Cognitive BiasesPublic knowledge library

Professional lens pack

Leadership & Performance Review Lens Pack

A review for feedback, promotions, performance ratings and people decisions.

Use it when

Bring structure in before the conclusion hardens.

Five lenses

Questions that challenge the decision, not the person.

Decision lensAvailability bias

Am I overweighting what happened most recently or most visibly?

Open →
Decision lensOutcome bias

Am I judging the person mainly by the result rather than the quality of decisions and constraints?

Open →
Decision lensHindsight bias

Does the right action look obvious only because I know what happened next?

Open →
Decision lensConfirmation bias

After forming a view of this person, which contradictory evidence have I actively checked?

Open →
Decision lensProjection bias

Am I treating my own work style or current priorities as the universal standard?

Open →

Workflow

A short repeatable review.

1. Collect examples across the whole review period before writing the rating.
2. Separate behaviour, impact and interpretation.
3. Compare the evidence with the same role criteria used for peers.
4. Write one piece of evidence that does not fit your current conclusion.
5. Turn the review into one observable next behaviour rather than a personality label.

Use with AI

Make the model a reviewer, not an authority.

Prompt: “Review this performance assessment for decision quality. Separate facts from interpretations, look for recency and outcome effects, surface contradictory evidence, and rewrite conclusions as observable behaviours with clear next expectations.”

Keep the final decision, evidence standard and accountability with the human team.

All professional packs Open Decision Audit