Estimated reading time: 18 minutes
As performance season rolls around, make sure your feedback to your reports isn’t a surprise.
Performance review season is a time of year when employees are both most anxious and most hopeful. I’ve seen it many times before: misunderstandings, mismatched expectations, and inevitable surprise when managers’ reviews don’t match personal expectations.
Reviews are supposed to clarify growth, not cloud it. Yet far too often they become moments of shock rather than reflection, leaving people to wonder how feedback went unheard all year. Avoiding that trap means cultivating transparency, consistency, and empathy throughout the year to turn performance reviews from moments of anxiety into meaningful conversations for growth.
