Talent is not lost by a bad evaluation; it is lost when no one is really involved in its growth.
People don't quit because they don't measure them, they quit because they don't know:
Next.
They're missing.
And what real decisions bring them to the next level.
Katherine B. Coffman's research makes it clear: when career conversations are scarce, ambiguous or late, people do not become impatient...
It becomes invisible and, when someone feels invisible, starts looking outside.
But here is the point that is uncomfortable: the road does not appear because it says a process, a manual of HR or a well-intended KPI; the road is built when someone —a leader— is really and honestly involved in another person's trajectory.
Not to be done.
Not by calendar.
Not for filling out formats.
But for responsibility.
Developing talent requires uncomfortable conversations:
"This does bring you closer, this does not."
"Here you are, not here yet."
"If you want to get there, you need to live this first."
That's not always comfortable, but it's deeply loyal; companies confuse feedback with development, they think saying "you're going well" is to accompany... but it's not.
To accompany is to walk with someone, even if there is no process that demands it, not a KPI that rewards it, because a race is not built with notes, it is built with direction, involvement, truth, and when someone feels there is a clear path, someone willing to walk it with him, the exit door is no longer a temptation.
