Why we need fewer performance reviews—and more check-ins
In her new book, leadership expert Ashley Goodall argues that check-ins are a more personal way for teams to set goals.
Performance management, if you’re not familiar with the term, is the slightly Orwellian name given to the process involving goal-setting, annual or semiannual reviews and feedback, and performance ratings, and in its traditional form, it represents a kind of all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of our worst and most erroneous ideas about human performance. Goals must be set for people, because they are extrinsically motivated and otherwise probably won’t do much work. Performance reviews and ratings are needed because if people aren’t told where they stand and how to improve, they’ll never get any better—certainly not of their own volition.