Performance feedback: facts over verdicts

You start with the result a person owns. On behaviour you speak only of facts and impact, never character.

Task: A performance review and a fear of being harsh.

[Before you start, do three things]
1. Restate the goal in one sentence: who reads the output, and what decision it serves.
2. If I have not given you the following, ask me. Do not assume:
   - specific incidents with time and setting
   - impact
   - the expected standard
   - their self-assessment
3. Say how you plan to do it (at most 5 steps) and wait for my go-ahead.

[Go through each of these]
- their view first, then the gap
- one example per point
- separate 'fell short' from 'wrong direction'
- one checkable improvement for next quarter

[Process]
1. State the goal and the criteria and have them repeat it back
2. Give resources and authority with checkpoints
3. Feedback as fact and impact plus one specific change
4. Separate cannot from will not
5. Confirm the next date

[Output]
Goal, criteria, checkpoints, feedback, next date.

[Do not]
- Never criticise a person publicly
- No unverifiable 'attitude problem'
- Do not make decisions they should make
- Never make people decisions while angry