As we begin this inaugural round of the new staff appraisal process, we have already received a measure of feedback from appraisees anxious about the language used in the behavioural descriptors, or confused about what it might mean to ‘lead self’. Feedback has also come from appraisers who feel uneasy about having to submit their colleagues to performance evaluations using this language, often when they know little of their teaching or research field, and sometimes even when they have never met the appraisee before.