Make Feedback a Habit, Not a Year-End Surprise

Remember the horror of annual performance reviews? A dreaded meeting, stacks of paperwork, and two weeks of anxiety prepping and recovering. Then an awkward power dynamic in the room and maybe a bonus at the end. Yuck. I’ve seen teams who spend more time negotiating goals in December than executing them in January.

It doesn’t have to be that way. Neuroscience shows feedback works best when it’s immediate—your brain’s learning centers light up right after an event. So instead of waiting months, schedule a 15-minute check-in with each team member every Friday morning. Keep it short: two praises for progress on OKRs, one constructive tweak, and a shared review of the live dashboard.

I tried it when I ran an eight-person squad at a fintech start-up. Every Friday at 8:45 a.m., we’d grab coffee and glance at our metrics. I’d say, “Jane, loving your demo turnaround this week—nail forward. I noticed Ticket 342’s latency spiked—any ideas?” We’d brainstorm for five minutes and then I’d jot a reminder in our shared doc: “Follow up on cache clear tests.”

Over time, weekly rituals built trust. People stopped puzzling over where they stood; they knew I cared about their growth and got concrete help fast. No more surprises in December. No more wasted time—or wasted talent. And morale soared because we were all learning and improving together.

Behavioral science calls this frequent feedback “positive reinforcement” and “error correction” in real time, which accelerates skill growth far faster than annual sessions ever could.

Try giving it a whirl next week: block 15 minutes and watch how fatigue from bureaucracy gives way to the energy of immediate, meaningful dialogue.

You’ll carve out just 15 minutes each week for a structured check-in: celebrate two wins, tackle one soon-fix, and glance at your OKR metrics together. Keep a shared mini-journal of your notes so you never lose momentum. Over a month, these short rituals will transform the dreaded “review” into a pulse-quickening coaching exchange that sustains progress and builds trust. Give it a try next Friday.