The fact is that when people don't have real targets and incentives to focus on the long term, they don't; over time, performance declines because not enough people have the attention, or the capabilities, to sustain and renew it.
Yet measuring, let alone strengthening, the capabilities that help companies thrive over the long haul is difficult. These "soft" measures of organizational health-for example, leadership, innovation, quality of execution, employee motivation, or a company's degree of external orientation-are tricky to convert into annual performance metrics. Moreover, an organization's health may not change much in a single year, and an employee's contribution often comes down to judgments and trade-offs. What risks to take and avoid? Which people to develop, and how? Getting a handle on the employee's personal contribution typically requires in-depth conversations and a more thorough 360-degree style of evaluation than most employees (including senior managers) generally receive. Because of all this, few companies manage people in ways that effectively assess their contributions to corporate health or reward them for improving it.
