Having been on both sides of the table—as employee and manager—I can confidently say that no one looks forward to annual performance reviews.

As an employee, you might find yourself bracing for critiques and rehearsing defenses. Maybe you’re asked to rate your own performance and feel unsure whether to play it humble or confident. And that’s before you even start combing through an entire year’s worth of highs and lows.

Employers are likewise tasked with the time-consuming exercise of digging through months of work for each employee.

But the real issue isn’t just that annual reviews are stressful—it’s that they’re often ineffective. They can leave employees feeling frustrated and disengaged. Meanwhile, organizations continue to waste time on systems that do little to meaningfully improv

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