Performance Management and Leadership Development Training Course

Course overview

Performance management and leadership development are usually run as separate programs by separate people, and the separation costs the organization twice. The performance system judges people against this year's goals and stops there. The leadership program identifies high potentials and develops them in a classroom disconnected from their actual performance. Neither talks to the other, so the performance data that should identify and shape future leaders sits unused, and the leadership development that should be grounded in real performance floats free of it.

This course treats them as one connected system. It covers the foundations of performance management, goal-setting and alignment, evaluation and feedback, leadership development frameworks, the link between performance and leadership growth, the common challenges, and how to sustain both. It is for HR professionals and managers who want performance management that develops people and leadership development that is anchored in how they actually perform.

Why the two belong together

Performance management, done well, is continuous development: clear expectations, honest feedback, and support to close the gap between current and required capability. Leadership development, done well, is the same activity aimed at a longer horizon. Run separately, they duplicate effort and contradict each other, with the performance conversation focused on this quarter and the development conversation on a distant potential, and the person caught between two managers speaking two languages about the same work.

Connected, they reinforce. Performance data reveals who is ready to develop and in what direction. Development goals become part of the performance conversation instead of a separate annual event. The person experiences one coherent message about where they are and where they are going. The course is about building that coherence.

Course objectives

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Link a single performance observation to one development decision.
• Draft goals whose failure identifies a capability to develop.
• Rate current work by its evidence for a larger job.
• Evidence a development decision with what reviewers repeated.
• Prescribe development that follows observed work, not a catalog.
• Test a program against the appraisals written after it.
• Second a person into the post that tests a disputed strength.
• Promote consistency where two managers read one record differently.
• Schedule development inside the performance conversation itself.

Course outline

Unit 1: Foundations of performance management

• Observation in March that decides an assignment in June.
• The same appraisal note used to judge and to develop.
• Why disliked systems produce judgment but no next step.
• Cases where a strong result led to no change in role.

Unit 2: Goal setting and performance alignment

• Setting a target whose miss names the skill to build.
• Tracing a unit's shortfall to the skill nobody trained.
• Weighing conduct against output before widening a remit.
• Cancelling a target in June and the training booked for it.

Unit 3: Performance evaluation and feedback

• Ratings that predicted nothing about the next role.
• Comments repeated by three reviewers and never acted on.
• A review that names a limit and the work that removes it.
• Turning one weak answer into next quarter's practice work.

Unit 4: Leadership development frameworks

• Strength shown in one task and the post chosen to test it.
• Guides that turn one observed gap into one booked place.
• Plans built from last quarter's evidence, not a catalog.
• Judging a leadership program by the next appraisal.

Unit 5: Linking performance and leadership growth

• Reading one quarter's record for the job after next.
• Ending an appraisal conversation with one assignment named.
• Excellent results and next steps nobody had planned.
• Reviews that said ready against evidence that said not yet.

Unit 6: Overcoming challenges in performance and development

• Two managers, one record and two different next moves.
• Judgments formed in one week that shape a two-year plan.
• Treating underperformance as evidence for a different post.
• Protecting the hour that turns a review into a decision.

Unit 7: Sustaining performance and leadership excellence

• Making feedback the point at which work is reassigned.
• Building managers who can turn one observation into a move.
• Counting how many appraisals ended in a real decision.
• Finding capability an appraisal praised and no job needed.

How the course is delivered

The course runs as facilitated discussion and case analysis. Participants work with real performance systems, goal sets and development plans, and rebuild the parts that do not connect. Feedback and coaching are examined through documented conversations and worked examples; there is no acted role-play and no software environment. Participants are encouraged to bring their own performance and development materials.

The engagement dimension of this work is developed in Performance Management and Employee Engagement.

Who should attend

• HR professionals who own performance or leadership development.
• Managers responsible for both performance and the growth of their people.
• Talent and organizational development specialists.
• Senior leaders connecting performance to succession and future capability.

About EuroQuest International Training

EuroQuest International Training was founded in 2015 by a team with more than 25 years of experience in professional development. We run over 1,000 courses and have trained more than 15,000 participants. Our head office is in Bratislava, Slovakia, and we deliver courses through hubs in Dubai, London, Barcelona, Istanbul, Vienna, Paris and Geneva. Courses are built and reviewed by practitioners who have worked in the fields they teach.

Frequently asked questions

Is this a performance-management course or a leadership-development course?

Both, deliberately. The course's argument is that they work better connected, and it treats them as one system rather than two, which is unusual and is the point.

Does the course include a live lab?

No. There is no software environment and no acted role-play. Participants work from real performance and development documents and documented cases.

Is it for HR or for line managers?

Both. HR designs the systems and managers run them, and the course benefits from having both perspectives in the room.

Related courses

• Developing Leadership Skills in HR Professionals
• Leadership Development and Succession Planning
• Coaching and Mentoring for Employee Development
• Managing Talent and Succession Planning

Register for this course

Choose a city and date from the schedule above and register online, or contact the EuroQuest team for group bookings and in-house delivery. Where an HR team and line managers attend together, the two halves of the system can be reconnected against your own practice.