How to Lead, 5th Edition

Chapter 18

Manage performance

Performance management is in trouble. Since 2015, over 30 major firms such as GE, Accenture and CIGNA have ditched their performance rankings of staff. These firms discovered that their performance management systems did not manage performance but tracked it. The annual appraisal system is broken. Over 90% of managers and staff report disliking it; HR groups say it does not yield accurate information and it does not cope well with the changing nature of work, which is both more ambiguous and collaborative.

Fortunately, How to Lead has been setting out an alternative to performance tracking since the first edition 13 years ago. The alternative is to genuinely manage performance, which you achieve in three stages: ...