Brilliant jerk

Where the standard develops it

• PL-4Performance managementExpectations, support, honest consequences, and fair process.
• CC-5Values, integrity, and ethical judgment under pressureWhat you do when the right call is the costly one.

Related terms

Accountability without fear

Clear ownership and honest consequences for patterns of unaccountability, combined with real safety for honest error.

Calibration

Aligning evaluation standards across interviewers, managers or organisations so that the same capability or performance earns the same judgment.

Conditions gap

Underperformance caused by what the person was not given (clear requirements, access, time, a functioning team) rather than by a lack of skill or will.

Costly moment

A situation in which a stated value and the pressure of the moment point in different directions, and people are watching the decision.

Culture

The accumulated pattern of what behaviour gets rewarded, tolerated and punished in practice.

Error budget

The tolerable shortfall against a service-level objective, treated as a resource to spend that gates risk-taking.

Fair process

A decision people accept even when it goes against them, because they were heard, the reasoning was explained, and what is expected next is unambiguous.

Improvement plan

A formal, time-boxed, supported chance to meet a stated bar, with the outcome at the end defined when the plan is set.