Investing in Rising Leaders: Why High Performers Need More Than Performance Reviews

Every year-end performance cycle reveals the same pattern: a handful of individuals consistently rise to the top. They exceed expectations, demonstrate leadership potential, and show genuine hunger for growth. They're your rising leaders — the people who will shape your organization's future.

Yet too often, these high performers receive the same developmental support as everyone else: an annual review, perhaps a training course or two, maybe a stretch assignment if they're lucky. Meanwhile, organizations wonder why talented people leave for opportunities that promise real investment in their growth.

The truth is stark: rising leaders don't need more performance reviews. They need deep, transformative developmental experiences designed specifically for their level of readiness and ambition.

The Rising Leader's Dilemma

High performers face a unique challenge. They've proven their capabilities and positioned themselves for advancement. But the very success that got them noticed often leaves them hungry for feedback and guidance that goes beyond "keep doing what you're doing."

These individuals typically share several characteristics:

They Seek Constructive Challenge
Unlike defensive reactions to feedback, rising leaders actively want to know what they need to do next. They can handle tough perspectives when delivered constructively.

They Think Systemically
They're beginning to see beyond their individual contribution to how they influence teams, departments, and organizational culture. They need feedback that matches this broader lens.

They've Become Skeptical of Traditional Feedback
Many have been through traditional 360s, anonymous feedback, standardized assessments, or received vague encouragement from managers. They're looking for something more rigorous, more honest, and more actionable.

They Want to Accelerate Their Growth
Time matters to ambitious professionals. They're not content with incremental improvement — they want transformative development.

This is the moment when organizations either rise to meet their potential or lose them to competitors who will.

What Rising Leaders Actually Need

Deep development for emerging leaders requires more than standard leadership training. It demands a fundamentally different approach built on several key principles:

Rigorous, Honest Perspective

Rising leaders can handle — and actually crave — direct, constructive perspectives on what to do next. They don't need feedback wrapped in confidentiality or kid gloves. What they need is transparency about how their leadership behaviors are experienced by others, delivered in a way that creates clarity on what to do to excel.

The Shift Positive^® method was designed precisely for this key few that can have an outsized impact on the future organization. Instead of anonymous comments that leave leaders guessing, it creates transparent dialogue where feedback providers become development allies. Instead of focusing on what's broken, it identifies specific behaviors the leader could do more of to excel. Instead of leaving someone with a private development plan, it enlists their network to support their growth.

This approach particularly resonates with leaders who've grown tired of traditional feedback systems. They've likely experienced the limitations: confidential comments that feel more like hidden complaints than helpful guidance, feedback that identifies problems without suggesting solutions, and improvement plans that isolate them rather than mobilizing support.

Developmental Depth, Not Surface Learning

Rising leaders have typically exhausted the value of generic leadership workshops and broad assessments. They need customized, intensive development that goes deep rather than broad. This includes:

Skilled Facilitation — a coach who does not “gather information” for their client via a 360. But rather, an expert coach that works on behalf of their client to nudge crucial colleagues to identify the leader's strengths, identify what is next, specifically, in that leader's growth, and to enlist them to become allies in that leader's development; to commit to being a partner for that leader.

Executive coaching that provides a confidential development partner to process complex leadership challenges, examine their impact on others, and develop more sophisticated leadership strategies. Further, to hold them accountable to their development plan and commitments to their allies.

Skill development in areas that matter at senior levels: navigating organizational politics with integrity, influencing without authority, leading through uncertainty, having courageous conversations, and building cultures that bring out the best in people.

Systems thinking that helps them understand how their behavior ripples through organizational systems, creating either virtuous or vicious cycles in team dynamics and culture.

Relationship-based Development

Research consistently shows that development accelerates when embedded in real relationships. This is why the Shift Positive approach succeeds, as shown in a recent comprehensive, independent study. It doesn't engage anonymous raters providing one-time input; rather, it creates colleagues who commit to ongoing dialogue about the leader's growth. They notice progress, offer real-time reinforcement, and hold the leader accountable to their development commitments.

For rising leaders, this network of allies becomes invaluable. They create accountability, support, and reinforcement long after the 360.

Integration with Real Work

The most powerful development happens when leaders apply new insights and behaviors to their actual leadership challenges. Rising leaders need developmental support that integrates directly with their work.

This means:

• Coaching conversations timed around real decisions and challenges, not arbitrary monthly meetings
• Feedback processes that leverage current leadership responsibilities and relationships
• Action learning that tackles genuine organizational problems while developing leadership capabilities
• Development plans that leverage the relationships crucial to the leader's future success and advancement

The Performance Review Connection

As you navigate performance reviews this season, you're likely identifying who these rising leaders are. You see their achievements, observe their impact, and recognize their potential. The annual review might acknowledge their excellence, but it won't develop it.

That's where you face a crucial decision: Will you invest in these individuals at the level their potential deserves? Or will you risk losing them to organizations that will?

A Comprehensive Approach to Developing Rising Leaders

Change Positive offers a complete ecosystem of support specifically designed for emerging leaders critical to the success of the organization:

Shift Positive 360^® provides the rigorous, transparent feedback process that reveals both strengths and specific actions for greater leadership impact. Unlike traditional 360s, this methodology is transparent and transforms feedback providers into allies who support the leader's ongoing development.

Executive Coaching creates the space for rising leaders to process feedback, work through complex leadership challenges, and develop the sophisticated thinking required at senior levels. Our coaches bring deep expertise in positive psychology, systems thinking, and leadership development.

Leadership Development Programs can be customized for cohorts of rising leaders in your organization, combining the Shift Positive methodology with skill development, peer learning, and integration with real organizational challenges.

The ROI of Investing in Rising Leaders

Organizations often hesitate to invest deeply in high performers, viewing intensive development as expensive or unnecessary for people already succeeding. This perspective misses several critical points:

Retention Value
The cost of losing a high performer — in recruitment, onboarding, lost productivity, and impact on team morale — far exceeds the investment in their development.

Acceleration Value
Rising leaders who receive intensive support advance faster, filling critical leadership gaps more quickly than those left to develop on their own.

Culture Value
How you invest in your best people sends a powerful message throughout the organization about whether you truly value development and growth. Moreover, the Shift Positive method itself, leads participants to hone their own feedback skills, creating a culture of constructive engagement.

Succession Value
Today's rising leaders become tomorrow's senior executives. Their readiness determines your organization's future capability.

Making the Investment

If you're in the midst of performance reviews and identifying your rising leaders, the question isn't whether to invest in them — it's how quickly you can begin.

These individuals deserve more than an annual conversation about their performance. They deserve a comprehensive development experience that matches their ambition, leverages their strengths, provides the constructive challenge they crave, and mobilizes their network to support their growth.

The Shift Positive method and our comprehensive suite of leadership development services were created precisely for this purpose: to transform high performers into exceptional leaders through rigorous feedback, intensive coaching, and relationship-based development. The investment isn't for everyone; but the select few. These leaders are ready. The only question is whether your organization is ready to invest in them at the level they deserve.

About the Author

Pete Berridge is CEO of Change Positive LLC and creator of the Shift Positive^® Method. A Master of Applied Positive Psychology from the University of Pennsylvania and certified coach through the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara, Pete has spent his career transforming how organizations approach feedback and leadership development. He is co-author of Feedback Reimagined: Transform Your Organization Through Positive Psychology and Social Support.