When the Feedback Is Always the Same
“When the same feedback follows you from manager to manager and firm to firm, the pattern is likely traveling with you.”
Sometimes the second performance plan arrives at the second firm. The managers were different. The feedback was close to identical.
Often it is about how you communicate under pressure. You shut down when challenged, or push too hard, or go silent in a meeting and send a long email afterward. The work itself is usually strong, which makes the pattern more frustrating to you and harder for your managers to ignore.
At that point the pattern has a price on it. It may be the role, the year-end number, a promotion, or a reputation that travels between firms faster than a resume does.
Why Knowing About It Has Not Stopped It
Many people in this position can describe their pattern clearly. They have read the review, had the conversation with HR, and promised themselves it will be different next quarter.
The trouble is timing. In a calm moment, the prefrontal cortex, the brain’s planning and self-control center, can choose a better response. In a tense meeting or a sharp exchange with a senior colleague, stress chemistry weakens that control, and the brain tends to reach for whatever it has practiced most.
That practiced response was usually learned years earlier, often for good reasons. It may have protected you, won arguments, or kept you ahead. On a trading floor or a deal team, the same reflex can read as a liability.
Changing the Response Where It Happens
Dr. Ceruto’s Real-Time Neuroplasticity™ methodology works on a practiced response in the conditions that call it up. Instead of only reviewing what went wrong, she works with you around the meetings, calls and conversations where the pattern appears.
The aim is a new response that is available under pressure, not only in hindsight. That has to be built around the situations themselves: the morning before a review, the exchange with the manager who triggers it, the minutes after a meeting goes badly.
The first step is a clear description of the pattern: who or what sets it off, what you do next, and what it has cost. From there, the work focuses on the two or three situations where a different response would change the most.
How This Differs From Performance Coaching
Performance coaching often centers on goals, productivity systems and accountability. Dr. Ceruto’s work sits apart from that: it is aimed at the learned response that takes over in specific moments, even when your skills and work ethic are already strong.
Who This Work Is For
Professionals who decide for themselves to invest in changing the pattern, and who can see what it is already costing. It is a significant investment, and it is arranged directly with you.
It fits best when the issue is one recurring pattern at work with consequences you can name. It fits less well when the main concern is a general lack of motivation or direction.
If the next review is already on the calendar, bring the pattern to a consultation before it. For a fuller picture of how Dr. Ceruto works with executives on performance, see executive performance; for everything MindLAB offers locally, see the Wall Street page.
