Are your people ready to manage performance? | Disruptive Innovators Network

This year brings the new Competence and Conduct Standards for housing associations, and they’re closing in fast.

The clock is ticking - but this isn’t just about ticking a regulatory box. At the heart of it, the regulator is pushing for something simple but powerful: real competence and the right behaviours.

Because here’s the truth. Training someone doesn’t automatically make them competent.
Booking courses is the easy bit. Building real capability? That takes time, focus, and follow-through.

To really grow competence, we need to:

Spot gaps early
Build skills over time
Track progress properly

And there’s one ingredient that makes or breaks all of this: strong performance management.

It’s actually a core part of the standards. After all, if you want to maintain competence, you’ve got to manage it. That means managing two things:

Technical skills
Managers’ ability to manage performance

Because if managers can’t manage performance well, you probably don’t have control of competence either. Sure, you might have a performance framework. But when did you last stop and ask:

Are our managers genuinely equipped to do this well?
Are they actually doing it?

What the regulator expects

The expectations are pretty clear:

Everyone who impacts tenants must have their performance appraised
You must show how you build skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours
You need a proper way to spot and manage poor performance

However across the sector, the same problems keep popping up:

Managers avoid tough conversations
Expectations aren’t always clear
Informal consequences aren’t used well
Processes become tick-box exercises
Performance reviews aren’t great experiences
Behaviour frameworks gather dust

Sound familiar?

The opportunity

Here's the good news. These standards give you a brilliant chance to level up how you manage performance. Here’s where to focus:

Behaviour frameworks
They should make it crystal clear what “good” looks like. But often they’re:
Too complicated
Too vague
Not used in real life
Written in language no one relates to

The sweet spot? Simple enough to use, detailed enough to be useful, and actually built into how you manage people day to day.

Performance management

Let’s be honest, the sector has tried everything. Annual goals, quarterly check-ins, weekly catch-ups, you name it. But there are some traps to avoid:

Doing nothing
Hoping people follow a process
Making it overly rigid

What works better?

Be clear on what “good” looks like
Keep some flexibility
Don’t overload people with admin
Quality-check how it’s done
Offer simple, practical guidance
Focus on what people can actually control

The next level

Get the basics right and you unlock something even more powerful. Here’s how to elevate your approach even further.

Focus. And then focus some more.

Most businesses love objectives. Lots of them. Too many of them. But imagine if, just once a quarter, a small team went all-in on fixing one real issue, properly.

Cut the noise. Strip out the non-essentials. Deliver one meaningful win. A focused team will always beat a busy one. Then that team is ready to move onto the next fix.

And while you’re at it - stop.

The sector is great at adding new KPIs, reports and initiatives, but not so great at asking what it can stop. Every KPI should earn its place. If it doesn’t add value, get rid.

Better objectives, please

So many objectives fall into the same traps:

They’re aspirations, not actions
They confuse activity with impact
They’re vague
They lack deadlines
They describe business-as-usual

Managers need proper support to set clear, focused objectives that drive real results.

The golden thread

Everyone talks about it. Few actually nail it. But when it works, it’s powerful, giving every team a clear line of sight from strategy to day-to-day action. Do your teams really know what matters most right now? Or are they guessing?

Performance evaluation

This one’s tricky, and we all know it. Ratings, no ratings, light touch, heavy processes. Everyone’s tried something...or them all.

But here’s the basic truth. If you want to succeed, you need an idea of how your people are performing. Keep it simple and choose your language carefully.

Blunt labels like “meets expectations” rarely capture reality and they make managers nervous. So they play safe. And suddenly your data isn’t telling you the truth.
Design your system to make honest, accurate conversations easier, not harder.

Feedback

When you look at behaviours, feedback should follow naturally, because just a handful of senior people modelling the wrong behaviour can create massive problems.

Feedback should be:
Regular
Intentional
Built into how you manage

Not awkward. Not occasional. Just part of how things work.

Management skills

Even with great frameworks and processes, you’re only halfway there. The rest comes down to skills:

Having tough conversations
Setting clear expectations
Using informal consequences well

And this is where training often falls down. One-off workshops don’t magically make people confident. Managers need:

Practice
Tools
Reminders
Ongoing support

Break tricky conversations into smaller steps. Use simple language. Reduce fear, because fear kills good judgement.

Blend in-person learning with online tools, prompt cards, refreshers and real-world support.

And don’t forget skill verification. Support is great, but did it actually change behaviour?

So, what does “good” really look like?

If you want to nail the Competence and Conduct Standards, the formula is pretty simple:

Clear behaviour frameworks
A performance process that actually works
Fair, accurate evaluation
Regular feedback
Real skills development
Practical tools
Skills verification
Strong resources for managers

Get all that working together and you create the perfect balance of support and accountability; exactly what the standards are aiming for.

You can read the full white paper by Tom, here