My take on soliciting anonymous feedback
If you’ve ever heard me speak about feedback, you know I’m not a huge fan of asking people to give it anonymously. However, I do think there’s a time and place where anonymous feedback does make sense.
At the beginning of my leadership journey, in the early days of Student Maid, anonymous surveys were hugely valuable. I was a new leader who didn’t know much about feedback, but all the books I read told me that it was really important to ask for feedback from my team. Because I didn’t really know how to do that face-to-face—and also because I was a little scared to initiate that kind of conversation—I would send surveys to our team members where they could anonymously give feedback about our company, our culture, and me as their leader.
People had so much to say. They shared ideas to make our services better (I will never forget the person who had the idea to create toilet paper origami in every bathroom, which later became a Student Maid signature), ideas to improve our culture (our incentivized pay structure was born from feedback in those early surveys), and of course, they shared plenty of feedback about my leadership (someone once said I walked by a piece of trash without picking it up, and I haven’t forgotten it. It taught me that when you are a leader, every move matters, and it’s so important to be the example).
Of course, there were always comments that hurt my feelings. And while I definitely got extremely valuable feedback, there was also a part that was frustrating: I didn’t know who said what, so if someone was upset about something, I couldn't have a follow-up conversation with that person and learn more about their perspective.
One day, I had an idea: I would add a part two to our anonymous feedback process. After the survey results were in, I’d call a team meeting to share a high-level overview of the themes that came up in the surveys. Then, we would discuss them as a team so that I could learn more.
This follow-up discussion was a game changer. It was as if me acknowledging the feedback first gave the team permission to speak up and build upon it. One person would raise their hand, and then, next thing I knew, multiple hands were up. We got to unpack the feedback together, I got to ask questions, and naturally, more themes would be revealed. I noticed an increase in people giving me feedback after these follow-up discussions; they weren't waiting for the survey anymore.
Quite honestly, if it weren’t for those anonymous surveys in the early days, we would have never grown into the company we are, and I would have never grown into the leader I am. But there came a point when soliciting anonymous feedback didn't make sense for us anymore. In fact, continuing to do them would have been detrimental to our culture and our trust.
The shift happened when we started to get better at face-to-face feedback. We started teaching our people how to give feedback during our onboarding process, and as a leadership team, we committed to using those same feedback methods. As a company, we committed to face-to-face feedback (whether in person or on video) instead of sharing it over email or text in order to create an environment of intention and trust. And we also encouraged the 24-hour guideline: When you feel something, give your feedback within 24 hours. The result was we all knew where we stood with one another, and we didn’t let issues build up.
Once our culture became a place of open feedback and sharing, anonymous feedback felt in conflict with the environment of candor that we wanted to have, but we couldn’t quite let it go—which got awkward. I remember one time we got some important feedback in an anonymous review, and as a leadership team, we wanted to address it. We tried to guess who might have shared it, and when I reached out to that person, I said: “I believe that you’re the one who said this in your survey”—and they said it wasn’t them. How embarrassing! On top of that, we couldn’t even address the problem.
At that point, it felt like anonymous surveys were allowing people to hide behind a screen instead of leaning into courageous conversations that would ultimately build the most trust. And in some cases, anonymous feedback could even break the trust we’d started to build.
I’ve seen it happen with many teams I work with: Soliciting anonymous feedback is common in 360 reviews. In these reviews, a person will receive feedback from their colleagues about what they’re doing well and what they could be doing better, but they have no idea who said what. What often happens in these surveys is that people share critical feedback that they haven’t brought up before, and that can be hurtful. Imagine it: You work with these people every day. They’ve had many opportunities to share this feedback with you personally, and yet they chose to do it through this anonymous survey. So now, instead of thinking about the feedback itself and growing from it, you’re wondering who had the courage to write this to you but not to say it to your face. You also may question what else they aren’t saying. And because you don’t know who said what, you can’t have a follow-up conversation to learn more about the feedback and the giver’s perspective. As a result, the survey that was intended to be helpful has you feeling defeated, and it leads to a dip in trust.
Today in our company, we do all of our feedback face-to-face, including 360 reviews. It’s uncomfortable and powerful. It’s allowed us to create a culture where we address feedback as we have it because we don’t want to wait to share it at the review and cause anyone to feel caught off-guard.
So where’s the line with anonymous feedback? How do we know when soliciting it is a good thing, and how do we know when it could hurt more than it helps?
I would sum it up like this: If you’re an organization with no psychological safety or a team with low trust, an anonymous survey could be a valuable entry point to strengthening your team and culture. If you don’t have any kind of feedback culture whatsoever, I think anonymous surveys are a great first step. BUT. But, but, but: Only if they are coupled with a candid conversation about the results.
For example, you could use the surveys to gather feedback about something very specific: a question about your culture, for example, or a question about your performance as a leader. Then, bring everyone together to show them the results—good, bad, and ugly—and talk about them as a group. Or, you could prepare a summary of the group’s feedback and meet with each person individually and use it as a chance to seek additional feedback one-on-one. Approaching it this way could help that person feel safer to express their feedback, especially if they see that other people feel the same way as they do. No matter how you approach it, the key is the followup conversation. The conversation is what helps a team build trust and creates a foundation for psychological safety.
And, once you have that trust and psychological safety, move from anonymous to courageous conversations. While anonymous feedback has its place, it will never build relationships or trust like open discussions will. I know it’s easier said than done—it took our team years to get to where we are now—and it’s still uncomfortable.
What’s your take on anonymous surveys? How have they helped or hurt you? Tell me all about it in the comments!
Big hugs,
