Investing in Growth: Performance Evaluation as a Tool for Empowerment

When I set out to create a competency and leveling framework for our team, I wasn’t just trying to standardize performance evaluations. I wanted to build something that would actually serve people—a structure that could help individuals grow, not just prove their worth. The point wasn’t control; it was clarity.

I’ve come to believe that a good framework isn’t about rigid expectations—it’s about shared understanding. What does growth look like? What does excellent work feel like at different levels of experience? Without answers to those questions, people end up guessing—or worse, comparing themselves to unwritten rules. My goal was to write those rules down in a way that felt honest and useful.

Some of the most valuable work has been defining competencies in plain language. Communication. Technical judgment. Economic thinking. Not as abstract ideals, but as things we can see and name: behaviors, signals, signs of maturity. That translation from instinct to language has been hard, but it’s also made everything else easier—feedback, coaching, and recognition feel more rooted in reality.

I’ll admit, it’s still a work in progress. Sometimes I overcomplicate things or underestimate how much context someone needs. But the feedback I’ve received from teammates—especially folks who’ve felt adrift in past roles—has affirmed the deeper goal: to make the path more visible. To help people see where they are, and where they might go, without feeling like the deck is stacked.

This post is part of a broader reflection on how I try to align belief and practice across my work. For me, that includes believing that people thrive when they’re trusted, supported, and challenged. The competency framework is just one way I’m trying to build that belief into how we lead, evaluate, and grow.