Is It a Performance Problem or a Clarity Problem?

Years ago, I assigned a large book of existing business to a manager who led a small team. The accounts needed attention, and he was incredibly detail oriented. I felt confident he would take care of the problems and strengthen those client relationships.

I explained that there was long-term opportunity within those accounts if the clients received the attention they needed. He knew his quarterly sales and new account goal. I assumed those goals made it clear that developing the existing business needed to happen alongside bringing in new clients.

He went to work fixing things. Then he kept fixing things. Some issues deserved attention. Others were so old and insignificant that no one was particularly concerned about them anymore. Meanwhile, new business wasn’t growing the way it needed to.

When he missed his quarterly sales goal, he also missed a significant bonus. His response surprised me. He told me that was okay because his reward was knowing how many longstanding errors he had corrected.

We were looking at the same quarter and seeing two very different results. I saw a missed sales goal. He saw meaningful work he was proud to have completed.

The quarterly goal itself was clear. What was unclear was how I expected him to weigh the work in front of him. I had emphasized the opportunity in the existing accounts and trusted that he would balance it with new business. He interpreted that direction as a reason to keep working through the problems, believing the long-term benefit justified his attention.

Even after that conversation, we weren’t aligned. I eventually had to tell him that he would receive no additional existing accounts until his new business growth was on track. I also changed how I reassigned accounts, moving them in smaller batches so that the work wouldn’t divert so much attention at once.

I think about that experience when leaders describe an employee as unfocused or say they aren’t taking ownership. Sometimes the employee is taking considerable ownership of work the leader never intended to become their priority.

As performance reviews approach, it’s worth examining more than whether an employee knew their goals. Did they understand which responsibilities took precedence when demands competed? Did they know when a problem deserved more attention and when it was time to move on?

Before you sit down to evaluate someone’s performance, consider whether you’ve clearly explained how their responsibilities fit together. A goal tells someone what they need to achieve, but it doesn’t necessarily tell them how to weigh competing demands. In this case, I had communicated both a long-term opportunity and a quarterly expectation. I assumed he understood the balance. By the time I made it explicit, he had spent a quarter doing work he valued while missing the result he was accountable for delivering.