I fully believe everyone wakes up wanting to do their best. I realize, though, there are times when it feels like your colleagues and team members are doing whatever it takes just to get by – and their performance level is less than desirable. 

When your team members aren’t meeting expectations, it’s easy to get mad at them, blame them, and be frustrated. It’s tempting not to fire them and replace them with “better” people. That’s not what Actuals do, though. 

A true Actual checks in with themselves, first, to assess what type of environment they’ve created.

If you’re in a leadership role, you set the example  – and there’s always ways to level up. 

Here are Five Signs You’re Contributing to a Low-Performance Environment … and five actions you can take to begin addressing this today:

1. Your Team Lacks Clarity.  Sure, they know their business goals. They’ve read the strategy. But they don’t know what to do, or what to change, to build the bridge between where they are and the better future. 

Your Response: An Actual gives direction, guidance, and brings clarity. Take the time to hold a meeting, ask people to share where things aren’t clear, and seek to answer everyone’s concerns. 

2. You Tolerate Gossip.  We all hear gossip – but as an Actual, you can’t tolerate it. Venting can be okay … but it gets toxic when complaints are targeted toward people. Especially when personality judgments are made – Brent can be such a jerk, Allison is so annoying when she doesn’t respond to emails right away.

Your Response: You never, ever disparage your boss, your colleagues, or your team members to other team members. Demonstrate complete discipline with your frustrations. When you hear gossip, you’ve got to be the police – “Hey, let’s discuss the problem, not the people.” 

3. There’s No Accountability.  We all sit in meetings where ideas are discussed, decisions are made, and nothing happens. Then, when we bring things up again later, your team’s like, “Yeah, I guess we haven’t started that yet.”

Your Response: An Actual translates ideas into actions and gives them respective deadlines. When deadlines aren’t met, there are discussions and accountability.  Accountability is basically a coming to terms about expectations not being met. Your team needs to understand that they’re counted on to deliver on their word – if they can’t do that, you’ve got to decide if they’re in the right role (which they’re probably not). On a team, everyone has a role to play – everyone’s expected to do their part.

4. Bad Attitudes are Accepted.  If the temperature in your meeting room/Teams meeting is lukewarm, it’s time to talk about attitude expectations. Positive energy brings about positive change. We all get to choose our energy. Everyone plays a part in this. 

Your Response: It can feel difficult to hold others accountable to their attitude, but think about your organization’s vision/mission/values – you can probably reflect on these and use them as a basis for a difficult conversation, such as, “Hey, Jim.  Let’s talk about the meeting this morning. Your camera was off, when I asked you to turn it on you grumbled, and I felt like you didn’t want to collaborate. One of our values is collaboration, which requires that we all bring positive energy to the room to bring out the best in others. What’s going on?” 

5. There Are No “Real Goals.”  Too many times, individuals set goals that are considered “business as usual goals.” That’s not a goal. A goal is something that is above and beyond, that stretches an individual.  A great goal is something that allows a team member to feel as if they’re progressing personally, professionally.

Your Response: Make sure each of your team members have goals – 2 of which are professional and align to your team’s yearly goals, and one that is more personal in nature and allows them to develop themselves (like getting better at time management, incorporating Ai into their work routines, etc.). Goals are necessary for high performance. Without them, we think we’re staying the same.  In reality, we’re truly declining.  Goals spark change and progress. 

Small, simple shifts can help you level up your team’s performance. When your team performs, business just becomes better!!