Five Thinking Traps That Color Your Feedback

You probably think you’re objective when coaching, giving feedback, or writing a performance review. You listen. You ask curious questions. You balance challenge with support and you’re willing to have the tough conversation when it’s needed. Good.

And yet — we all bring subliminal tendencies that color what we hear, remember and evaluate. Stepping back can help you spot those thinking traps before they shape outcomes.

Some common thinking traps, why they matter, and practical fixes you can use next time you coach or write a review:

Recency trap — giving extra weight to what happened most recently.

Why it matters: A team member could have a string of small wins across the year but stumble on a recent project. If you overweight the recent failure, your overall assessment will tilt negative.

Fix: Keep running notes all year — wins, missed deadlines, course corrections. And don’t save feedback for an annual surprise: share it when it happens.

Confirmation trap — seeing what you expect to see.

Why it matters: If you expect someone to be a superstar, you’ll tend to highlight anything that fits that story — and minimize red flags. Conversely, if you expect poor performance, you’ll notice problems more easily than progress.

Fix: Use notes to capture both evidence that confirms and evidence that undermines your expectation. Before finalizing a review, deliberately look for disconfirming data.

Halo / Horns trap — shines or slips that color everything else.

Why it matters: A person who’s warm and liked can breeze past missed deadlines; someone who made one big mistake can be judged harshly across unrelated areas.

Fix: Rate people on clear, separate performance and behavior criteria; separate “likability” from measurable outcomes.

Affinity trap — we favor people who are like us.

Why it matters: Similar communication styles, backgrounds, or hobbies can make us unconsciously more generous, even when objective measures tell a different story.

Fix: Before you finalize ratings, calibrate your observations to reflect acts and behaviors (what happened) rather than personality (what I like or what feels familiar).

Contrast trap — rating someone against their peers rather than against the role’s expectations.

Why it matters: A growing employee can look weak if you only compare them to a top performer. You’ll miss both progress and potential.

Fix: Evaluate each person against role-specific expectations and their own growth objectives, not just against the team leaderboard.

None of us ever become perfectly objective. But the goal is to be aware enough to notice when your lens is foggy. Reflection, curiosity and clear standards are your best tools for getting clearer. Coaching well takes practice, humility and heart — and it’s some of the most meaningful work a leader will ever do.

If you want to dig deeper into how to make feedback a habit — not a headache — head back to the Leading Out Loud blog and check out our earlier post, Feedback is essential, but it’s rarely easy