If you aren't using globbing but are specifying source (and header files) explicitly, just running make will do the right thing. Just running make also checks if you have modified CMakeLists.txt and re-runs config generation.
With manually-specified source file lists, using the Ninja, GNU make, NMake and Visual Studio generators, I have had to re-run cmake by hand no more than a few times, each time seemingly due to a bug somewhere. (Possibly my fault... I can't remember having had to do this with my current project.) Aside from that it's good at detecting when relevant files have changed, CMakeLists.txt included, and reinvoking itself as part of the build.
CMake has plenty of horrid parts, and there's probably plenty of reasonable workflows that it doesn't support, but I have to say that I've found the day-to-day workflow perfectly satisfactory...
In my mind, anything that needs to be specified explicitly is an opportunity for error.
Granted, I've been moving more towards scons lately, as python is a much easier language to work with. My usual SConstruct will check whether I am making a python extension module, and will download pybind11 if I am. That sort of thing is still possible with make, but starts getting more painful.