The talent review

The talent review is where placements, readiness calls, and actions get decided. It fails the same way hiring debriefs fail: impressions substitute for evidence.

Before the meeting

• Each manager submits independent ratings for their people, with evidence for every placement: performance, the four potential signals, and readiness calls.
• Each manager answers two questions in writing for every person rated high potential: "What evidence would contradict this?" and "Is this rating partly because someone senior favors this person?"
• The facilitator flags clusters: a manager who rates everyone high, a team with no high-potential ratings, a rating that changed sharply since last quarter.

In the meeting

1. Start with critical roles, not people. Walk the bench scorecard first. It keeps the discussion on business risk.
2. Discuss the edges. Spend time on high-potential calls, readiness-now calls, and disagreements between managers. Do not re-litigate the middle of the grid.
3. Challenge with evidence. Any participant can ask "what is the evidence for that?" and the answer must be specific.
4. Run the bias checks out loud.

Bias	The check
Recency	Is this rating driven by the last month rather than the last four quarters?
Halo	Is strong performance being read as high potential without the four signals?
Similarity	Are we rating people higher because they work the way we do?
Sponsorship	Would this rating hold if the person's senior advocate were not in the room?
Visibility	Are remote, quiet, or less-exposed people being under-rated for lack of exposure?

5. Decide. Every edge case leaves the room with an owner, an action, and a date.

Outgrowing the role

Flag every top performer who has outperformed the role for three or more quarters. For each, the review must name the next challenge and when it becomes available, or record that none exists. Without a credible path, expect to lose them. Development without opportunity becomes development for another company.

Talking to people about the outcome

• Never share grid placements as labels. Share the development conversation: strengths, the next challenge, the plan.
• Tell successors they are being developed for broader responsibility, not that a role is promised.
• Tell trusted experts plainly that their value does not depend on a management path.
• Document what was said and agreed.

Guardrails

• Rate the work and the evidence, never protected characteristics or proxies for them, such as age, family status, or health.
• Apply the same evidence standard to every person, including those referred or sponsored by senior leaders.
• Check local employment law and internal policy before sharing review outcomes.