How Great Leaders Manage Performance (and Avoid Surprises)

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Yesterday, Susy Martins, one of our executive coaches for our New Executive Leaders Coaching Program, held a masterclass on Building & Leading High-Performance Teams. It was absolute gold (as per feedback from our members).

Candidly, her and I didn't go through our speaking points in detail beforehand, but we did discuss the slides she would cover versus the ones I would talk about. What struck me was that she said the same thing about managing performance that I have been saying to you in my content and newsletter for years.

Managing performance starts with getting super clear on expectations. Great performance comes from alignment.

Here's how you manage performance by setting the right expectations.

1.  Start with a clear role description.

I am not talking about the one that's been handed down over the years and copy-pasted into job postings since 2019. You need to start with one that actually makes sense for the role today, with the team you have now and the goals you're measured on.

Once you've written it and have HR's blessing, share it with your direct report and book a 1-1 meeting to walk through it together. In this meeting, you are setting the right expectations.

Here's an example. You lead a Senior Product Manager whose job description still says she manages a team of 3, but the team is now 8 with two new product lines and a completely different mandate. That old JD no longer makes sense. So, rewrite it and in your 1-1, say something like, "Let's walk through the role as it is today, what you'll own, and what success looks like." Then be sure to discuss how you will measure it: the check-ins and conversations you will have throughout the year. This opens the door for, you guessed it, performance convos when the expectations are not being met.

2. Make performance discussions a regular part of your 1-1s.

Most 1-1s end up being status updates without a focus on tying the work back to the goals. This is one of the easiest things to skip. Every 1-1 should have a moment where you connect the work in front of them to the bigger picture you're moving toward.

For example, their Q2 priority is launching a new feature and the business goal is to increase new user sign-ups by 15%. In your 1-1, connect the dots between the two. It does not need to be heavy-handed. A simple "How's the launch going? It's a big driver of our 15% increase in sign-ups this year. Where do you need support?" does the job.

When the link between the daily grind and the big business goal isn't visible, it's hard for your team to stay motivated. When the link is clear, performance improves.

3. When performance does not meet expectations, address it early.

When performance is not meeting your expectations, you need to address it early. Don't wait for the mid-year review, don't drop hints, and don't soften it into something so vague that they walk away unsure of what you actually meant. No surprises.

Start by naming what you're seeing using simple language and asking questions to see if they are aware of it. For example, "I noticed that in the last three weeks, two deliverables have slipped past the deadline and we weren't able to submit xyz." Then ask before you assume, because there's almost always context you don't have. "What's going on?" From there, reset the expectation clearly. "Going forward, I need a heads up in our 1-1 when something is at risk." And finally, agree on next steps and follow-ups so you both know what progress looks like.

Most performance issues are not about capability (although sometimes they are). They're often about clarity. Every time I've stepped into a performance situation early, eight times out of ten the person was able to turn it around. There have been plenty of issues where the performance gap was too big and we needed to come up with a new plan altogether.

But, that is a part of the gig. You as a leader are required to manage performance, train, coach, and develop your team to deliver results.

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