Managing for Peak Performance: Setting the Conditions for Continuous Growth

By Jacquelyn Davis , Managing Partner, Volution Advisors

Last blog we covered how to handle a RIF and strengthen your culture at the same time – or at least not ruin it. 

This week, we’ll cover creating a high performing organization with a continuous growth mindset and muscle.  In this culture, having to fire someone for poorer performance never comes as a surprise. And everyone is supported to continue to grow – and even make mistakes. 

Leading high-performance organizations doesn’t come from occasional bursts of effort or relying on a few star performers. The Michael Jordan approach leaves the vast collective talent in an organization untapped – and it doesn't win games. High-performance comes from building a culture of continuous growth—a system where people know what success looks like, receive feedback regularly, and are supported to keep stretching and developing their skills and knowledge.

As The Management Center’s bible, Managing to Change the World, reminds us, “great managers don’t just get results—they build the capacity to get results again and again.” Harvard Business Review echoes this: the highest-performing organizations don’t wait for annual reviews to drive growth. They weave learning and feedback into the daily rhythm of work.

Team members need to have the skill and will to perform at a high level.  The culture also needs to be psychologically safe – where everyone knows they will be supported and encouraged to make mistakes in the interest of growing and learning. It’s next to impossible to grow in a toxic environment of mistrust. 

As a leader, you can think of it as a Growth Flywheel—a simple, repeatable cycle that creates self-reinforcing momentum for performance. Once it starts spinning, each stage feeds the next, turning growth into a cultural norm rather than a one-off event.

The Growth Flywheel has four key stages:

1. Set Ambitious Clarity

Performance starts with clarity. People can’t grow if they don’t know what success looks like. Great leaders set ambitious but achievable goals, explain why those goals matter, and connect them to the larger mission.

Define clear, measurable goals and connect them to the larger mission. Stretch expectations—but keep them realistic and transparent.

Best practice: Document goals in writing, revisit them quarterly, and tie them to organizational outcomes.

How to Do It:

• Be specific: Define measurable outcomes, not vague aspirations.

• Document expectations: Write them down so both manager and employee are aligned.

• Revisit regularly: Adjust goals as priorities shift, so they remain relevant.

When expectations are clear, people understand what excellence looks like—and how they’ll be measured against it.

2. Coach in Real Time with Direct Feedback

Growth happens in the moment, not just at review time. Normalize feedback—both positive and constructive—so it’s part of weekly rhythms. Feedback isn’t a judgment; it’s a gift to help someone improve. When delivered consistently, respectfully, and with concrete evidence, it accelerates learning and signals investment in someone’s growth.

Don’t shy away from being direct and give bite sized feedback. For example, if a team member is working on public speaking overall as a growth area, after an event the manager can give positive feedback about what went well and then also use some specific examples of where the presentation could have been strengthened.

Another key: ask for feedback yourself and show gratitude for receiving it.  Even better, show that you put it into practice.  If the leader demonstrates the willingness to receive and use feedback, they are modeling what they want to see in others and creating a culture where feedback is definitely safe. 

Best practice: Use the “What worked / What we could have done better” framework and keep it short, specific, and actionable. Doing this right after a meeting enables everyone to reflect and have concrete steps on how to do it better next time.

How to Do It:

• Be timely: Deliver feedback close to the action so it’s most useful.

• Be specific: Replace “Do better next time” with “In tomorrow’s client call, let’s slow down and make space for questions.”

• Be balanced: Reinforce what’s working as much as you point out what needs to change.

3. Reflect and Reset

Pause regularly to assess progress and recalibrate. Teams that don’t pause to reflect often repeat the same mistakes. This includes quarterly check-ins, mid-project debriefs, and structured self-reflection. Reflection turns experience into learning and helps people see both achievements and growth edges. More importantly, self-reflection builds accountability and puts the onerous on the team member to grow and improve. Informal “evaluations” should happen throughout the year and not just at annual evaluation.  This gives team members concrete areas of success and ways to continue to grow. 

Best practice: Build “after-action reviews” into projects, asking: What did we set out to do? What happened? What worked? What will we do differently next time?

How To Do It:

• Quarterly check-ins: Go beyond numbers to discuss what’s working and what’s not.

• After-action reviews: At the end of projects, ask: What did we aim to do? What happened? What worked? What will we change?

• Self-reflection prompts: Encourage employees to evaluate their own progress.

This stage resets the system. Reflection clarifies strengths, identifies growth edges, and provides a basis for new goals.

4. Celebrate and Stretch

Recognition fuels momentum. When people see their progress celebrated, they’re more motivated to take on the next challenge. Celebration is not just about big wins—it’s about acknowledging growth, resilience, and effort. 

Once a team member has demonstrated solid growth, help them find the next frontier of growth.  Everyone should always be working to their edge. What’s one concrete way that the colleague can grow over the next few months?  What support do they need?  Then, stretch expectations again, starting the cycle anew. 

Best practice: Build “after-action reviews” into projects, asking: What did we set out to do? What happened? What worked? What will we do differently next time?

How To Do It:

• Celebrate small wins: Acknowledge consistent effort, not just major milestones.

• Make recognition public: Highlight successes in team meetings to model excellence.

• Stretch again: Once people succeed, raise the bar slightly higher to keep the cycle in motion.

Celebration fuels energy, and stretching expectations prevents stagnation. Together, they keep the flywheel spinning. 

The Bigger Picture

A performance system like this strengthens the whole organization and creates a culture of continuous growth. This flywheel builds on itself and helps an organization get better and better over time. People know where they stand. High performers thrive because accountability is real. Underperformers have a genuine chance to improve. And when a firing does happen, it’s done with humanity, not surprise.

The truth is, avoiding accountability is not kindness. It’s cruelty in disguise—because it sets people up for failure. Real kindness is clarity. Real humanity is honesty. And real leadership is having the courage to hold both.