Episode 260 Judging Performance
Wed Feb 04 2026
This week on The People Centric Podcast, we talk about judging performance and why most of us are not very good at it. Not because we are careless, but because we often forget what we should actually be judging.
We explore how performance conversations get off track when we do not look at job expectations, agreed upon goals, or real metrics. Instead, we rely on assumptions, opinions, or what we personally think someone should be doing. That leads to frustration, unfair judgments, and broken trust.
We discuss this not just from a manager perspective, but also how coworkers judge each other’s work and how employees judge their managers. Performance judgments happen at every level, whether we admit it or not.
From the employee perspective, we talk about clarity and advocating for fair expectations. From the manager perspective, we focus on evaluating work based on agreed standards instead of gut feelings. And from the executive perspective, we discuss how unclear roles and measures create misalignment across teams.
Better performance conversations start with shared understanding, not assumptions.
Have questions about this topic? Want to ask for advice from our team? Have a topic suggestion? Just want to say Hello? Do it! We love hearing from you and here is how you can get us:
Website: www.peoplecentric.com/contact
Direct Email: podcast@peoplecentric.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peoplecentricUS
YouTube: @PeopleCentricUS
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This week on The People Centric Podcast, we talk about judging performance and why most of us are not very good at it. Not because we are careless, but because we often forget what we should actually be judging. We explore how performance conversations get off track when we do not look at job expectations, agreed upon goals, or real metrics. Instead, we rely on assumptions, opinions, or what we personally think someone should be doing. That leads to frustration, unfair judgments, and broken trust. We discuss this not just from a manager perspective, but also how coworkers judge each other’s work and how employees judge their managers. Performance judgments happen at every level, whether we admit it or not. From the employee perspective, we talk about clarity and advocating for fair expectations. From the manager perspective, we focus on evaluating work based on agreed standards instead of gut feelings. And from the executive perspective, we discuss how unclear roles and measures create misalignment across teams. Better performance conversations start with shared understanding, not assumptions. Have questions about this topic? Want to ask for advice from our team? Have a topic suggestion? Just want to say Hello? Do it! We love hearing from you and here is how you can get us: Website: www.peoplecentric.com/contact Direct Email: podcast@peoplecentric.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/peoplecentricUS YouTube: @PeopleCentricUS