The performance flywheel: Why AI could be the missing link between goals, feedback, and growth

When accountability and alignment become daily reflexes, growth stops being episodic; it becomes inevitable, writes Caroline Rawlinson.

Every organisation chases high performance, but only a few sustain it. The secret isn’t found in a single strategy, product, or incentive; it lies in the flywheel between goals, feedback, and growth. When one of those weakens, momentum stalls. When they reinforce each other, performance compounds.

At Culture Amp, we’ve seen what separates the good from the great. Our latest analysis of companies on the 2024 Inc. 5000 list – which recognises the fastest-growing private companies in the US– shows a clear pattern. The organisations that sustain growth across three years don’t just move faster; they hold people accountable more effectively (4 percentage points higher) and recognise great work more consistently (5 points higher). Confidence in leadership is also higher by the same margin. Accountability, it turns out, isn’t a side effect of success; it’s a driver of it.

Accountability forms the invisible structure that keeps the performance flywheel spinning. When leaders set clear goals, give regular feedback, and link recognition directly to progress, teams feel both empowered and responsible. These companies also report 6 percentage-point stronger two-way communication and 4 points higher focus on quality, proving that clear expectations are a cultural multiplier, not a compliance exercise.

But sustaining that discipline at scale is hard. Leaders are overwhelmed, feedback gets delayed, and development conversations often slip to the end of the quarter, or the year. That’s where AI is emerging as the missing link.

Why AI matters now

The growing role of AI in leadership is not about replacing human judgement; it’s about strengthening it. Used responsibly, AI can make the invisible work of leadership more impactful, helping managers and employees close the gap between intention and action.

Imagine receiving small, timely prompts to check in on goals, to give recognition after a milestone, or to reframe a piece of feedback constructively. These “micro-nudges” don’t replace empathy or discretion, but they make the right behaviour easier to practise. In that sense, AI acts like a cultural amplifier, reinforcing the performance flywheel every day instead of waiting for quarterly reviews to restart the motion.

Our own work in this area, through our AI coaching tools built on responsible AI principles, shows how these nudges can foster alignment and accountability without adding cognitive load. The aim isn’t automation, but augmentation: helping leaders do what they already want to do more consistently and confidently.

The urgency is real

Our recent data shows that employee energy and motivation are trending down globally. Only 55 per cent of employees now say they rarely think about leaving. Engagement remains under pressure, even as goal-setting and switching off from work practices improve. In this environment, leaders can’t afford for feedback or recognition to be occasional. They must become habits.

Accountability starts at the top. Dean Carpenter of MRI Software, a four-time Inc. 5000 company, put it succinctly: “We don’t believe accountability should be outsourced to HR – it’s a leadership behaviour. If a leader isn’t holding their team accountable, that’s a performance issue in itself.”

That mindset reflects what the best leaders are already doing – modelling accountability and creating psychological safety so others can do the same. AI can help scale that behaviour by reminding leaders, in real time, to connect goals, recognise effort, and close feedback loops.

Turning performance into culture

The most successful organisations treat performance as a living system. They don’t wait for annual reviews to course-correct; they use everyday moments to reinforce clarity and connection. When feedback and recognition flow freely, accountability becomes shared, and performance becomes cultural.

AI won’t create that culture on its own, but it can sustain the momentum once it starts. By reducing the friction between goals, feedback, and growth, it keeps the flywheel spinning, not as a process, but as a habit.

Because when accountability and alignment become daily reflexes, growth stops being episodic; it becomes inevitable.

Caroline Rawlinson is the chief financial and operational officer at Culture Amp.