Instead of feedback, try feedforward to get better results, even when the message itself is just as tough.
Feedforward instead of feedback is one of the simplest shifts you can make as a leader, and one of the least used. Feedback looks backward — it tells someone what went wrong after it’s already happened. Feedforward looks forward — it tells them what to try differently next time, while there’s still a next time to try it on.
Key Takeaways
If your feedback conversations tend to go sideways, here’s what’s usually happening.
- Feedback points at the past, which is exactly what nobody can do anything about anymore.
- Feedforward points at the next opportunity, which is the one thing a person can actually act on.
- The best feedforward is frequent and specific — a quick correction in the moment beats a big conversation saved up for later.
- This isn’t about avoiding hard truths. It’s about aiming them somewhere useful.
Why Feedback Alone Doesn’t Land the Way We Think It Will
Most feedback is well-intentioned and still doesn’t work, because of where it points. “You didn’t handle that client call well” may be true and specific, but it’s also completely useless in the moment you say it — the call already happened. There’s nothing left to do with that information except feel bad about it.
That’s usually where the defensiveness comes from. It’s not that people can’t handle honesty. It’s that being told what already went wrong, with no path forward attached, doesn’t feel like help. It feels like a verdict.
The Free-Throw Rule
Think about a basketball game for a second. When a player misses a free throw, what do the teammates around them actually do?
They can’t do anything about the shot that already happened. What they can do is help with the next one — a quick word, giving them five, something that helps the player feel safe and supported so they can stay in the game for the next moment, instead of stuck replaying the miss. The best teams don’t dwell on the miss. They immediately turn toward what happens next.
Athletes know what office leaders sometimes forget: good players make mistakes all the time, and it’s how well they move forward that counts. As Roger Federer noted in his Dartmouth commencement address, despite winning nearly 80% of his career matches, he won only 54% of all the points he played. Considered one of the greatest tennis players of all time, he lost almost half the points he played and dealt with constant errors.
Learning to deal well with errors is crucial for anyone who wants to focus on winning. Helping someone shake off a bad moment and look to the next is feedforward instead of feedback in its simplest form. You can’t fix what already happened, but you can absolutely shape what happens next, and that’s where your attention is actually useful.
What Feedforward Actually Sounds Like
Using feedforward instead of feedback is a smaller shift than it sounds — it’s less about new words and more about where you aim the sentence.
Instead of “you didn’t loop finance in early enough,” try “next time, loop finance in before the first client call.” Instead of “that presentation ran long,” try “let’s cut it to three slides before the next one.” Same observation, same honesty — just pointed at what’s next instead of what’s done.
Even if there isn’t a next time, the situation is unique, you can always ask: what did you learn?
I see this shift change entire working relationships with the leaders I coach. One client kept having the same tense exchange with a direct report every review cycle, until she stopped narrating what had gone wrong and started only ever naming what to try next time. The complaints didn’t change. The reaction to them did.
Feedforward Isn’t the Same as Going Easy
None of this means softening what’s true or skipping the hard conversation. It means being precise about where the conversation points. You can be completely direct about a real problem and still frame your one sentence of guidance around the next opportunity instead of the last mistake.
That precision — where you aim what you say, not just what you say — is a big part of what effective communication actually means in practice.
Plan Your 2027 Leadership Move
Review season is when feedback lands hardest, both the feedback you give and the feedback you get. If something in this year’s conversations is sticking with you, let’s spend 45 minutes on it. We’ll talk through what’s changed, sort out what’s really going on and what you can control, and choose one first move for Q1. You’ll get a one-page plan afterward, whether or not we ever work together.
Book your 2027 Leadership Plan call
Limited slots, through December 16.
Keep Learning
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FAQ
Isn’t feedforward just a nicer way of saying feedback?
Not quite — it’s a different target, not just a softer tone. Feedback describes what happened. Feedforward describes what to do next. You can deliver feedforward just as directly as feedback; it just points somewhere a person can actually use.
Does this mean I should never talk about what went wrong?
No. Sometimes you do need to name what happened, especially for a pattern that needs to stop. Even better, help them name it and own it. Then, the conversation should end pointed at what’s next, not just parked on what already happened.
How is this different from just being positive all the time?
It’s not about positivity — it’s about usefulness. Telling someone what they did wrong just leaves them feeling bad about it, without helping them figure out what to do next. It’s not useful information. Feedforward instead of feedback can still be blunt and specific. The difference is that it gives someone something to do with what you’ve told them, instead of just something to feel.
