Feedback is ingrained into everything we do. From a comment on a shared document to a performance review, we are constantly sending and receiving signals about how we’re doing and what we can improve on. Good feedback builds trust, accelerates growth, and makes teams better. Bad feedback, on the other hand, can erode confidence, create resentment, and quietly poison the culture it was meant to improve. The difference between the two is rarely about intention.

The go-to response to unhappy employees has become the well-being session: workshops, therapy check-ins, mindfulness programmes. The intention is good. But are we solving the right problem?

Leadership and management are not the same thing, and confusing the two is costing teams their performance, synergy, and potential. This is not textbook theory; it is the foundation of building teams that actually work. Understanding the distinction and knowing when to draw on each is what separates organizations that merely function from those that thrive.