The only performance review that counts has an audience of one.
principle — attributed to Don Welsh
Welsh's college coach, Phil Albert, never yelled after a loss, because the scoreboard was never the measurement. The question was whether you could look yourself in the eye afterward, alone, at night. Shy away from the mirror and you already have your answer. Fifty years in, Welsh still treats the mirror test as the one review that outranks every board evaluation, member survey, and press notice.
For executives whose formal performance reviews are dominated by outcome metrics they only partly control. The mirror test is the private counterweight: on the days the scoreboard flatters you, and on the days it does not, the same question applies.
self-assessment, leadership-discipline, integrity, mirror-test