Written during the most complicated, revealing, and emotionally loaded time any team leader will face: the Performance review cycle this year.
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A few days ago, I was staring at my performance appraisal dashboard. It seemed to be a standard review cycle, but it was not.
While I was flipping through names, accomplishments, and dashboards, I had an epiphany that this was much more than just numbers. It was about people. It was about fairness. Most importantly, it was about how I choose to lead, particularly when the chips are down.
The cycle was made all the more obvious in light of how a few leaders would still succumb to personal prejudice. Lingering grudges, office politics, or refusing to recognize someone’s development subtly hurt morale and slowly erode trust — the trust we’ve spent years developing.
Hence, I decided not to hurry with rankings. I reflected. I am writing this piece to remind all of us leaders, including me, that true leadership is when it is most difficult to be objective.
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Gold a Winfinity — The Object of Confidence
Let’s be honest. Since all emotions are involved, it is difficult to be objective about the twists and turns of life when they hit you back because it's easy to look at things objectively when you have no emotional baggage with someone. Leadership, however, does not allow for that luxury. You spend any significant amount of time with people, and relationships are bound to become more nuanced, punctuated by peaks in performance, blunders, squabbles, or worse still, uncatalogued tension.
But a mature leader does not drag history into the judgment of the present. Here’s why:
1. Fairness builds credibility. If team members understand they are being judged by implication exclusively on the basis of the fact, then you know they are going to accept feedback, become more engaged in work, and indeed improve[^1][^2].
2. Trust grows when bias shrinks. The most admired leaders treat everyone the same way, with easy and hard discussions alike[^3].
3. Emotions don’t scale. Many studies just share examples of gut feelings, but it is unlikely that they contribute to the stack of product debt.
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Practical Tips on Detaching for Leaders.
- Define expectations early. Don’t wait until review time. Define measurable goals from Day One[^5].
- Use performance data — consistently. Use dashboards, project milestones, uptime metrics, ticket resolves — anything that can be measured[^6].
- Avoid “halo” or “horn” effects. A single incident should not color the whole year of someone.
- Don’t go at it alone. Peer feedback or 360-reviews. Diverse perspectives help dilute bias[^7].
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Overflowing from the Right Side
Objectivity doesn’t mean being cold. It means being fair.
And fairness means also an understanding that even the leaders are human and imperfect.
I have had my fair share of misunderstandings — overlooked contributions, misread intentions, and been too heavy-handed about the wrong things. However, owning those mistakes made me a better leader. That allowed me to connect with the team in even more authentic ways.
Vulnerability is not weakness. It’s leadership maturity[^8].
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A Review Process Innovation (Blockers)
An average annual review can sometimes feel more like a report card than an actual dialogue. Here’s how we can do better:
- Regular check-ins: Don't wait to leave feedback until December[^9].
- 360-degree feedback: All-around review where the information comes from a wide range of different sources decreases our blind spots and impression of bias[^10].
- Developmental reviews: Link feedback to growth, not just rewards or punishments[^11].
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Takeaway: We measure what we value.
We miss the opportunity to grow people when we treat performance reviews as tick-box exercises.
Let’s lead differently. We should take every opportunity to demonstrate how we believe work should be, and that means fair and objective assessment practices — not because it sounds good, but because it achieves something worthwhile.
Because when personal bias is removed from the room, we make it a safe space where people are truly acknowledged and understood, free to become better.
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References
[^1]: Goleman, D. (2013). The Power of Emotional Intelligence. Harvard Business Review Press.
[^2]: Kouzes, J., & Posner, B. (2017). The Leadership Challenge. Wiley.
[^3]: Forbes (2021). Building Trust in Leadership.
[^4]: Drucker, P. (2006). The Effective Executive. Harper Business.
[^5]: Mindtools. Define the goals of your team.
[^6]: Gartner (2021). Making IT Operations Decisions Based on Data.
[^7]: SHRM (2022). Best Practices for 360-Degree Feedback.
[^8]: Brown, B. (2018). Dare to Lead.
[^9]: HBR (2018). The Power of Regular Check-ins.
[^10]: McKinsey (2021). The Future of Performance Management.
[^11]: Forbes (2022). Personal Development Plans — Promote Employee Growth.
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If this resonates with you — as a fellow team leader, manager, or aspiring leader — feel free to share your reflections or comment below. Let’s continue to build better leadership together.
