Performance Reviews & Calibration
🚧 ExpandingA performance review should never be a surprise. If the rating lands as news, the failure happened months earlier in the 1:1s and feedback that should have set it up. The review itself is just the moment you write down, clearly and in writing, what’s already been said out loud — and calibration is where you defend that assessment against everyone else’s, and adjust for the bias and grade-inflation that creep in across a whole organization.
When this page is filled in, it’ll cover how to write a review that’s specific and evidence-based rather than a vague vibe, how to separate performance from potential, how calibration actually works and how to walk in prepared to advocate for your people, how to spot the common biases (recency, halo, similarity) before they skew a rating, and how to deliver the result so it’s heard. Until then, the Go Deeper links carry the day-one value.
📚 Go Deeper
Books
- Radical Candor — Kim ScottThe growth/performance axes that make a review about trajectory, not just a snapshot rating.
- High Output Management — Andy GroveGrove's chapter on performance reviews — why they're hard, and how to do them honestly rather than comfortably.
Tools
- GitLab Handbook — 360 Feedback & performance reviewsAn open, detailed reference for running reviews and feedback cycles with fairness and structure — the closest thing to a neutral playbook.