'Tis the season for performance reviews. Many happen in a year's closing weeks, days, or even hours. Why? Often pay increases go into effect in January, so reviews need to happen as part of that process. Or perhaps the review was supposed to happen in September or October, and now it's time to get this off the to-do list before Christmas break.

Before opening the template document, consider these questions:

• Why the lack of enthusiasm when thinking about giving or receiving an evaluation?
• Why wait until the last minute to put it together?
• Why the tense tone going into, during, and at the close of evaluation meetings—as compared with other conversations throughout the year?

Here's why: a performance evaluation is personal.

That's why many rating systems use numbers instead of words. Numbers make it less personal. It's also why feedback often consists of generic lists of traits rather than opportunities to describe the person being evaluated. And that standard form used by, and for, everyone? ...