Performance Management: Putting Research into Action

Notes

1 We had actually administered a survey with this same question beginning in the early 1990s to executives and upper-middle managers (directors or senior managers) at Conference Board and other leadership conferences. When we repeated these surveys to a variety of audiences (conference attendees, national samples, client organizations), we found results that varied little from the 1990s through the recent periods. Agreement on strategy does not seem to be getting noticeably better.

2 Although it has been argued by Buckingham and his colleagues that it is not possible, or perhaps worth it, to try to address skills gaps; rather, they argue that it is more important to focus instead on developing people’s strengths. Clearly, this approach ...