What does the wording warning do?

It flags phrasing that describes the person rather than the work, which is the most common reason feedback lands badly.

Is this a performance review template?

No. It is a preparation card for one piece of feedback. Use your organisation's review process for formal reviews.

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The tool · feedback

Feedback prep card

When

How long

Then

Who it is for

About which work

Date

Check before you go · all four must be true, or this is not a feedback problem

They knew what good looked like. Somebody had shown them, not just described it. They had the authority to do it correctly. They had the time and capacity, and could have said if they did not. Nobody else has made the same mistake. If several have, it is a process problem.

One or more of these is unticked. A capable, willing person may not have been able to do this correctly with what they had. Fix the standard, the authority, the capacity or the process first. Feedback into any of those is unfair and will not change anything.

What the research actually found

Kluger and DeNisi, 1996: 607 effect sizes across 23,663 observations. Feedback improved performance on average.

Over a third of feedback interventions made performance worse. That is the finding most advice leaves out.

What separates the two is where attention goes: to the task, or to the person.

Close to the work, not close to the review. Within a day or two, while the specifics are recoverable.

Write it before you say it. The point of the card is not the conversation, it is that writing the observable forces you to notice when all you actually have is an inference. Say the four sentences, then stop talking rather than filling the silence with reassurance.

The card watches boxes 2 and 3 for language about the person rather than the work and warns you before you say it. Nothing is sent anywhere; it saves in this browser only, which matters because this one names a colleague.

Prefer paper? Download the blank sheet as a PDF. The thinking behind it is in The Feedback.

General guidance from practice, not legal, HR, or financial advice. Everything you type stays in this browser and is never sent to a server; clearing site data removes it.