​If you can't write your feedback to an employee in two sentences, you're not ready to say it . . .

Most feedback doesn't fail because it's too harsh. It fails because it's too vague. Leaders say things like "I need you to step up" or "you need to be more strategic" or "show more leadership" and then wonder why nothing changes. The problem typically isn't that the employee doesn't want to improve. The problem is they have no idea what improvement actually looks like.

Unspoken expectations are the silent killers of high performance. Every time a leader holds an expectation they haven't explicitly communicated, they're setting their team up to fail — and setting themselves up to be frustrated. I've lost count of the number of performance issues I've seen that were actually clarity issues in disguise.

This summer, I'm releasing my next book: Let's Be Honest: The Feedback Playbook for Leaders Who Want the Truth. It unpacks the Feedback Operating System™ — five universal conditions that unlock honest communication at every level — with practical tools and real stories from the field. I wrote it because I've watched too many good leaders stay silent when their people needed the truth, and I believe there's a better way.

In the book, I introduce what I call the Two-Sentence Test. Before any feedback conversation, ask yourself: can you express what you need to say in two sentences? Sentence one names the specific behavior or situation. Sentence two names the impact or the change you're requesting.

Here's what that looks like in practice: "In the client meeting yesterday, you interrupted Sarah three times during her presentation. Going forward, I need you to hold your questions until the presenter invites them." That's it. Specific, observable, actionable.

Compare that to: "You need to be more respectful in meetings." Same general territory. Completely different level of clarity. One gives the person something to work with. The other gives them something to worry about.

The most common clarity failure is confusing what you saw with what you concluded. "You arrived 15 minutes after the meeting started" is an observation. "You don't respect other people's time" is an interpretation. Feedback grounded in observation is actionable. Feedback grounded in interpretation triggers defensiveness. The discipline is to separate the two — lead with the observable behavior, then share the impact.

Try the Two-Sentence Test today with one piece of feedback you've been putting off. Write it down. You'll be surprised how much sharper your message becomes when you force yourself to be specific.

Here's a link to find out more about the book:https://lnkd.in/eUU_tq5S

→ Take the free Feedback Culture Assessment — 15 questions, 3 minutes, instant score across all five conditions

→ Start the free 5-module mini-course — one condition per module, practical tools you can use in your next conversation → Join the waitlist for early access and launch-day pricing