In a recent LinkedIn poll, I asked a deliberately edgy question: Which workplace feature should be eliminated to elevate employee flourishing? Performance reviews led the pack, with engagement surveys and 360° assessments close behind. (And let’s not forget the most popular write-in response: “all of the above.”)
It would be easy to interpret these results as resistance to feedback or accountability. But the message behind the poll is more nuanced — and more important. In my experience working with organizations worldwide, people aren’t rejecting the intention behind these tools. What they’re really saying is: These systems aren’t helping me succeed.
And let’s be honest. In many cases, this is true. Many systems and processes deliver on their promise too late, too formally and too far removed from the work itself.
Performance reviews, engagement surveys and 360 assessments represent potent opportunities to learn, grow and improve. They have the potential to elevate human engagement and business results. But managers and employees alike find themselves bracing for — rather than embracing — information they need to succeed.
Bracing versus embracing
An early project in one of my first corporate learning and development roles was to develop manager training to support (another) new engagement survey. My guidance was clear: spend 25% of the training time helping managers understand the mechanics of the process, and the other 75% addressing anticipated emotions, defensiveness and pushback. Even as a young professional, I found myself wondering: There must be a better way.
Over the past several decades, I’ve seen well-intentioned and important efforts to share helpful information morph into a morass. We’ve outsourced, formalized and systematized deeply human processes, leaving people feeling scrutinized rather than supported.
- The performance reviews, an opportunity to celebrate achievement, unpack challenges, and identify ways to enhance future results, have become for many “gotcha” documentation exercises.
- The 360 assessment is a chance to uncover blind spots, perception gaps and hidden strengths. But rather than raising awareness, it raises suspicion and defensiveness.
- And engagement surveys, conceived to surface employee sentiment and illuminate the employee experience, have hardened into programmatic rituals — organizations chasing numbers and benchmarks while the meaning behind the feedback, and the people behind it, receive far less attention.
Systems designed for a slower world
Another challenge with these tools is that they were designed for an entirely different era of work. They worked well in an environment characterized by stable roles, predictable priorities and slower organizational change.
But welcome to 2026, and a work environment marked by acronyms like VUCA (volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous) and BANI (brittle, anxious, nonlinear and incomprehensible). Today’s workplace is punctuated by rapid change, shifting priorities, shrinking time windows, evolving roles and disruption at every turn.
Leadership and management systems built for stability now feel out of sync with the pace of work.
Reclaim the original intent
The purpose behind each of these tools — to enable richer reflection, understanding and improvement — has never been more necessary. But how can we accomplish this at the speed of business and without the annual angst?
To me, the message from my LinkedIn poll isn’t that people don’t want feedback or accountability; it’s that they want it delivered differently in a more helpful way as a continuous (rather than episodic) flow of real-time information, designed to help them improve while the work is happening.
Here’s how you can do it.
- Shorten the feedback loop. In fast-moving workplaces, waiting months to surface insight makes it less useful. Offer coaching, alignment and recognition in real time so people can adjust within the workflow.
- Turn data into dialogue. Survey results, feedback reports and performance ratings are starting points — not conclusions. The value emerges when leaders invite discussion: What stands out? What surprises you? What should we try next?
- Focus on improvement, not documentation. Too often, these tools become exercises in scoring, documenting and reporting. Shift the emphasis to the question that matters most: What will we do differently going forward? Every feedback moment should end with a small, actionable step.
- Keep the human element at the center. The more organizations systematize these processes, the more people can feel evaluated rather than supported. Leaders must ensure that tools serve conversations — not replace them.
Despite how employees responded to my LinkedIn poll, the goal isn’t to eliminate performance reviews, engagement surveys or 360 assessments. It’s to return them to their original purpose: helping people learn, improve and succeed. When leaders move information closer to the work itself — through frequent conversations, quick alignment check-ins and in-the-moment coaching — these practices stop feeling like rituals people brace for. Instead, they become what they were always meant to be: useful insights that help individuals and organizations get better together.
Opinions expressed by SmartBrief contributors are their own.
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