The Four Quadrants Of Feedback
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~ongoing to results
- Steps
- 7
- Confidence
- —
Clarke uses the psychology model created by Joseph Luft and Harry Ingham to explain why courageous conversations are structurally necessary rather than optional. Each person has four areas: the self you show and tell the world, the blind spots only others can see, the mask you use as a protective shield, and the region unknown to everyone. Because you cannot see your own blind spot by introspection, it can only be closed by soliciting feedback, and the mask can only be lowered by self-disclosure. Her practical claim follows directly: when a leader stops having courageous conversations, silence builds and the team starts wondering what they are not being told, which erodes trust. And if you cannot take feedback, you will not be able to give it either.
Origin
Extracted from Deep Dive with Ali Abdaal
How to run it
- 1
Map what is already open
Start with the quadrant of self you show the world — what you tell people and how they already see you. This is the shared ground the other three quadrants get measured against.
- 2
Go hunting in the blind spot
This area is visible to others and invisible to you, so it can only be reached by soliciting feedback and getting curious. Ask people directly what you do that makes their work harder.
Pro tip Clarke's own example: telling a leader he goes off on two different tangents so the team cannot make plans.
- 3
Lower the mask through self-disclosure
The mask is the protective shield you use to stop people learning about you. It only shrinks through deliberate disclosure and discovery, which is what lets people work with who you actually are.
- 4
Leave room for the unknown
The fourth quadrant is unknown to everyone, including you. Accept that some of it only surfaces through continued curiosity about each other over time rather than through a single exercise.
- 5
Practise receiving before giving
If you get shy about taking feedback you will not be able to give it. Build the receiving muscle first so the giving is consistent rather than occasional and loaded.
- 6
Deliver it without being mean
There is no value in playing nice or people pleasing, but delivery matters. Use a tone that gets the point across without cruelty — the radical candour end of the spectrum, not the brutal one.
- 7
Watch for the silence signal
Treat accumulating silence as a diagnostic. When courageous conversations stop, teams start assuming something is being withheld, and trust and alignment go before anyone says anything out loud.
Watch out Lack of trust in management and an inability to be transparent are, in Clarke's view, behind much of the current breakdown at work.
In the wild
Clarke illustrates the blind-spot quadrant with a direct example aimed at Ali: someone on the team says he does a frustrating thing where he goes off in two different tangents, so nobody knows what he is thinking and they cannot make plans. He cannot see it himself — that is the definition of the quadrant — and the only route to it is people being willing to say it. Once said, it becomes actionable knowledge about how his behaviour is shaping the team's ability to execute.
→ A leadership habit invisible to the leader becomes fixable information.
Clarke describes what happens when a leader avoids the courageous conversation to keep everything looking fine. The team notices the absence rather than the reassurance: they start wondering what they are not being told, silences accumulate, and before long there are people who do not trust the leadership or feel aligned any more — not because of what was said, but because of what was not.
→ Avoided feedback costs more trust than the feedback itself would have.
Common mistakes
Playing nice to keep everyone happy
People pleasing and fitting everything into a nice little box is not kindness. It withholds the only information that lets someone grow and it quietly costs you trust.
Giving feedback you cannot receive
If you go shy when feedback comes your way, your own feedback will land as hypocrisy and you will avoid giving it consistently.
Trying to see your blind spot alone
By definition that quadrant is invisible from the inside. Journalling and reflection cannot reach it; only asking other people can.
From the transcript
“when you think about the psychology model of how we're set up right so joseph fluff and harry ingram created this model and for each…”
“we also have an area that is a mask right which is what we use as a protective shield to not show people about us”
“i think it's definitely the way that you deliver it but when you stop having courageous conversations with people your team starts to wonder what…”
From the episode
How To Design Your Career For Happiness - Samantha Clarke
Samantha Clarke