Evaluating Employee Performance: Are We Measuring What Really Matters?

Originally published: 2 September 2026
Newsletter title: Uncovering the Hidden Hierarchy of Workplace Traits

What does a “good employee” look like?

Most organisations can describe the qualities they value in their people.

Good judgement. Initiative. Creativity. Problem solving. Strategic thinking. Collaboration. The ability to build relationships and deliver great work.

But the way we evaluate employee performance doesn’t always reflect those priorities.

Some aspects of performance are much easier to observe than others. We notice when someone arrives late, takes a long time to respond to an email, forgets an administrative task or approaches their work differently from their colleagues.

It’s much harder to measure the value of spotting a problem nobody else saw, finding an unconventional solution, earning the trust of a difficult stakeholder or remaining remarkably calm when everything goes sideways.

That creates an interesting leadership problem. The behaviours that attract the most attention aren’t necessarily the ones that have the greatest impact on someone’s contribution.

In this edition of The Neuro-savvy Leadership Newsletter, I explore the hidden hierarchy of workplace traits and what can happen when the things that are easiest to see begin carrying more weight than the things we actually value.

In this newsletter you’ll discover

• How visible workplace behaviours can become unintended proxies for capability.
• Why “They’re brilliant, but…” can be a useful signal for leaders to investigate.
• How conventional ideas about professionalism can influence performance judgements.
• Why this matters particularly when managing people with spiky performance profiles.
• Four questions that can help leaders distinguish meaningful performance issues from differences that simply attract attention.

Why it matters

Performance decisions have consequences.

They influence who receives opportunities, who is considered high potential, what people are coached to change and where organisations invest their development resources.

If we’re not clear about what actually creates value in a role, it’s easy for highly visible behaviours such as punctuality, organisation, responsiveness or conformity to become shorthand for professionalism and capability.

Sometimes those behaviours genuinely matter. The important question is how much.

This becomes particularly relevant when managing neurodivergent employees and others with uneven or “spiky” profiles. Someone can be exceptional at strategically important work while genuinely struggling with something that appears comparatively simple.

Good performance management needs enough nuance to hold both of those things at once.

Rather than ignoring areas of difficulty, leaders can examine their actual impact, weigh them appropriately against the value someone creates elsewhere, and decide where development effort will make the greatest difference.

Read the original newsletter

In this edition of The Neuro-savvy Leadership Newsletter, I share an experience from early in my career that changed the way I think about what workplaces reward.

I’d become a more capable employee, yet somehow also a more difficult one.

That apparent contradiction eventually helped me recognise how easily observable behaviours can influence our perception of someone’s overall contribution. In the full newsletter, I explore what happens when competence starts being judged by how it looks rather than the value it creates, and four questions leaders can use to examine their own assumptions.

→ Read “Uncovering the Hidden Hierarchy of Workplace Traits” on LinkedIn

Related resources

You may also be interested in:

• When Capability Becomes Camouflage – Why some of the people who appear most capable may also be the least likely to ask for support.
• Supporting ADHD Employees: Better Conditions Create Better Performance – How structure, support and skills can make sustainable performance more achievable.
• How Hidden Workplace Friction Undermines Performance and Productivity – Why seemingly sensible workplace systems can make good performance harder than it needs to be.
• The Manager’s ADHD Support Guide – Practical guidance for managers supporting ADHD employees.
• Executive Coaching – Helping leaders and organisations improve performance while making better use of individual strengths.

About the Neuro-savvy Leadership Newsletter

The Neuro-savvy Leadership Newsletter explores ADHD, neurodiversity and workplace performance through the lens of leadership, organisational systems and sustainable ways of working. Each edition shares practical insights to help leaders, HR professionals and neurodivergent employees create environments where people can thrive – not by expecting individuals to struggle in silence, but by building support into the way work gets done.