Understand the history
I review previous performance, recent trends, documented conversations, and meaningful changes.
Performance management · People leadership
Performance is a conversation, not a surprise.
People deserve to know what success looks like, where they stand, and what support is available to help them get where they need to be.
Performance management should not begin with discipline. It should begin with context. The numbers tell me where to look; the conversation helps me understand what I am actually seeing.
My coaching loop
- 01HistoryWhat changed?
- 02EnvironmentWhat is happening around them?
- 03ConversationWhat am I missing?
- 04ActionWhat will change?
- 05SupportWhat do they need?
- 06MeasureIs it working?
ThenRecognize progress
or raise accountability.
or raise accountability.
Diagnose before you decide
The same missed metric can have six different causes.
A knowledge gap, unclear direction, missing resources, burnout, personal circumstances, and inconsistent effort should not receive identical responses.
Examine the environment
I consider workload, staffing, new processes, system issues, and whether the entire team is shifting.
Start with questions
I share what I see and listen before deciding whether the employee needs clarity, practice, support, or accountability.
Set the path together
We establish specific expectations, useful support, measurable outcomes, and a realistic timeline.
Coach between meetings
Real-time examples make feedback concrete. Formal check-ins document patterns and recognize progress.
Follow through
If support, clarity, and time do not produce progress, I move into formal corrective action with no surprises.
Performance management in practice
Coach the person, not just the problem.
Three anonymized examples showing different needs, different approaches, and measurable outcomes.
Case 01 · Restorative coaching
She solved every problem. Customers still left unhappy.
The signal
An employee with more than 25 years of industry knowledge was efficient and accurate, but her CSAT remained in the low-to-mid 70s against an 85% target. Call reviews showed that the technical answer was right; the human connection was missing.
The intervention
We reviewed the data and listened to negatively scored calls together. Rather than prescribing a canned fix, I asked what she noticed. We identified small changes, put visual reminders on her monitor, and used weekly reviews of both strong and difficult interactions to keep the coaching active.
The result
Within one month, she reached the 85% target. Her CSAT continued into the high 80s and low 90s, and stayed there.
CSATLow–mid 70s→High 80s–low 90sSustained
Case 02 · Adaptive coaching
Fair does not always mean identical.
Conversational coaching felt personal and adversarial to one employee. I stopped coaching in my preferred style and shifted to direct, objective data with written follow-ups outlining the metric, expected action, and evidence of progress.
The employee improved, remained successful, and received feedback in a format they could actually use. My job was not to make their needs make sense to me. My job was to adapt.
“You are not coaching a problem. You are coaching a person.”
Case 03 · Formal accountability
Support the person. Hold the boundary.
A strong customer-facing employee struggled with attendance and averaged roughly 75% schedule adherence. After repeated coaching and resources did not create measurable change, I issued a written warning with explicit expectations, a three-month plan, formal check-ins, and a clear progression path.
I partnered with HR to explore reasonable accommodations and separate what was within the employee’s control from protected circumstances. Her adherence improved to 85–90%, within the acceptable range and approaching the 93% goal.
75%to85–90%schedule adherence
When the system needs coaching
Sometimes the performance problem is operational.
My escalation team absorbed customer frustration across multiple channels every day. They were overwhelmed by being yelled at and by the constant switching cost between calls, emails, chats, and administrative work.
I created a rotating monthly off-phone administrative day, scheduled around our highest-demand weeks. It gave employees focused time to complete important work and showed them I had heard what the job was costing them.
50%Fewer average absences
+2 ptsAverage CSAT
↑Performance consistency
What I believe
Empathy and accountability belong on the same side.
Employees should never be surprised by discipline.Expectations, coaching, support, and documentation should come first.
Before I assume someone does not care, I ask.I need the whole story before drawing conclusions about effort or intent.
A performance plan should be actionable and achievable.Clear enough to follow, fair enough to trust, and measurable enough to evaluate.
I know coaching is working when I am needed less.Independence creates room for the team and its leader to work on bigger things.
Not every role is right for every person. Every person still deserves honesty, dignity, and fairness throughout the process.