Here’s what happened when Ironclad CEO Dan Springer read 80 frontline managers’ reviews of their employees
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Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive appr
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Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. If you received this newsletter from a friend, you can sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
Performance assessment matters: Research from McKinsey & Co. maintains that companies with a focus on employee performance see 30% higher revenue growth and lower attrition rates than their peers.
In the past, though, top executives seemed to care mostly about the results of employee reviews: GE chief Jack Welch, for example, famously used performance appraisals to rank employees and fired those scoring in the bottom 10%.
Performance reviews reviewed
Dan Springer, CEO of Ironclad, makes the case that CEOs who care about culture should also dig into the quality of employee reviews. When he joined the 650-person AI contract-management-software company, employees praised the culture but, he says, indicated that manager evaluation of their work was often lacking. “When you asked if they were getting the kind of feedback that they needed to do their jobs, they didn’t say ‘no,’ but they were sort of bemused by the question,” he recalls.
Springer conducted a training session on how to do performance reviews, going as far as role-playing a review with chief financial officer Helen Wang, who delivered an unvarnished assessment of Springer’s first few months on the job. (“Helen’s tough,” Springer says. “I think people really enjoyed seeing the CEO get reviewed.”)
The CEO then read one written midyear review from every frontline manager—about 80 in total. He says about 20% were outstanding. Another 60% were solid—clear, metrics-driven, with specific examples. But roughly 20% missed the mark. Some featured long narratives that showed care for the employee but lacked actionable guidance. Others were short and vague.
Springer tapped these managers for further training on how to give effective feedback. “We really did try to make it fun and not boring,” he says.
A chance to fill in the gaps
With a résumé that includes CEO roles at Docusign and Responsys, Springer notes that at Ironclad and many other tech companies first-time managers sometimes get promoted without proper training. “The great news is, our people are really smart,” he says. “Some people had not been trained on these best practices.”
He says he believes Ironclad’s efforts to improve the quality of reviews will lead to better feedback in the long run and also send a powerful message to the organization. “A number of employees feel that Ironclad has a kind and understanding culture, and while we have great company performance, they wanted to see our leaders raise the bar on addressing low [performance] and rewarding high performance,” he says. “So as CEO, I want to ‘up’ the sense that we’re a performance culture by demonstrating that any chance I get.” Privately held Ironclad says its annual recurring revenue is north of $150 million, and top line is growing about 40% a year. Springer says he aspires to take the company to “another level.”
Why better reviews matter
While Springer joined Ironclad in April, he opted not to rewrite corporate goals midyear. Now, he is focused on finalizing goals for the company’s next fiscal year, which starts in February 2026. Springer says corporate goals will be centered on customer success, business and financial performance, innovation (particularly around AI), and employee success. Once they’re established, managers and employees will create objectives and key results that align with the company’s priorities. “It’s a challenge to give good feedback if you don’t have clear goals to talk about,” he says.
I asked Springer why he’s been so engaged in performance management and why other CEOs might want to invest time in making sure their employees are dispensing constructive feedback. “There are only two reasons why, I think, a CEO should really care,” he says. “One is that they want to have a high-performance company, and two, they want to develop their talent. Those are pretty important reasons.”
How are you raising the bar?
How does your organization approach performance management? Are there ways your CEO is directly involved in the process? Share your insights with me at stephaniemehta@mansueto.com, and we’ll include some of the best reader feedback in a future newsletter.
Read and watch more: feedback loop• How top CEOs get better at giving feedback• Can AI make performance reviews less terrible?• Executives, here’s the one question your employees should ask during reviews
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📚 References & Sources
- Toastmasters International - Leading organization for public speaking and leadership