Harvard Business Review LogoJuly 1, 2026Jorg Greuel/Getty ImagesWhat began as a crisis-driven response to the Covid pandemic laid the foundation for today’s dominant management paradigm: people-first management. But today’s business demands aThe onset of the Covid-19 pandemic in March 2020 initiated a seismic reconfiguration of how we work, the speed and scale of which far exceeded any historical precedent. Overnight, kitchens became offices; meetings moved to living rooms. The traditional boundaries between work and life dissolved as workers tried to maintain productivity through economic upheaval, all while decontaminating groceries and managing their children’s online classes.
The Case for Performance-First Management
What began as a crisis-driven response to the Covid pandemic laid the foundation for today’s dominant management paradigm: people-first management. But today’s business demands a different approach, as performance and productivity have replaced engagement and retention atop the CEO agenda. Performance-first management represents a gentle shift toward an approach where managers empower their teams to deliver high-impact results within a complex and evolving reality. It keeps people at the center, but reorients the manager’s role around enabling performance, not just supporting satisfaction. Gartner research shows that managers who shift toward a performance-first approach are up to 21% more likely to deliver the business results that are expected of them. And employees who say that their managers are performance-first report higher overall satisfaction with their employee experience.
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