Most 360 Items Are Measuring the Wrong Thing. Here’s How to Tell.
Most 360 items measure constructs a rater cannot see. The five failure modes that quietly wreck your data, and how to tell if your tool has them.
How to Increase Your Mentor Pool
One note before we start: the best mentoring programs run on the same fuel great feedback does — clear, observable standards for what ‘good’ looks like. Here’s how to grow your mentor pool without losing that. Updated: November 30, 2023 Here at Fast Mirror we get a chance to talk to lots of companies about […]
SMART Goal Examples Part 2: Leadership Development Activities
Same rule, applied to leadership: if you can’t observe it, you can’t develop it. Here are examples that tie leadership competencies to specific, visible behaviors. In my last post, I provided a few examples of SMART goals for developing competencies or “soft skills” (as opposed to technical skills). Samples were written for the common yet […]
SMART Goal Examples for Competency-Based Development
Before the examples: a SMART goal is only as strong as the behavior it targets. Most competency goals fail because they name a trait, not an observable action. Here’s how to fix that — with examples. If you’re reading this blog you’re probably looking for SMART goal examples targeting a competency or “soft skill” for […]
Performance Reviews: Are Adjectives Really Better Than Numerical Ratings?
Short version: the adjectives-versus-numbers debate mostly misses the point. What makes feedback useful isn’t the label on the scale — it’s whether it points to a specific, observable behavior someone can actually repeat or change. Here’s why that matters more than the format. The redefining of performance reviews and the feedback that goes along with […]
How to Use HR Tech to Create a Feedback Culture
A quick reframe before we dig in: the right technology should enforce the standards you’ve already defined — not quietly define them for you. Get that backwards and the tool ends up shaping your culture by accident. Here’s how to keep the order right. We often get asked how the features our Fast Mirror platform help […]
Let’s Take the F Out of Feedback – It’s Not Performance Management
One distinction worth keeping straight: development feedback and performance management answer different questions. Blur them and you weaken both. Here’s the case for keeping them apart — and what it means for how you build a 360. Recently I attended a session at a conference about feedback. I was looking forward to hearing material about […]
5 Surefire Ways to Make Feedback Useless and Painful
A quick reframe: most feedback fails not because people withhold it, but because the instrument asks the wrong things. Here are five fast ways to make sure yours doesn’t. The topic of feedback is all the rage right now. Just last week I found this article from the NY Times and this podast from HBR. And there’s plenty […]