Why Your Employees Aren't Using Your Feedback: Culture Is the Missing Link

Organizations invest countless hours refining their feedback processes, all with the goal of driving better performance and results. Yet what's often overlooked is that feedback isn't a standalone practice-it's a natural extension of how your company functions. It can't be viewed in isolation from the rest of your organizational ecosystem.

One thing is certain: there's an expectation that feedback will drive change. And equally certain is the fact that change often doesn't happen. But when employees don't act on your feedback, the sandwich method isn't to blame. What matters far more is what you're serving up with your feedback, when you deliver it, how often you provide it, and how much trust employees have in you. Above all, it depends on your company's culture.

Culture of Genius vs. Culture of Growth

It’s impossible to talk about company culture in uniform terms - cultures come in all shapes and sizes. However, there’s one critical dimension that makes all the difference: whether your culture embodies a growth mindset or a fixed mindset.

In a growth mindset, people believe that abilities can be developed over time. In a fixed mindset, abilities are seen as static and unchangeable.

While growth and fixed mindsets typically refer to individual beliefs, when applied to organizational culture, they show up as the “Culture of Genius” and the “Culture of Growth.”

Researcher Mary Murphy, who defined these concepts, found that these two types of cultures significantly impact both company development and employee motivation.

A Culture of Genius values exceptionalism as an inherent trait-either you have it or you don’t. On the other hand, a Culture of Growth operates on the belief that everyone can develop their abilities with the right support and focused effort.

Which Culture Drives Individual Development?

You guessed it - the Culture of Growth.

While a Culture of Genius fosters constant proving and pressure to maintain status (because you either are or you aren’t, so you must constantly prove you are), this breeds competitiveness among employees and a strong fear of failure due to the need for perpetual validation.

In contrast, a culture focused on growth creates far less competitive dynamics. Employees are more willing to try, experiment, and fail because mistakes and experiments are seen as essential to development.

Research shows that a growth mindset positively influences how people see themselves (believing in their potential for growth), how they view their managers (better recognizing employee progress), motivation and engagement, work performance, and even psychological safety - they’re confident that one mistake doesn’t define a person.

Equally important, depending on which culture you’re in, this affects other aspects of work:

Ethics - In a growth culture, mistakes are reported more easily
Hiring decisions - A growth culture doesn’t hire the expert in one field, but rather the person who has demonstrated capacity for change
Development limits - These aren’t predetermined; everyone gets an equal chance to grow, regardless of where they started

That said, it’s important to note that it’s rare to find a culture that’s purely growth-oriented or purely genius-oriented. Mary Murphy points out that cultures more often fall somewhere between these two poles, striving toward one direction and cultivating it through various company practices.

Feedback in a “Culture of Growth”

Why does organizational culture matter, and how does it impact feedback? Feedback is one of the primary ways culture reveals its mindset - it’s where you see what the company truly values.

For example, in a Culture of Genius, feedback often takes a “harsh proven performance” approach. This approach signals that you’re only as good as your last result, which inevitably creates a sense of threat and discomfort during evaluations. In other words, feedback here directly speaks to whether the employee is capable or not, pushing them to constantly prove themselves again and again, while actual development suffers as employees live in constant fear of mistakes and personal failure.

How Is This Solved in a Culture of Growth?

1. What We Pay Attention To

In a growth culture, attention isn’t just on results - it’s on the process itself. Mistakes, attempts, risk-taking, and of course, progress are all celebrated. This focus is backed by neuroscience, which shows we need to make mistakes 15% of the time to maximize success.

The learning process and dealing with errors become part of the result and what’s valued, because we’re actually valuing the development of someone’s abilities and their capacity to handle challenges.

2. General vs. Specific

Since feedback should serve development, it needs to be clear and specific. Here, we’re not leaders expecting employees to figure things out on their own - we take an active role in their development through feedback.

3. How We Praise

Praise is often unjustly sidelined as useless, and sometimes dismissed as a false intro to the sandwich method. However, this only happens when praise is too general. Therefore, the focus in a growth culture is making praise specific, helping the person understand exactly what they did well so they can identify and repeat success.

4. Frequency of Feedback

Feedback should serve development and support, which is only possible in companies where feedback isn’t just part of a six-month evaluation but a regular, expected practice. Research shows that frequent feedback creates a sense of security and trust.

Between Two Cultures

As mentioned when introducing these cultures, belonging to a “Culture of Genius” or “Culture of Growth” isn’t binary, and our feedback advice doesn’t work in a vacuum.

That’s why it’s important to honestly and realistically assess the culture we work in and ask ourselves: What do we do with talents versus “average” team members? Noticing talent is inevitable and important, but our approach to them can differ significantly.

How do we distribute tasks? Do most key and challenging tasks end up with our talent because it feels safer? Do we expect talent not to make mistakes because they’re “talented”?

Do we encourage everyone’s development, or is it reserved for select individuals?

In other words, it’s important to see how much we place the weight of success on the individual versus on the system that should build everyone up.

Only when we examine all of this do we arrive at feedback and its potential for building and development.

Let’s not forget that our approach and actions within the company give feedback its foundation - not the other way around.

That’s why it’s vital to cultivate awareness of our own culture, what we’re doing and where we’re going. Ultimately, feedback remains the critical link through which we transmit and maintain company culture.