[eel]

Usually a combination of the following:

- Delivering on business goals

- Hiring and retention

- Growing and promoting engineers

- Feedback from engineers

One big difference in determining performance for a manager versus an engineer is the length of the feedback cycle. A software developer can start getting feedback after a few code commits. A manager needs a few months at a minimum at most companies to assess progress towards goals, hiring, etc. Unfortunately this means a bad manager can wreak havoc and jump ship before upper management notices.