Annual reviews alone do not drive results. Performance management is the ongoing process of aligning employee effort with organizational goals through goal setting, coaching, feedback, and evaluation.

It connects individual objectives to team and enterprise priorities, provides regular course correction, and informs decisions about pay, promotion, and development. Effective systems emphasize dialogue and improvement more than pure judgment. Technology can track goals and feedback; it cannot replace managerial skill.

When performance management becomes a paperwork exercise, it loses credibility. When it becomes a continuous leadership practice, it raises both results and fairness. Clarity of expectations at the start prevents most later disputes.

• Ongoing alignment of effort with organizational goals
• Includes goals, coaching, feedback, and evaluation
• Links individual work to enterprise priorities
• Depends on managerial skill more than forms