Robbins by Brian Solis, on Flickr
Bruce Lee By Johnson LauCC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

49 best quotes on feedback (2024)

FAQs

How do you write positive feedback? ›

Positive feedback is a meaningful and effective method to ensure your employees feel valued.
...
FAQs:
  1. Be specific and include examples.
  2. Provide the feedback on a timely manner.
  3. Highlight your employees' effort (what they did).
  4. Give direct feedback.
  5. Provide regular feedback.

Why is feedback so important? ›

Feedback is a tool that can help people evaluate themselves and their work and also how others perceive them. While employees and students need to receive feedback, it's also essential for leaders who believe in growth to ask for an evaluation, to give an example, and be an inspiration for them.

Do your best performance quotes? ›

Inspirational Performance Quotes
  • "You are capable of more than you know,... Prepare to be alone at times, and to endure failure. ...
  • “It is better to aim high and miss than to aim low and hit.” ― Les Brown.
  • “When the action becomes frequent than the words, success becomes heavier than the dreams. ...
  • “Jump high brother!!

How do you say thank you for feedback? ›

“Thank You for Your Feedback” Quick Response Examples
  1. Thank you for reaching out and providing us with valuable feedback. ...
  2. We appreciate you sending us your feedback. ...
  3. We're so happy to hear from you! ...
  4. It is our pleasure to hear your valuable feedback. ...
  5. We love hearing from you! ...
  6. Thank you for your valuable feedback.

Why feedback is a gift? ›

Feedback is the gift that should help someone to: do things differently; change a habit or two; become more self-aware; or understand what they may need to change in order to be more successful.

What is positive feedback example? ›

Some examples of positive feedback are contractions in child birth and the ripening of fruit; negative feedback examples include the regulation of blood glucose levels and osmoregulation.

How do you give feedback examples? ›

Examples of reinforcing employee feedback
  1. “Something I really appreciate about you is....” ...
  2. “I think you did a great job when you… ...
  3. “I would love to see you do more of X as it relates to Y” ...
  4. “I really think you have a superpower around X” ...
  5. “One of the things I admire about you is…”

What can I do better feedback? ›

Here are 11 ways to give better feedback at work:
  • Reframe your understanding of feedback.
  • Ask before you deliver.
  • Prepare for the conversation.
  • Come with context.
  • Discuss just a few points.
  • Assume the best.
  • Don't harp on the past.
  • Give positive feedback, and more often.
19 Aug 2019

What is the value of feedback? ›

The value of feedback

Positive feedback increases productivity, corporate culture, brand strength and overall retention, with employees reporting feelings of loyalty to their organisation and satisfaction in their work.

What is effective feedback? ›

Effective Feedback is Goal-Oriented

At its core, feedback isn't just about advice, praise, or evaluation. "Effective feedback requires that a person has a goal, takes action to achieve the goal, and receives goal-related information about his or her actions." explains author Grant Wiggin.

What does good feedback look like? ›

Good feedback is fair, honest and clear. The feedback wording, the mark and the aspects of the work the feedback refers to, need to be aligned or consistent.

Do work success quotes? ›

40 Motivational Quotes For Work Productivity and Success
  • “Focus on being productive instead of busy.” ...
  • “Do the hard jobs first. ...
  • “Productivity is being able to do things that you were never able to do before.” ...
  • “It's not always that we need to do more but rather that we need to focus on less.”
10 May 2019

How do you reply to feedback? ›

How to Respond to Positive Reviews
  1. Thank the Reviewer. The reviewer just said something nice about your company—it would be poor manners if you didn't thank them! ...
  2. Respond Quickly To Positive Reviews. ...
  3. Keep It Short. ...
  4. Be Authentic and Personal. ...
  5. Invite Them To Take Action. ...
  6. Share The Positive Review.
4 Jul 2022

How do you respond to feedback? ›

How to respond to feedback
  1. Listen. When somebody is giving you feedback, it's important to listen carefully to what they're saying. ...
  2. Wait to react. ...
  3. Ask for more information. ...
  4. Request time. ...
  5. Create an action plan that starts with visible change. ...
  6. Find an honest confidant. ...
  7. Follow up in the long term.
15 Mar 2021

How do you respond to good feedback at work? ›

Some ways you can word your thank you are:
  1. Thank you for noticing, it really makes me happy to hear!
  2. Thanks for noticing, I put a lot of time and effort into that project.
  3. Thanks for taking the time to let me know you feel this way!
  4. Thank you for the positive feedback! It means a lot to know you've noticed me.
7 Oct 2021

Who said feedback is a gift quote? ›

That's why Warren Buffet encourages us to think about feedback as a gift that you welcome with open arms any time someone is willing to offer it. The more you open yourself up to collecting feedback, the more valuable data you can collect as well.

What are the different types of feedback? ›

Types of feedback
  • Informal feedback. Informal feedback can occur at any times as it is something that emerges spontaneously in the moment or during action. ...
  • Formal feedback. ...
  • Formative feedback. ...
  • Summative feedback. ...
  • Student peer feedback. ...
  • Student self feedback. ...
  • Constructive feedback. ...
  • Resources, strategies or assistance.
27 Apr 2022

How do you receive feedback? ›

Receiving feedback effectively
  1. Listen to the feedback given. This means not interrupting. ...
  2. Be aware of your responses. Your body language and tone of voice often speak louder than words. ...
  3. Be open. ...
  4. Understand the message. ...
  5. Reflect and decide what to do. ...
  6. Follow up.

What is a personal feedback? ›

Even when we don't intend for our words to be personal, they are. Feedback is our way of describing how the other person shows up in our world. Even when we use factual data in our feedback we strike the emotional chords of the other person. Our words have emotional weight.

What is another word for positive feedback? ›

What is another word for positive feedback?
praiseapproval
acclaimacclamation
commendationlaudation
complimentkudos
recognitioncongratulations
171 more rows

How do you give feedback to performance? ›

How to give useful performance feedback
  1. Keep up-to-date information about each employee's position. ...
  2. Make regular notes of employee performance. ...
  3. Solicit information from other managers. ...
  4. Get to the point. ...
  5. Note opportunities for improvement. ...
  6. Use clear, actionable language. ...
  7. Solicit a dialogue. ...
  8. Ask the right questions.

What is constructive feedback? ›

Constructive feedback is the type of feedback aimed at achieving a positive outcome by providing someone with comments, advice, or suggestions that are useful for their work or their future. The outcome can be faster processes, improving behaviors, identifying weaknesses, or providing new perspectives.

How do you write a feedback report? ›

How to Write a Feedback Report
  1. Divide the Feedback Report into Sections. ...
  2. List and Describe the Competencies Being Measured. ...
  3. Discuss Employee Competencies and Behaviors. ...
  4. Make Preliminary Recommendations and Suggestions. ...
  5. Summarize the Data and Compare to the Group.
29 Apr 2019

What is a feedback model? ›

Feedback models are tools that offer specific, concise, and clear feedback so that an organization can make useful changes accordingly. Why are they so much in demand? Well, the answer is straightforward as it helps to know about the specific areas where one needs to improve performances.

How do you give feedback when everything is good? ›

Next time you find yourself in a position to provide feedback, follow these rules.
  1. Think big picture. Rather than providing feedback that centers on a single task or project, try to identify more general behavior trends. ...
  2. Be specific. ...
  3. Don't focus on just the good or the bad. ...
  4. Acknowledge improvement. ...
  5. Use empathy.
19 Apr 2018

How do you give feedback examples? ›

Examples of reinforcing employee feedback
  1. “Something I really appreciate about you is....” ...
  2. “I think you did a great job when you… ...
  3. “I would love to see you do more of X as it relates to Y” ...
  4. “I really think you have a superpower around X” ...
  5. “One of the things I admire about you is…”

Which of these are examples of positive feedback? ›

The correct answer is OPTION A: Excellent, your work has improved. In a feedback loop, positive feedback occurs when the effects of action lead to more of the same action.

What is an example of positive feedback loop? ›

Examples of processes that utilise positive feedback loops include: Childbirth – stretching of uterine walls cause contractions that further stretch the walls (this continues until birthing occurs) Lactation – the child feeding stimulates milk production which causes further feeding (continues until baby stops feeding)

What are some examples of positive feedback for customer service? ›

Thank you so much for helping out with my customers while I've been away. It's such a good feeling to know that we can take time out when needed and the team are here to not just support our customers but support each other too. “

What is a personal feedback? ›

Even when we don't intend for our words to be personal, they are. Feedback is our way of describing how the other person shows up in our world. Even when we use factual data in our feedback we strike the emotional chords of the other person. Our words have emotional weight.

What can I do better feedback? ›

Here are 11 ways to give better feedback at work:
  • Reframe your understanding of feedback.
  • Ask before you deliver.
  • Prepare for the conversation.
  • Come with context.
  • Discuss just a few points.
  • Assume the best.
  • Don't harp on the past.
  • Give positive feedback, and more often.
19 Aug 2019

What is formal feedback? ›

Formal feedback is planned and systematically scheduled into the process. Usually associated with assessment tasks, formal feedback includes the likes of marking criteria, competencies or achievement of standards, and is recorded for both the student and organisation as evidence.

What should I write in feedback? ›

Giving Great Feedback: What to Write in Employee Feedback
  1. Be specific when describing the situation. When giving employee feedback, it's important to explain the situation you're addressing. ...
  2. Explicitly describe the behavior. ...
  3. Consider your "I" and "you" statements. ...
  4. Offer suggestions for improvement.
15 Jun 2021

What does good feedback look like? ›

Good feedback is fair, honest and clear. The feedback wording, the mark and the aspects of the work the feedback refers to, need to be aligned or consistent.

How do you respond to positive feedback? ›

How to Respond to Positive Reviews
  1. Thank the Reviewer. The reviewer just said something nice about your company—it would be poor manners if you didn't thank them! ...
  2. Respond Quickly To Positive Reviews. ...
  3. Keep It Short. ...
  4. Be Authentic and Personal. ...
  5. Invite Them To Take Action. ...
  6. Share The Positive Review.
4 Jul 2022

What is another word for positive feedback? ›

What is another word for positive feedback?
praiseapproval
acclaimacclamation
commendationlaudation
complimentkudos
recognitioncongratulations
171 more rows

What is positive feedback in communication? ›

What is positive feedback? Positive feedback is communication that recognizes another's strengths, achievements or successes.

How do I give feedback to a friend? ›

Here is the simple, five-step way to provide difficult feedback:
  1. Start by telling someone what you like. ...
  2. Pause and reflect on your own intentions for providing feedback. ...
  3. Say what someone could have done differently. ...
  4. Explain in detail what you'd like the person to do in the future.
9 Jan 2017

How do you respond to a 5 star review? ›

Generic 5-star positive review response examples

Thanks for sharing your rating with us and the community.” “Many thanks for the 5-star rating. If there's anything we can do to improve our offering, please let us know!” “Thanks so much for taking the time to leave us a 5-star rating – it's much appreciated!”

How do you write a feedback report? ›

How to Write a Feedback Report
  1. Divide the Feedback Report into Sections. ...
  2. List and Describe the Competencies Being Measured. ...
  3. Discuss Employee Competencies and Behaviors. ...
  4. Make Preliminary Recommendations and Suggestions. ...
  5. Summarize the Data and Compare to the Group.
29 Apr 2019

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