Most feedback is relative — what you did well, what to do differently. Useful, but it leaves the biggest question unanswered: *am I doing well overall?* Absolute feedback answers it with a number, monthly. > **5** — it couldn't be any better > **4** — exceeding expectations > **3** — meeting expectations > **2** — below expectation, and I am now putting you on a written 30-day improvement plan > **1** — it couldn't be any worse, and I am now letting you go Plus two lines: *what you did that I liked*, and *what you need to do to get to the next level*. ### **What I'm thinking about** 1. **The rationale is anxiety reduction, not evaluation** – "Most people have constant anxiety when they aren't sure where they stand. Giving absolute feedback regularly will eliminate this anxiety. **Bad news is less anxiety-inducing than no news.**" 2. **Consequences are baked into the bottom two numbers** – Which makes the scale look alarming and is deliberate. A 2 is not a warning to be interpreted; it is a stated state with a defined process attached. Nobody has to decode tone. 3. **It abolishes review-season surprise** – If someone hears a number every month, the annual review is a summary of things already said. The most common and most damaging management failure — waiting for a formal review to have the real conversation — becomes structurally impossible. 4. **Most people are a 3, and that has to be said out loud** – Meeting expectations is the modal outcome and not a disappointment. Without that framing, a 3 reads as a failure and the scale becomes inflationary within two cycles. 5. **It only works on a foundation of praise** – Roughly four to eight specific, genuine acknowledgements before the first rating, or it lands as judgment rather than information. See [[Praise Earns the Right to Critique]]. ### **So what?** The commitment is the risk. Publishing a scale with a PIP at 2 and termination at 1, and then not running it monthly, is worse than never introducing it — you have announced consequences and then created ambiguity about whether they are real. The specificity discipline that goes with it: a video camera should be able to record the behaviour you are describing. "Be more proactive" fails that test. "Flag risks in writing before the meeting" passes. Related: [[Praise Earns the Right to Critique]] [[The Five A's of Receiving Feedback]] [[Withholding Feedback Is Self-Fulfilling]] [[The Magic Questions]] [[Executive Operating System MOC]]