A CV is a strange kind of document.
When we write one, we naturally present the best version of ourselves. Or perhaps more accurately, the version of ourselves we believe is most likely to get the job. We list our qualifications, achievements and experience. We choose which details to include and which to leave out. References are selected from people we believe will speak positively about us, and we may quietly avoid the ones we are less sure about. We highlight our strengths and minimise our weaknesses.
That is not dishonest. It is just how the process works. A CV is designed to help someone assess whether we are capable of doing a particular job.
The limitations of CVs, job descriptions and performance metrics
A job description serves a similar purpose. It outlines the responsibilities of a role, the outcomes an organisation expects, and the skills required to deliver them. Alongside it sits the person specification, another attempt to assess whether an individual is suitable for the position.
Do they possess the right qualifications? Do they have the necessary experience? Can they demonstrate the required competencies?
These are reasonable questions.
The problem is that these documents tell us very little about the person behind them.
A CV tells us what someone has done. A job description tells us what someone is supposed to do. Neither tells us who they are.
Why organisations often lose sight of the person behind the role
Most people have had the experience of looking at their job description and thinking, “Hang on, that is not what I actually do.”
Responsibilities accumulate. Informal roles appear. People become the person others turn to for advice, support, knowledge or solutions. On paper, they may hold a fairly ordinary position. In reality, they are helping to keep the place running. The organisation chart rarely reflects their true value.
This is where the paperwork starts to lose sight of the person.
Employee wellbeing and performance: the questions workplace systems often miss
Most workplaces have systems for measuring performance: appraisals, objectives, targets and KPIs. We do need to know whether work is being completed effectively, but those systems often leave the more important questions untouched.
Is this person coping? Do they feel able to speak honestly? Are they exhausted? Do they understand what is expected of them? Are they quietly looking for another job while smiling at the manager and saying everything is fine?
I have seen that more than once. People who seem perfectly happy on the surface, but spend their breaks, lunch hours and sometimes even working hours looking for another job. Not because they are lazy. Not because they are disloyal. Usually because something about the environment has made staying feel impossible, or because being there is slowly grinding them down.
The problem with traditional performance appraisals
That is one reason I have always dreaded appraisals.
Most appraisals feel like an annual ritual that neither side particularly believes in. The manager often does not want to do it. The employee often does not want to sit through it. Sometimes there is almost an apology before it begins: “Sorry, it’s that time of year again.” A form is filled in, a few examples are found, objectives are written down, and then everyone moves on until the same document is pulled out again the following year.
Sometimes the whole thing feels archaic. What went well? What could have gone better? What do you want to achieve this year? Then next year arrives and someone says, “Oh, we did not really do that, did we?”
Meanwhile, the things that really affect someone’s work may never be discussed.
Are we being clear enough? Are you able to get your work done in the time available? Is there anything making the job harder than it needs to be? Do you have what you need? How can we improve? More importantly, do people feel able to answer honestly?
That last question matters, because in some workplaces the safest answer is still the easiest one: everything is fine.
Why leadership capability matters more than technical expertise
The issue becomes even more obvious when organisations move people into leadership positions.
Many workplaces assume competence naturally transfers from one role to another. The strongest salesperson becomes the Sales Manager. The best teacher becomes the Head of Department. The most capable accountant becomes the Finance Director.
Sometimes people grow into it. Sometimes it becomes clear that being excellent at the job and leading people doing the job are entirely different things.
Technical expertise matters, but it is not the same as leadership. Managing work is one part of the job. Understanding the people doing it is the part many workplaces still underestimate.
How management style shapes workplace culture and employee experience
I once worked in a branch of a larger organisation where the local culture felt almost completely detached from the values the wider organisation claimed to hold.
You could tell whether a particular manager was in the building before you ever saw them. When she was there, the atmosphere tightened. People became guarded. The focus seemed to be on what had gone wrong rather than what was going right. There was a sense of being watched for mistakes.
When she was away, everything changed. The music went on. Conversations started. People still worked. Targets were still met. The difference was that people stopped feeling they had to protect themselves all the time.
It was as if the vice had finally loosened on us all.
It almost felt like a quiet rebellion. Not because people stopped doing their jobs, but because they could do them without that same weight in the room. The work itself had not changed. The policies had not changed. The job descriptions had not changed. The people had not changed.
The culture had.
Workplace culture is defined by everyday behaviour, not corporate value
That experience taught me something I have never forgotten. Culture is not only shaped by what an organisation says it values. It is shaped by what people expect will happen when they speak, make a mistake, ask a question or try to do something differently.
That is why the person behind the job description matters.
Workplaces are usually better at measuring what has been done than noticing what it has taken out of the person doing it.
The hidden drivers of employee retention and turnover
This matters because people rarely leave organisations solely because of the work itself. More often, they leave because they feel ignored, worn down, unsupported, or unable to speak honestly. Sometimes they simply feel unable to be honest about how they are really finding it.
A better question for leaders: what is work doing to your people?
Perhaps the better question is not simply, “Is this person doing the job?”
It is, “What is this job doing to the person?”
Because someone can be doing everything that is asked of them and still be miserable. They can look capable while losing confidence. They can deliver what was asked and still have far more to give.
Building a people-first workplace culture
A CV will never tell you that. A job description will never ask it.
A good workplace has to be willing to ask.
About the author:
Daniel Curtis is a composer, educator and speaker exploring how environments shape confidence, wellbeing, creativity and human potential
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