Performance Management for Leaders
How leaders take their teams to the next level
“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.”— Harvey S. Firestone
When you hear performance management, what comes to mind?
For many leaders, it is the annual staff review: objectives are checked, forms are completed, new objectives are agreed – and everyone gets back to work.
But performance management is much more than an annual event. It starts when you recruit somebody and continues through how you set direction, talk with your staff, support their development, recognise good work, and receive feedback on your own leadership.
Done well, performance management is the backbone of strategic people management. It connects your organisation’s strategy with what teams and individuals actually do.
A strategy may say, for example, that your organisation wants to strengthen its policy influence. But what does this mean for the programme manager, the advocacy officer or the country team? Performance management creates this connection: organisational priorities become team priorities, team priorities become individual objectives, and regular conversations keep everyone moving in the same direction.
Research and practice have also moved increasingly away from seeing performance management primarily as an annual appraisal towards a more continuous process of objectives, feedback, coaching and development.
1. Recruitment – start with clear expectations
Performance management starts before somebody joins your organisation. Clear, up-to-date job descriptions define what you expect from a role and provide the basis for recruiting the right person. Once somebody joins, a good induction and probation process gives you the opportunity to clarify expectations, provide support and address difficulties early.
If somebody is struggling after three months, don't wait until the annual review to talk about it. Early feedback gives people the opportunity to improve.
2. Direction & Planning – translate strategy into people's work
One of your most important leadership tasks is turning organisational priorities into clear team and individual objectives.
This should not be a top-down exercise. Involve staff in planning. Make sure people understand not only what they are expected to achieve, but also why it matters.
Then keep reviewing progress. Priorities change. Projects develop. A new funding opportunity or political development may suddenly require your team to focus elsewhere. Good performance management keeps people's work connected to what the organisation actually needs.
3. Annual Staff Reviews – important, but not enough
Annual staff reviews remain useful. They provide dedicated time to reflect on achievements, challenges, objectives and staff development.
However, a staff member should not discover during an annual review that their manager has been dissatisfied with their performance for months. Such issues should be addressed when they arise, not saved for a formal meeting.
In recent years, many organisations have moved away from traditional annual appraisals towards more regular performance conversations, feedback and coaching. Some have even abandoned formal performance ratings altogether, recognising that numerical scores do not necessarily help people improve.
The annual review can still be an important milestone. But performance management happens throughout the year, not once a year.
4. Staff Development – help people grow
Performance management is not only about asking: Did you achieve your objectives?
Ask another question: What would help you become better at what you do?
Sometimes the answer is training. Often it is something else. A staff member may learn more by leading the next stakeholder meeting, taking responsibility for a new project, being coached through a difficult situation or working alongside a more experienced colleague.
Good staff development connects what the person needs and wants to learn with what your organisation needs.
5. One-to-Ones & Open Communication – make time to talk
Regular one-to-one conversations may be one of the simplest and most powerful performance-management practices available to you.
They don't need to be long. A regular conversation can focus on a few straightforward questions: What is going well? Where are you struggling? What has changed? What support do you need from me?
Research on one-to-one meetings reinforces their importance. Steven Rogelberg's work, discussed in the Harvard Business Review IdeaCast, highlights the value of regular one-to-ones for engagement, performance and the relationship between managers and staff.
But don't turn every one-to-one into another reporting meeting. Give the staff member space to bring their own concerns, ideas and development needs.
Regularity matters more than length.
6. Recognition & Appreciation – notice what is working
Leaders naturally spend a lot of time solving problems. Performance management can therefore easily become a conversation about what is missing, late or not good enough.
Don't forget to notice what is working.
Recognition can be very simple: “You facilitated that meeting extremely well. You managed to bring the two sides together when the discussion became difficult.”
Specific recognition is usually more meaningful than a general “Well done.”
And recognition is not only individual. When your team reaches an important milestone or gets through a difficult period together, celebrate the achievement as a team.
7. Leadership Feedback – performance works both ways
There is one final element that is easily forgotten. You give your staff feedback. But how do they give feedback to you?
Saying “my door is always open” is not enough. There is a power difference between a leader and a staff member, and many people will understandably hesitate to tell their manager what they could do better.
That is why organisations need systematic mechanisms for leadership feedback. These might include structured upward feedback, 360-degree feedback, anonymous staff surveys or regular team reflection processes.
And collecting feedback is only useful if something happens afterwards. Listen to it, discuss it and look for patterns. You don't need to agree with every comment. But if several people tell you that your priorities are unclear or that you rarely listen before making decisions, it deserves attention.
Performance management happens through leadership
None of these seven practices is particularly complicated. The challenge is consistency.
Recruit people into clear roles. Translate strategy into objectives. Review performance. Develop people. Talk regularly. Recognise contribution. Create opportunities for your staff to give you feedback.
HR can provide policies, templates and systems. But performance management happens in the relationship between you and the people you lead. This makes it one of the most practical ways to take your team to the next level.
Exercise: How strong is your performance management?
Use the Performance Management Assessment & Planning Tool for Leaders to review your leadership practice across the seven areas.
Score the two statements in each area from 1 – Not in place to 5 – Very strong and add a short observation about why you gave yourself that rating.
Performance_Management_Assessme…
Then select two or three priority areas and turn them into practical actions in your Performance Management Development Plan.
Once you have finished, ask yourself one final question:
What is the one change in my leadership practice that would make the biggest difference to my team's performance?
References & further reading
Cappelli, P. & Tavis, A. (2016). The Performance Management Revolution. Harvard Business Review. On the shift from annual appraisal towards more frequent feedback, coaching and development.
Buckingham, M. & Goodall, A. (2015). Reinventing Performance Management. Harvard Business Review. A useful example of redesigning traditional performance management around more frequent conversations and future performance.
Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). Performance Management: An Introduction. An overview of performance management covering objectives, regular discussions, feedback and development.
Harvard Business Review IdeaCast (2024). Supercharge Your One-on-One Meetings, with Steven Rogelberg. A particularly useful resource on making regular one-to-one conversations work.
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