The Seasons of Leadership
Good morning, it’s January 19th.
JANUARY. Most performance reviews have a strong recency bias. You remember the successes and failures from the last three months and use that as the foundation for the report card. This is unfair. Your team members have likely forgotten or rebranded their failures, but, more importantly, they are immensely proud of that achievement from nine months ago. That’s my promotion project. And you forgot it.
DO THIS. RIGHT NOW. For each of your direct reports, write down the first three things that come to mind regarding their recent performance. Anything. Don’t worry, no one except you is going to read this. The goal of this simple exercise is to take a snapshot of their performance. Three minutes, no more. (If you don’t have a team, flip it — do this for your boss.)
The last thing you are thinking about in January is performance reviews. That’s a Summer or Fall exercise, but investing a few minutes at the beginning of the year, you’re preparing for conversations you may need to construct in six months. Put your brief notes somewhere safe — we’re going to refer back to them later in the year.
BONUS: If you find something good, discuss it in your next 1:1.
This Week in Rands
This article came out of nowhere. I was standing in line to get on a plane in Dulles when this short piece appeared out of nowhere. As a writer, when you find an article, you know that if you don’t write down at least the bones of the piece, it might vanish forever.
So I grabbed my phone, fired up Bear, and started typing. Worth noting: I despise writing on my phone. Further worth noting: I wrote 30% of this piece standing in a line.
Leadership Links:
- https://leadershipfreak.blog/2026/01/16/the-multiplier-effect/
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Leadership/comments/1qcvk3k/decisions_that_get_made_in_meetings_but_never/
- https://randsinrepose.com/archives/say-the-hard-thing/
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