Two thirds of managers think they give feedback regularly, but only a third of their employees say they receive it. A revealing gap. In Feedback in Action (Ed. Dunod), Raphaël Maisonnier deciphers why empty compliments and clumsy reproaches are not feedback, and how to master this neglected language to unleash potential and build real relationships of trust. Interview.
Why a book on feedback?
Raphaël Maisonnier: Because we talk a lot about feedback in business… without really knowing what it is. It is still confused with compliment, criticism, reproach or evaluation. But real feedback is not just “saying what you think”: it is helping others to progress.
I wrote Feedback in Action, The Secret of High-Performing Teams because the subject has become central. At Fasterclass, we see every day that teams need more clarity, more trust and more useful conversations. And the figures are clear: 91% of employees want more feedback, while 46% say they never or rarely receive it (Source: Fasterclass survey out of 3,612 representative employees, January 2026). There was therefore an urgent need to use method on a subject that is often treated in a vague manner.
What is good feedback, and how does it differ from a compliment or criticism?
Raphaël Maisonnier: Good feedback is specific, concrete and useful. It starts from an observable fact and helps the person understand what they can reproduce, adjust or improve.
My mentor, Stéphane Moriou, often summed up things like this: “a compliment makes you happy, a reproach makes you stressed, and feedback makes you grow”. In short, saying “well done, great job” is nice, but it’s not enough. If I don’t know what I did well, I can’t reproduce it. So that’s a compliment. Conversely, real feedback gives me actionable information. That’s all the difference.
How is feedback a real development lever for the manager and the company?
Raphaël Maisonnier: Because it saves time, quality and commitment. Good feedback aligns expectations, avoids misunderstandings and helps everyone progress faster.
For managers and everyone else, feedback is a way to know yourself better, develop your skills, and improve your performance. All this, at high frequency and for free.
At Fasterclass, our surveys show that 8 out of 10 managers know that feedback improves performance (Source: Fasterclass survey out of 4,101 representative people). Conversely, when it is missing, we waste time guessing priorities, we redo tasks, and we let the vagueness set in. Feedback is therefore not a managerial “plus”: it is a collective performance tool.
Why are we so afraid of feedback, whether giving it or receiving it?
Raphaël Maisonnier: Because the majority of us operate in an environment where psychological safety is not at a sufficiently high level. Feedback can touch the ego, recognition, the need to be respected. As soon as feedback is awkward, vague or unfair, it can be experienced as an attack. So it’s not the feedback that’s scary in itself. It is especially its bad versions: the vague criticism, the judgment, the poorly packaged reproach, which are taken for feedback.
Positive feedback, corrective feedback: what is the difference, and which words should absolutely be avoided?
Raphaël Maisonnier: Each responds to part of the performance equation: Performance = Potential – Interference.
Positive feedback maximizes potential by showing what works so it can be done again. Corrective feedback minimizes interference by showing what could be adjusted to improve. Both are useful. Both make you grow. Together, they are a formidable performance lever.
And there are words to ban almost systematically: “always”, “never”, “everyone”, “no one”. These are words that generalize, accuse and immediately raise defenses. Effective feedback remains sober, factual and situated.
Can you give feedback to your manager? How to go about it without putting yourself in danger?
Raphaël Maisonnier: Yes of course. And in a mature company, this should even be normal. A manager also needs feedback to progress.
But you have to do it methodically: start from a specific fact, choose the right moment, speak with respect, and stay focused on improvement. No accusation. No settling of scores.
The real issue is psychological safety. Today, less than one employee in ten feels very comfortable giving feedback to their manager (Source: Fasterclass survey out of 3,612 representative employees, January 2026). This shows that many companies still have a way to go.
Why is it sometimes harder to receive feedback than to give it?
Raphaël Maisonnier: There are two major reasons for this.
The first is that most people who think they are giving you feedback will actually be criticizing or judging you. It’s not feedback, and it’s hard to take.
The second is because receiving feedback means accepting not to see everything for yourself. Sometimes it’s hearing something that shakes up our image, our intention or our pride.
When we give feedback, we keep control. When we receive it, we temporarily lose control. This is why reception is often more delicate. Hence the importance, in Feedback in actionto not only learn to give feedback, but also to receive it intelligently.
How to react to feedback that you consider unfair or illegitimate?
Raphaël Maisonnier: Real feedback cannot be unfair or illegitimate. By definition, feedback is subjective. It is the perception of the other, following his observation. It is the message that is important, not the messenger. So, the first thing is to avoid the purely defensive reaction. Feedback can be poorly formulated, incomplete… and yet contain something useful.
I often recommend asking yourself a simple question: what can I still learn here? If just 1% of this feedback could help me improve, what would that mean? This allows us not to reject everything altogether.
So, I think the best reaction to (real) feedback that tickles us is simply to say “Thank you for your feedback. I’ll think about it.” Then take the time to digest it to find out what you can get out of it despite everything.
Are there cultural differences, or between women and men, in the way feedback is practiced?
Raphaël Maisonnier: Yes, there are clearly cultural differences. Depending on the country and context, we do not have the same relationship to disagreement, hierarchy, frankness or the preservation of the relationship. Feedback is therefore never completely “neutral” culturally. And at the same time, all cultures can progress. Anglo-Saxons will tend to fall into over-compliment, while in France, we will tend to fall into criticism, for example.
On the differences between women and men, I prefer to remain nuanced. There may be gaps in socialization or perception, but the strongest variable remains, in my opinion, the company culture, the level of trust and the quality of training. The real subject is not only who speaks: it is in what climate the word circulates.
Where do you actually start to install a real culture of feedback in your team?
Raphaël Maisonnier: You have to start small, simple and regular. No need for a big theoretical plan. You need useful, repeated conversations and managers who lead by example.
I often recommend three starting points: train the team in the basics, ritualize short and regular feedback times, and learn to ask for feedback yourself. A culture of feedback is not born from an injunction, but from a habit.
This is actually a real issue today: only 8% of those surveyed say that feedback is very anchored in their company’s culture. So the good news is that there is still a lot of progress possible.
Feedback is not a relational luxury. It is a lever for performance, confidence and collective maturity. The strongest companies are not those that avoid demanding conversations, but those that learn to make them useful.
