Annual review conversations we hear constantly:
Manager: “You need to improve your communication.”
Employee: “What exactly should I change?”
Manager: “Just… be more assertive.”
And that’s it.
No examples. No clarity. No direction.
Brutal part: Managers give feedback that sounds meaningful but goes nowhere.
You’ll hear things like:
“Be more strategic.”
“Show leadership.”
“Improve visibility.”
“You need to raise the bar.”
And you’re left wondering: Raise what? Where? By how much?
Vague feedback always misses the three non-negotiables:
→ The baseline: What are we agreeing on?
→ The measurement: What will improvement look like?
→ The checkpoint: When do we assess progress?
Without these, you’re just guessing.
And I’ve seen talented professionals waste 2–3 years “working on” vague feedback that never gets resolved.
Same review, different year: “You still need to work on …”
What to do:
→ push for clarity.
→ ask better questions.
→ anchor the conversation in specifics.
If you’ve been hearing the same vague feedback for years… the issue isn’t your capability — it’s the lack of structure around your development.
You were never taught how to decode feedback. And definitely never taught how to turn it into a growth strategy.
Want decode it and build your clarity system? Let’s talk → https://24x7coach.com/
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