Post by Megan Carlyle

It's the most wonderful time of the year! 🎉 Not the holidays. PERFORMANCE REVIEW SEASON, BABY. Self-assessments? Done. ✅ Reviewed your team's assessments? Done. ✅ Meetings scheduled? Done. ✅ Actually having to sit across from a human being and tell them to do something differently without crushing their soul? ...pending. 😬 For years I defaulted to the classic Compliment Sandwich. You know the one. "𝘠𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘥𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘚𝘖 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘵! 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘦'𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘐 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘶𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺 𝘸𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘬 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵. 𝘉𝘶𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘭𝘺, 𝘺𝘰𝘶'𝘳𝘦 𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘻𝘪𝘯𝘨!" Most of the time, one of two things happened: the person either floated out of the room on a cloud of compliments having heard absolutely nothing I needed them to hear, or they walked away convinced I hated them. Zero in between. Then I learned the McKinsey and Company OILS framework, and I wish someone had taught it to me approximately 20 years earlier. 𝗢 — 𝗢𝗯𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. What did you actually see or hear? Stick to the facts. 𝗜 — 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁. This is the whole game. Not 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 you want them to change, but 𝘸𝘩𝘺 𝘪𝘵 𝘮𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘴. 𝗟 — 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻. And this is the hard part — you actually have to stop talking. Like, for real. Let them respond. 𝗦 — 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. Work it out 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳. Here's the thing: if you skip the Impact step, you're just telling someone what to do differently without any context or why it matters. That's a recipe for defensiveness and hurt feelings and a very awkward 45 minutes for everyone involved. But if you lead with impact? Suddenly it's not a critique — it's a conversation. And the solution you land on is one they helped create, which means they might actually follow through on it. Imagine that. It's not easy. Figuring out the 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘭 impact takes thought. But it's worth it. Good luck out there, managers. You got this. 💪 P.S. I've had several clients tell me they entered their scenario into AI and asked it to create a script using McKiney's OILS framework and it was really helpful. Smarter not harder!