Traditional performance reviews measure what people did. The 5Cs Performance Review measures whether you can trust them with bigger responsibilities — before you find out the hard way.
Performance reviews have been measuring the wrong things for 50 years. Here's what they miss — and what changes when you add trust.
Traditional reviews are lagging indicators — they measure what already happened. Trust-based reviews are leading indicators — they predict what's likely to happen next. That's the difference between evaluating the past and forecasting the future.
Our analysis of leading research on trust revealed five consistent factors that directly influence trust — individually and organizationally. Each scored on a validated 1–7 scale.
The 5Cs framework turns ambiguous judgment calls into data-backed decisions.
Hit targets? ✓
Technical skills? ✓
Decision: Promote
Competence 6.8 ✓
Candor 5.2 ⚠ Concern 4.8 ⚠
Recommendation: Delay
Hits his numbers
No policy violations
Decision: Keep him
Competence 6.5 ✓
Candor 3.2 ❌ Concern 2.8 ❌
Overall: 4.4 — Low Trust
Check compensation
Review engagement scores
Often miss real drivers
Jessica: top performer
Trust in manager: 3.8/7 ❌
Flight risk — act now
"Work on communication"
Generic leadership training
Vague and untargeted
Connection 4.8 ⚠
Concern 5.2 ⚠
Specific 90-day plan
Designed to surface trust gaps through structured assessment — not ambiguous manager intuition.
Employee completes self-assessment (15–20 min). Manager completes employee assessment (20–30 min). System calculates scores, identifies gaps, flags any dimension below 4.0. Gap analysis report generated automatically.
Open with aligned scores — celebrate strengths. Address gaps where scores differ by 2+ points. Use specific examples, not generalizations. This is where growth happens: making the implicit explicit. Agree on top 2 development priorities and a 90-day plan.
Development plan documented within 48 hours. Quarterly pulse checks on each dimension. Year-over-year comparison at next review — you can now see actual trust growth, not just output. Celebrate measurable improvement in specific dimensions.
Eight complete, ready-to-use deliverables — designed so your HR team can deploy trust-based performance reviews without outside help. Download today, run your first assessment within 48 hours.
Individual contributors succeed through personal output. Managers succeed through others — which requires trust. Senior leaders succeed through influence alone. The weighting reflects that reality.
Start with the self-serve Toolkit and run your reviews immediately. Add the Live Manager Training when you want expert guidance and a live session with your team.
| Up to 10 managers | $997 |
| 11–50 managers | $1,997 |
| 51–150 managers | $3,997 |
| 151+ managers | Contact us |
Everything you need to run trust-based performance reviews independently — complete question sets, scoring guides, conversation scripts, and development templates. Ready to deploy in 48 hours.
| Up to 25 managers | $4,500 |
| 26–75 managers | $6,500 |
| 76+ managers | Contact us |
Everything in the Toolkit, plus a live 90-minute Zoom session where Michael Weisman walks your managers through the framework, models the gap conversation, and answers questions in real time.
Download the Framework Toolkit and run your first trust-based performance review in 48 hours. Or book a call and we'll walk through your specific situation together.