Judging somebody you rarely see
Assessment, promotion and the interesting work, when the manager sees one person least of all.
three things · one reached them · one with no channel at all · the room side is not counted
The three questions a promotion panel will ask.
Proximity, and What It Does to an Assessment
The person you see most is the person you can describe best, and description is what assessment runs on.
What Counts as Evidence at a Distance
Sorting what you know into what you saw, what you were told, what is written and what has no source at all.
Building a Record That Survives a Panel
What a promotion panel can actually act on, and why the strongest case is assembled months before it is needed.
The Interesting Work, and Who Gets It
Opportunity is distributed at the moment it appears, to whoever is in the room when it does.
The Sentence You Cannot Produce
In a promotion round somebody will ask for a specific example, and for one of your people you will not have one.
Underperformance You Noticed Late
Problems surface later at a distance, which changes what is fair to do about them and how to say so.
Comparing Two People You See Unequally
Ranking requires comparable evidence. You do not have it, and pretending otherwise is the usual failure.
A View You Cannot Support
Saying you do not know is a real answer and is almost never the one given. What to say instead of a guess.