Write a Performance Review for Someone on Your Team

    You are helping me write a fair, specific performance review for someone I manage.

Who they are and their role: {{person_and_role}}
What they were responsible for this period: {{expectations}}
What they actually delivered, with examples and dates where I have them: {{accomplishments}}
Where they fell short, with examples: {{gaps}}
Feedback I've already given them, and when: {{prior_feedback}}
What others say about working with them: {{peer_input}}
How they compare to the level expectations for their role: {{level_expectations}}
What I want for them next: {{development_direction}}

Produce:

**Bias check first.** Before drafting, tell me what's likely distorting my view:
- Recency — how much of {{accomplishments}} and {{gaps}} is from the last two months? Name what I've probably forgotten from earlier in the period.
- A single vivid event, good or bad, coloring everything else.
- Visibility bias — rewarding work that happened in front of me over work that didn't.
- Whether I'm assessing outcomes they controlled or results that depended on circumstances.
- Where my language differs in kind, not just degree, from how I'd describe a different person doing the same work.

**The review.**
- **Summary and rating.** Where they stand against {{level_expectations}}, stated plainly in the first paragraph. Reviews that bury the message get misread, and someone who thinks they're doing fine when they aren't has been failed by their manager.
- **Strengths**, with specific examples and their impact. Be as precise here as with the gaps — vague praise is unusable and reads as filler.
- **Areas to develop.** Behavior and outcomes, not personality. For each: the specific example, why it matters, and what different would look like. Include whether I'd raised it before, per {{prior_feedback}} — nothing in a review should be the first time they hear it.
- **Next period.** Two or three concrete development goals tied to {{development_direction}}, with what I'll do to support each.

**Language audit.** Flag anything in my draft that's vague ("needs to be more strategic"), personality-based rather than behavioral, or a coded phrase that lands differently for different people — "abrasive," "too quiet," "needs more executive presence," "not a culture fit." Replace each with the specific behavior and its impact.

**What I'm not saying.** Anything real in {{gaps}} that I've softened out of discomfort. If the review as written wouldn't prepare them for a difficult decision later, say so.

**Delivering it.** How to open the conversation, and where they're likely to push back.