January 2026
What Performance Reviews Miss and Why it Matters
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I’ll never forget that time I got a “D” on my report card. It was 6th grade, and I didn’t put much effort into my solar system model project, so I got sent home with a barely passing grade in science. After getting the ‘what-for’ from my parents, I remember I put that grading period behind me, re-focused, and go an “A” on the next report card. Success!
It was nice being able to start again after each grading period. Whatever pride or disappointment existed at that moment we got our report cards, we all shifted our attention forward. New semesters, new material, and a fresh stretch of road ahead.
That made sense in school. The system was designed around clean breaks and defined chapters.
Organizations often treat annual performance reviews the same way. The forms are completed, conversations happen, ratings are finalized, and then the year gets filed away. The problem is that work doesn’t reset the way my 6th grade science class did. Roles evolve, expectations expand, change compounds... work is much more complicated and connected. What happens after the review matters at least as much as the review itself.
| | President, Turknett Leadership Group | |
How to Spot - and Develop - High-Potential Talent in Your Organization
James Intagliata, Jennifer Sturman, and Stephen Kincaid | Harvard Business Review
Organizations typically look to past performance to identify future leaders. But an employee’s track record doesn’t tell you who might excel at things they haven’t done before, nor does it identify early-career high potentials or people who haven’t had equitable access to mentoring, sponsorship, development, and advancement opportunities. The authors have developed a model for predicting leadership potential that’s grounded not in achievements but in three observable, measurable behaviors: cognitive quotient, drive quotient, and emotional quotient. They outline the telltale behaviors in each area, and explain how managers can coach employees to develop and refine their skills.
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We are thrilled to announce our next live virtual event!
Learn from a top global leader how to strengthen overall organizational health while delivering People, Access, and Belonging strategies across a vast workforce. We’ll highlight her track record of fostering inclusive cultures, scalable practices, and practical insights on leading change, measuring impact, and creating environments where every employee can thrive.
Listen in as our speaker shares their unique experiences and insights.
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Facilitated by Anne Quiello, M.S., PCC
Senior Consultant & Host of Women in Leadership
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SHRM-Atl Lunch and Learn
Here at Turknett Leadership Group, we are proud to be sponsors of SHRM-Atlanta's Lunch and Learn Series. Last week, we learned about important regulatory changes regarding 401(k)s from Vanessa Moore of Zephyr Investment Management.
We’re grateful to have had the opportunity to connect with fellow HR professionals, share ideas, and explore how to navigate the tricky realm of retirement planning.
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Topgrading: How to Hire, Coach, and Keep A Players
The platinum standard for hiring, coaching and keeping top talent. Based on the best-selling hardcover book, Topgrading, by Bradford D. Smart, Ph.D., this quick-read version highlights the essential elements for building a team of "A" players. You'll learn how to improve your hiring and promotion success rate dramatically using Topgrading tools and techniques to recruit, screen, interview, and check references of job candidates.
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Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things
We live in a world that’s obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distance we ourselves can travel. We underestimate the range of skills that we can learn and how good we can become. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn’t knock, there are ways to build a door.
Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid storytelling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess—it’s about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the character skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked.
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Corporate Headquarters
100 Crescent Center Pkwy
Suite 600
Atlanta, GA 30084
(770) 270-1723
Tim Huff
President & CEO, TLG
thuff@turknett.com
(770) 270-1723
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