The Mid Year Review Nobody Scheduled

Originally shared in Tuesday Notes on June 24, 2026.

I will be honest with you: I can not stand mid-year reviews or any type of corporate performance reviews, for that matter. (Also, it is Wednesday. Tuesday Notes is one day late. I'm Latina, get over it 😉)

The forced rating. The buzzwords. The carefully softened feedback. The manager who hasn't noticed you exist for six months suddenly having "structured" thoughts about your development.

The whole ritual feels designed to make accountability look like care without actually requiring either.

And yet.

I do believe, without a doubt, in accountability in general. In pausing and asking: is what I'm doing actually working? Not to perform reflection for someone else. To actually look.

So I took the format and stripped out everything that makes it corporate theater. No ratings out of five. No competency framework. No company principles that need to be met. Just four questions that are harder to answer than they look.

I'm calling it a personal check-in. I just did one myself, and what it revealed was not what I expected. Here's the format I used, in case you want to try it too.

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Role

Person, in progress

Review Period

January to June 2026

Strengths

What did you actually do well this half? Be specific, not generous. Not "I was resilient" or "I showed up." Something real. Did you have a hard conversation you had been avoiding? Did you finally set a boundary and kept to it? Did you keep on doing something when quitting would have been easier? Did you ask for help instead of disappearing into yourself? Did you choose yourself in a situation where you wouldn't have before?

Areas for Development

What kept getting in your way? Not the external stuff, the thing you did, or didn't do, that you already know about. The way you shrink in certain rooms. The relationship you kept tolerating. The habit you disguised as self-care. The goal you said you would start next month. Say it plainly. You most probably already know what it is.

Manager's Notes

Write this one last. One paragraph. Your wisest self, looking at you from the outside. Ruthful, not cruel.

H2 Goal

Not a list. One thing. The one thing that, if you actually did it, would make the second half feel like it counted.

Overall Rating

Not a number. Not exceeds expectations or needs improvement. Just one honest sentence about where you actually are right now. The kind you would only say to someone you trust.

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Tuesday Brain Snack

Psychologist Tasha Eurich researches self-awareness for a living, and her findings are slightly uncomfortable: 95% of people believe they are self-aware. Around 10 to 15% actually are.

Self-awareness as she defines it, is the ability to see yourself clearly, to understand who you are, how others see you, and how you fit into the world around you. It sounds simple, but it's not.

The gap isn't dishonesty. It's that we confuse introspection with insight.

Spending time thinking about yourself is not the same as seeing yourself clearly.

Her research found that what closes the gap is shifting from asking why to asking what. Not "why do I keep doing this?" but "what is actually happening here, and what do I want instead?" One question spirals. The other moves forward.

Big hug,

Claudia ✨