feedback

I have a love/hate relationship with feedback. I really love to encourage honest feedback, but on the other hand hate how emotionally hard it can be to accept critique sometimes.
We just completed a survey of our church and some of the feedback is positive and some negative.
The thing I often think about is how do we create a community where feedback is encouraged and where we are willing to accept the pain because we know in the longterm an honest community is really the only one being part of.
Your thoughts about what helps create such a community would be appreciated.
Some of my initial thoughts follow, let me know what you think!
- Leaders have to model receiving negative feedback without getting defensive.
- Honest and useful feedback requires a community of trust and care. This can only happen if we take the time to build relationships where there is mutual respect and love.
- Doing something in response to feedback is vital to show that we don't just fob off criticism.
- For there to be good critique, there also needs to be a lot of honest positive feedback.
- Never give positive feedback that is not honest. (I personally have a rule that I will never fudge feedback. If I can't be honest I won't say anything. This way people know that any feedback I do give is what I really believe.)
- As a leader what I do and say sets the standards which others follow. So if the culture is not healthy it could be because I am an unhealthy example.