Performance Review Season: What It Reveals About You as a Leader
Performance review season is more than just a box to check - it is a high-stakes signal of your leadership. While it often feels like one more thing on an already full plate, the way you show up in these conversations determines whether your team sees you as an obstacle or an ally. The most effective leaders understand that these reviews aren't just about output; they are the primary engine for building the deep trust required for high-stakes results. One conversation won’t build that trust, but it can certainly damage it. Discover how to move beyond the paperwork and use this season to prove to your team that you see their potential, their constraints, and their future.
Performance Review Season: What High Performers Get Wrong Without Realizing It
To say it plainly: the performance review process is flawed. Even with strong processes, bias - explicit and unconscious - shapes who gets seen, who gets credit, and who advances. Adam Grant's findings in Hidden Potential show that for many people, particularly women and people of color, the bar for what counts as "ready" is applied unevenly. What I'm not going to do is pretend those realities don't exist or suggest that the right self-assessment template will overcome them. What this will do is look honestly at where - within an imperfect process - you may have more agency than you currently feel. Not because the system is fair, but because leaving your own power on the table doesn't serve you while you're navigating it. Here's where I often see capable, high-performing people undercutting themselves without realizing it.
Out: Resolutions. In: Compass Word.
Are you ending the year depleted or grounded? After years of coaching high-achieving leaders, I’ve noticed a definitive pattern: those who feel exhausted are often trapped in a "performance-based" identity, chasing standards they never set for themselves. The ones who move with clarity have made a different shift - moving away from the pressure of resolutions and toward the power of a Compass Word. Unlike a goal that sits on a to-do list, a Compass Word serves as a steady reference point for when the noise gets loud and decisions get complicated. Learn how to stop letting the year happen to you and start living from a place of purpose.
My Favorite Hack for Driven Minds
If you’re like most driven leaders, you’ve probably been told that meditation would benefit you. But if you’re anything like me, you might have studied the practice extensively without ever feeling like you were truly "meditating" - even though experts insist that "doing" isn't the point. For a long time, meditation felt like an abstract battle against my own thoughts. That all changed when I discovered meditative calligraphy.