Performance management, once a rigid ritual of numerical ratings and once-a-year reviews, is finally waking up to the realities of modern work. The pandemic acted as a global reset shaking the foundations of outdated systems and spotlighting the importance of empathy, adaptability, and human connection. In this piece, I explore five pivotal shifts that organisations can make to infuse more humanity into how we support performance grounded in lived experience and designed for lasting impact.
From Command to Collaboration: A New Era of Performance Conversations
Cast your mind back to those annual appraisals boxed into spreadsheets, defined by discomfort, and devoid of inspiration. For too long, performance management resembled a cold compliance exercise rather than a catalyst for growth. But over the last decade, and especially post-pandemic, a more fluid, conversation-led model has taken shape. Digital platforms have stitched feedback into the day-to-day, while appreciation has replaced audit as the heartbeat of performance culture.
HR in a World of Human Complexity
Over the past 30 years, we’ve seen a profound redefinition of what it means to lead. Employees are no longer viewed as interchangeable parts in a corporate machine they’re the soul of strategic success. Leaders today recognise that wellbeing isn’t a “nice to have,” but the engine of engagement and excellence. And if we truly see employees as end customers of the workplace, then performance management must serve both human aspirations and business imperatives in equal measure.
1. People-First Performance Management: Redefining the Frame
To humanise performance, start by dismantling bureaucracy and amplifying individual agency. That means creating space for people to lead their own growth.
- Timing on Their Terms: Give people the autonomy to initiate feedback conversations when it suits them not bound by arbitrary calendars.
- A Personalised Toolkit: Offer pathways for mentoring, coaching, and development available without being imposed.
- Choosing the Right Guide: Where practical, empower team members to choose their managers in project environments, aligning expertise with empathy.
- Self-Directed Goals: Let employees shape their own objectives anchoring them in purpose and ownership.
This is where performance culture becomes inclusive not just in demographics, but in personality, pace, and preference. Co-creation with employees ensures resonance and relevance.
🟠 Questions to unlock people-first performance:
- What gives your work deeper meaning beyond the paycheque?
- What ambitions could align your role with your wider purpose?
- How can we help you progress without getting in your way?
2. Socially Anchored Performance: Shifting from Solo to Shared Success
True performance is rarely individual. It’s a symphony of interconnected efforts where team harmony trumps solo brilliance. A humanised model embraces this reality.
- Horizontal Objectives: Encourage goals that contribute to team success and cross-functional alignment.
- Team OKRs: Embed performance metrics at the team level, offering clarity and cohesion.
- 360-Degree Feedback: Invite perspectives from across the organisation, giving a fuller picture of performance.
- Collective Reflection: Facilitate regular team conversations to surface contributions, tensions, and opportunities.
When performance becomes a shared language, we reduce silos and build cultures of interdependence.
🟠 Questions to deepen team-centred performance:
- If we removed individual goals, what would great team performance look like?
- What are your contributions to collective success?
- Which cross-functional goals are currently underserved?
3. Contextual Performance Management: Designing for Fit, Not Formula
Just as no two people are alike, no two organisations should adopt performance models by copy-and-paste. The most effective systems are tailored—mirroring the contours of culture, ambition, and industry.
- Context-Driven Strategy: Align performance processes to organisational maturity, sector, and vision.
- Culture in Practice: Ensure values aren’t just posters on the wall they’re reflected in how success is measured and recognised.
- Right-Size Flexibility: From SMART goals to OKRs, choose tools that serve your context, not the latest trend.
🟠 Questions for strategic alignment:
- What’s the ultimate goal of your performance management system?
- Which values and behaviours should be embedded in the process?
- What do your people genuinely need to thrive?
4. Development-Centred Performance: Fuel for the Future
In high-performing organisations, performance management is less about accountability and more about possibility. It’s not a rear-view mirror—it’s a windscreen.
- Growth Mindset as Default: Assume everyone has untapped potential.
- Upskill and Reskill: Make learning central to business resilience and individual relevance.
- Performance Through Development: Recognise that today’s training is tomorrow’s achievement.
🟠 Questions for development-led performance:
- Which new skills would accelerate your impact?
- Who else could benefit if you mastered these capabilities?
- Is your growth plan visible and evolving?
5. Breakthrough-Enabled Performance: Creating Space for Innovation
Incrementalism can be the quiet enemy of progress. To inspire breakthrough thinking, performance management must give people permission to stretch, to experiment, and to reimagine.
- Set Audacious Goals: Encourage individuals to dream beyond the bounds of traditional KPIs.
- Strengths in Action: Let people lead from what they do best, not just what’s required.
- Design the Exceptional Year: Ask employees to envision their proudest possible version of success.
🟠 Questions for breakthrough thinking:
- What strengths are you underutilising in your role?
- How would your work look if those strengths led the way?
- What bold ideas are others in your industry acting on that we aren’t?
- How could technology multiply your impact?
A Human-Centred Future Is a Competitive Advantage
Performance management doesn’t need to be a sterile process it can be a powerful act of connection. When designed around people rather than process, it becomes a living system—one that supports ambition, strengthens trust, and delivers measurable impact.
By placing humanity at the heart of performance, we don’t just unlock productivity we build cultures of excellence where everyone has the tools and belief to thrive.
