Great article!

When I worked at Adobe, I got a lower review one year than the previous year and asked my boss, whom I liked and respected, if my performance had been worse. She replied that it had not but that she "owned" the evaluation. Well, I was also a manager and had been in one of the meetings where they explained there was a set percentage of each tier of review that managers could give out that year and they had to "own" their ratings of employees. We'd had a lot of layoffs so the group was much smaller, hence the lower total number of positive reviews. Sheesh. Soon after I left, I heard they did away with annual reviews altogether to move to a system more like the one you describe. That sounds much more sane, and also much more effective!

Coincidentally, another woman I worked with at Adobe just posted this today about positive reinforcement in the workplace: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7064292836749307904/ -

“Twenty years of research from the Center for Positive Organizations, Gallup Institute, and others shows that highlighting employees’ strengths and contributions helps them to grow stronger, perform better, and become more engaged, and be happier, healthier, and more connected.” https://lnkd.in/gWNjGZgr