Performance Management Framework

Continuous Performance Management

Performance is the essential internal engine of any organization that wants to achieve a notable impact in its industry. A performance management system encompasses everything managers do to “lead, manage, assess, and develop employees,” such as establishing objectives, planning individual career development, and various assessments, including “self-assessment, manager assessments,” and “360-degree assessments.”

Despite this broad range of activities, many leaders treat performance management as an annual event, like a trip to the dentist – a single, highly circumscribed appraisal with some goal setting thrown in for good measure. This is the wrong strategy. Performance management should be an ongoing activity, part of the warp and woof of your organization, as essential as unlocking the doors every morning. Performance management is the bedrock of meaningful management.

A Strategy, Not an Event

“High-impact performance management” includes daily, continual “goal setting and revising, managing and coaching, development planning, and rewarding and recognizing,” along with periodic “performance appraisal events.” Deployed...