Out of 870+ leaders… ONLY half do this?
Hi Everyone,
When did you last get a real performance review?
Your team gets one every year. For most CEOs, it never happens — in Nasdaq's survey of over 870 directors and executives, only half said their board regularly discusses the CEO's performance.
Today we're sharing a review you can run on yourself. It takes 90 minutes twice a year, and the template with all nine questions is here.
The questions cover your strategy, your calendar, the relationships you've neglected, and the things you're not saying out loud. Write your answers down — you'll be reviewing them in six months, so it's good to have a record.
How to run it
- Block 90 minutes and open the template.
- Read all nine questions once and notice which one feels hardest. Answer that one first — if a question makes you want to move past it, there's probably something behind it worth writing down.
- Write thoughtful answers. Your first one is rarely the full answer. Ask why a few times and keep writing.
- End with no more than three commitments, and give each one a deadline.
- For accountability, share the three commitments with a peer, a coach, or your co-founder. Everything else stays private.
- In six months, run the review again. Start by grading the three commitments from this session, then write the new answers.
Get the template, then book both sessions — 90 minutes this week, 90 minutes six months out, with the same protection you'd give a board meeting.
Go deeper
👉 The Eblin Group: The seven questions I ask my CEO clients at mid-year — steal from this for your first session; a CEO coach shares the exact list he sends clients before their mid-year reviews.
👉 First Round Review: 35 impactful questions managers should ask themselves regularly — use this to build your own question set, with self-review questions collected from startup leaders.
👉 Brad Feld: @bfeld v53.0 — read this before your second session to see what honestly grading last year's letter looks like in practice.
👉 Nasdaq: 2024 Global Governance Pulse Report — skim this if you want the data behind today's issue, straight from 870+ directors and executives.
Coming up on Monday
On Monday, you'll learn why work stress reaches your partner whether you talk about it or not, and what a 30-minute briefing can change.
That's it for this week. Have a good weekend.