Human Resources Leadership & Management

Performance Management: Building a High-Accountability, High-Trust Organization

A practical course on setting expectations, coaching performance, and improving results across teams.

Performance Management: Building a High-Accountability, High-Trust Organization logo
Quick Course Facts
17
Self-paced, Online, Lessons
17
Videos and/or Narrated Presentations
5.1
Approximate Hours of Course Media
About the Performance Management: Building a High-Accountability, High-Trust Organization Course

This course on Performance Management helps Human Resources professionals and people managers build a stronger, more consistent approach to employee performance. You’ll learn how to set clear expectations, support better conversations, and improve results across teams while strengthening trust and accountability.

Build A High-Accountability Performance Management System

  • Learn a practical course on setting expectations, coaching performance, and improving results across teams.
  • Strengthen Human Resources practices with clearer goals, better documentation, and fairer reviews.
  • Improve manager confidence in delivering feedback, handling tough conversations, and reducing bias.
  • Support high performers and address underperformance earlier with a more structured process.

A practical course on setting expectations, coaching performance, and improving results across teams.

This Performance Management course gives you a complete framework for creating a system that is both high-trust and high-accountability. You will explore the foundations of Performance Management, learn how to align goals with business priorities, and define success criteria that make expectations easier to understand and measure.

Throughout the course, you will build the skills needed to run an effective performance cycle from start to finish. That includes ongoing check-ins, useful feedback, coaching for development, and performance reviews that are fair, consistent, and evidence based. You will also learn how to document conversations properly, use the right metrics, and calibrate outcomes across teams so decisions are more aligned.

The course also focuses on managing performance risk before it becomes a bigger issue. You will practice identifying underperformance early, creating effective improvement plans, and handling difficult conversations with confidence and professionalism. At the same time, you will learn how to support high performers, encourage career growth, and continuously improve the system over time.

By the end of the course, you will be better prepared to lead Performance Management in a way that improves results, strengthens manager capability, and creates a more consistent experience across your organization. You will leave with practical tools you can apply immediately in Human Resources and in day-to-day management.

Course Lessons

Full lesson breakdown

Lessons are organized by topic area and each includes descriptive copy for search visibility and student clarity.

Foundations of Performance Management

1 lesson

Performance management is the ongoing system leaders use to define expectations, monitor progress, coach behavior, and improve results. It is not the same as annual reviews or disciplinary action. In …

Setting Direction

1 lesson

Lesson 2: Aligning Performance Goals with Business Priorities

18 min
This lesson shows how to connect individual performance goals to the business outcomes that matter most. When goals are aligned, employees understand why their work matters, managers can prioritize mo…

Performance Standards

1 lesson

Lesson 3: Defining Clear Expectations and Success Criteria

18 min
This lesson shows managers how to define clear expectations and success criteria so people know exactly what good performance looks like. It focuses on turning broad responsibilities into observable o…

Processes and Cadence

1 lesson

Lesson 4: Creating a Performance Management Cycle

18 min
This lesson explains how to turn performance management from an annual event into a recurring business process. A strong cycle sets a clear rhythm for goal setting, check-ins, coaching, review, and fo…

Ongoing Manager Conversations

1 lesson

Lesson 5: Using Check-Ins to Keep Performance on Track

18 min
Check-ins are the manager's most practical tool for keeping performance visible between formal reviews. In this lesson, learners see how short, consistent conversations help clarify priorities, remove…

Feedback Skills

1 lesson

Lesson 6: Giving Feedback That Improves Performance

18 min
This lesson shows managers how to give feedback that leads to better performance, not defensiveness. The focus is on making feedback timely, specific, and tied to observed behavior and business impact…

Manager as Coach

1 lesson

Lesson 7: Coaching for Development and Problem Solving

18 min
Coaching is the manager’s day-to-day tool for improving performance without defaulting to control or criticism. In this lesson, you’ll learn how to use coaching conversations to clarify thinking, unco…

Measurement and Evidence

1 lesson

Lesson 8: Measuring Performance with the Right Metrics

18 min
In this lesson, learners will focus on how to choose metrics that actually reflect performance, not just activity. Professor Nathan Ward explains the difference between lagging and leading indicators,…

Records and Documentation

1 lesson

Lesson 9: Documenting Performance Conversations Effectively

18 min
This lesson shows managers how to document performance conversations in a way that is clear, fair, and useful later. Good documentation turns a difficult conversation into an actionable record: what w…

Review Meetings

1 lesson

Lesson 10: Running Fair and Useful Performance Reviews

18 min
This lesson shows managers how to run performance reviews that feel fair, specific, and useful to employees. The focus is on preparing evidence, using consistent standards, handling bias, giving balan…

Fairness and Consistency

1 lesson

Lesson 11: Avoiding Rating Bias and Common Evaluation Errors

18 min
This lesson focuses on how managers can make performance ratings more fair, consistent, and useful. You’ll learn the most common evaluation errors—such as halo effect, recency bias, leniency, central …

Cross-Team Consistency

1 lesson

Lesson 12: Calibrating Performance Across Teams

18 min
Calibrating performance across teams means applying the same standards, language, and evidence when evaluating results in different functions or locations. In this lesson, learners explore how to redu…

Performance Risk Management

1 lesson

Lesson 13: Identifying and Addressing Underperformance Early

18 min
This lesson shows managers how to spot underperformance early before it becomes a formal performance problem. The focus is on recognizing patterns, separating facts from assumptions, and using low-dra…

Improvement Planning

1 lesson

Lesson 14: Building Performance Improvement Plans That Work

18 min
This lesson shows how to turn a performance gap into a structured improvement plan that is fair, specific, and measurable. Learners will focus on the purpose of a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), w…

Communication Under Pressure

1 lesson

Lesson 15: Managing Difficult Conversations with Confidence

18 min
This lesson shows managers how to handle difficult conversations without becoming overly soft, overly harsh, or overly reactive. The focus is on staying calm, preparing well, and speaking clearly abou…

Development and Retention

1 lesson

Lesson 16: Supporting High Performers and Career Growth

18 min
This lesson focuses on how managers keep strong performers engaged, challenged, and growing without creating favoritism or losing team balance. You will learn how to recognize and reward strong perfor…

Continuous Improvement

1 lesson

Lesson 17: Improving the Performance Management System Over Time

18 min
This lesson shows how to improve a performance management system after it is already in use. The focus is on using real evidence, manager feedback, and employee experience to refine expectations, coac…
About Your Instructor
Professor Nathan Ward

Professor Nathan Ward

Professor Nathan Ward guides this AI-built Virversity course with a clear, practical teaching style.