Leaders getting report cards? Wait, what?

Imagine this: your teacher gives you a report card, but instead of just grading your work, they compare you to every other kid in class. Sounds annoying, right? That’s kind of what happens in workplaces and even in politics when people try to judge performance.

Right now, in Maharashtra’s government, Chief Minister Fadnavis has a big team—42 ministers! That’s way more than the 29 ministers from the last government. Why so many? Well, when there’s a coalition (different political parties working together), more leaders want to be part of the action. To keep everyone happy, some ministers might only get a 30-month term instead of the full 5 years. Imagine sharing your class monitor role with others halfway through the year—it’s like that!

But how will they decide who’s doing a good job? Politicians are talking about “performance reviews” for ministers, similar to how companies review employees. The idea is to check if they’re doing their jobs well. But here’s the catch: performance reviews, whether in offices or governments, are super tricky and often unfair.

In companies, there’s this old system called the bell curve. Picture a bell-shaped graph: most people are in the middle (the “average” workers), and a few are at the top (stars) or the bottom (underperformers). But here’s the problem—real life doesn’t work like that. Workplaces are more like a hockey stick. A small number of people (the top 20%) do 80% of the work, and the rest make up the “long tail.”

Because of this, some big companies like Google and Adobe have stopped using ratings or bell curves altogether. They focus on rewarding their best workers instead. Why? Because people hate being compared unfairly. Also, reviewers often bring their own biases, like liking someone for one good trait (halo bias) or disliking them for a single bad one (horns bias).

Now back to politics. Ministers aren’t exactly like office workers. They don’t get salaries or bonuses in the same way. Their real “review” happens during elections, when people vote. But until then, Chief Ministers like Fadnavis have to figure out how to keep everyone happy—and productive.

Will these “performance reviews” work for politicians? Who knows? What’s certain is that just like students hate unfair report cards, ministers probably won’t like being judged this way either!

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