In recent times, a number of firms have moved away from rating skills and overall performance. Meanwhile, other firms are just beginning to look at how a ratings system could start to help them with measuring and rewarding the right behaviours within the business.

Pavlov taught us that feedback, both positive and negative, reinforces behaviour. Though positive feedback has a stronger impact on behaviour setting, it’s still important to address negative issues to stop bad behaviour before it causes damage.

The problem is that in the busy world of law firms, feedback often comes but once a year in the form of an annual appraisal. For strong personal development, this is simply not efficient for a number of reasons.

It’s almost performance review season and, if you want to give better feedback, it may be time to forget traditional, numerical appraisals and management systems.

This is according to research by the NeuroLeadership Institute, who observe that more and more firms – including big names like Deloitte and Accenture – are moving away from ‘forced ranking’ and structured performance appraisal methods and embracing conversations focused on employee growth and development.