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Performance Tracking: How to Track Employee Performance and Improve Team Outcomes · The Science of Leading

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  Welcome back to The Science of Leading.
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  I'm Claire Monroe, and today we're talking about performance tracking
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  - not the creepy kind with keystroke loggers,
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  but the kind that actually helps you lead better.
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  And I'm Edwin Carrington.
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  If you're responsible for hiring or performance in a company that's,
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  say, fifty to a few hundred people... this is right in your wheelhouse.
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  Edwin,
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  I wanna start by untangling terms,
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  because people mash these together.
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  What's the difference between performance tracking,
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  performance reviews, and performance management?
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  Good place to start.
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  Think of it as three layers.
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  Performance tracking is the measurement layer - the day‑to‑day or week‑to‑week
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  signals.
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  It's goals, KPIs, and regular check‑ins.
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  Performance reviews are the formal summary - usually once or twice a
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  year, often tied to pay or promotion.
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  And performance management is the whole system: tracking,
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  reviews, coaching, growth, and the decisions you make about roles and
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  rewards.
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  So tracking is basically the data feed the other two should depend
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  on.
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  Exactly.
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  Strong teams use tracking to support fair reviews.
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  Weak teams try to fix the lack of tracking by cramming everything into
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  one big review conversation at the end of the year.
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  Let's talk about that,
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  because a lot of listeners are still in that "annual review is the system"
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  world.
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  Why does an annual‑only setup fail,
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  especially once you're past, say,
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  fifty employees?
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  Because by the time you sit down in December,
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  everything you're talking about is ancient history.
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  Work has moved fast, but feedback has moved slow.
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  The review becomes a record of the past,
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  not a tool for improvement.
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  People get surprises - "I wish you'd told me six months ago" - and the
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  business absorbs a lot of expensive mistakes that could've been corrected
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  early.
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  Right, and it turns into opinion versus opinion.
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  "I think you did fine." "I think I did great." There's no shared reality.
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  That's
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  the key.
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  Performance tracking turns "I think" into "I know." When you're tracking
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  consistently, managers aren't guessing,
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  employees know what matters, and there are fewer "where did this come
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  from?" moments at review time.
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  But people hear "tracking" and immediately
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  jump to micromanagement or surveillance.
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  How do you frame this in a way that builds trust instead of panic?
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  I start
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  with intent.
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  The goal is not control.
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  The goal is clarity.
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  You don't need to monitor clicks or online status.
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  A basic, trust‑focused tracking model has four pieces: clear goals -
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  what success looks like, a small set of KPIs - how you'll measure progress,
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  a simple check‑in rhythm - weekly,
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  biweekly, or monthly, and short notes on outcomes and feedback.
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  So more
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  like, "Here's what we said we'd do,
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  here's what actually happened,
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  what do we keep, what do we change,
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  and what support do you need?"Yes.
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  And that's usually what you'd want to discuss in a one‑on‑one anyway.
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  You're just making it visible and consistent.
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  No spy tools, no twenty‑page forms.
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  Why does that consistency change behavior
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  so much?
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  Like, what actually gets better when you move from annual‑only to this
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  steady rhythm?
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  Three big things.
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  First, faster fixes.
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  Small issues - missed deadlines,
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  quality slips - show up as patterns,
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  not "sudden problems," so you can address them early.
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  Second, better growth.
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  Coaching is based on real, recent work,
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  not hazy memories.
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  And third, fairer decisions.
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  Promotions, raises, even performance warnings rely less on who's most
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  visible or confident and more on a documented track record.
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  Hmm... and for
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  HR and talent leaders, this is also leverage,
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  right?
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  You're not debating personalities; you're looking at patterns across
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  teams.
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  Exactly.
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  You can see which teams are overloaded,
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  who needs training versus a role change,
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  and who's consistently ready for more scope.
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  That's a much saner way to run a fifty‑plus person organization than
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  waiting for annual reviews and vibes.
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  Alright,
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  so we've reframed tracking as clarity,
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  not control.
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  Next up, I wanna get very concrete: what do you actually measure,
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  and how do you keep it from turning into spreadsheet hell?
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  Okay,
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  Edwin, let's get tactical.
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  You've said many times that tracking fails either because you measure
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  the wrong things... or you measure everything.
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  So if I'm building or cleaning up a system in a 100‑person company,
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  where do I start?
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  Start small.
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  Most roles can be described with four KPI buckets: output,
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  quality, timeliness, and reliability.
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  You don't need ten KPIs per person.
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  One or two per bucket can be enough.
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  Can you walk through those four in
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  plain language?
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  Sure.
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  Output is volume of work - tickets closed,
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  cases handled, projects delivered.
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  Quality is error rate, rework,
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  complaints, or a consistent QA score.
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  Timeliness is on‑time delivery or cycle time - how long work takes from
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  start to finish.
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  Reliability is follow‑through and consistency week over week - not just
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  one heroic sprint.
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  And where do leading and lagging indicators fit into
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  that?
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  Lagging indicators tell you what already happened - revenue closed,
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  project delivered, customer NPS after the fact.
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  Leading indicators tell you what's likely to happen - pipeline coverage
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  for sales, milestone completion rate on a project,
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  first‑pass quality on early drafts.
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  You want both.
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  Lagging keeps you honest, leading lets you coach before it's too late.
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  Why
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  do you think so many leaders skip the leading indicators?
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  Is it just harder to define them?
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  Partly.
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  And partly it's habit - people are used to dashboards that show end results.
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  But in a growing company, if you only look at lagging data,
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  you're always in post‑mortem mode.
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  Leading indicators let you say,
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  "If first‑pass quality keeps dropping,
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  our rework and customer complaints will spike in six weeks.
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  Let's act now."Let's talk fairness.
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  How do you align individual goals with the bigger business objectives
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  so people don't feel like they're chasing random numbers?
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  You work backward.
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  Start with the company goal - growth,
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  retention, quality, cost control.
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  Translate that into a team outcome - what this team must deliver.
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  Then define each role's contribution and choose KPIs that show progress.
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  That becomes a simple, role‑based scorecard.
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  Sales might have pipeline and close rate.
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  Customer success might have time‑to‑onboard and retention.
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  Operations might have cycle time and error rate.
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  Same structure, different content.
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  And that avoids the classic "everyone
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  hit their individual metrics, but the business still missed the quarter"
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  problem.
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  Exactly.
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  Alignment means personal targets add up to business outcomes,
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  not compete with them.
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  Alright,
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  let's design the workflow so this doesn't bury managers in admin.
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  What does a lightweight tracking setup look like in practice?
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  Think in
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  four decisions: cadence, ownership,
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  data sources, and documentation.
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  Cadence: for most knowledge roles,
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  biweekly one‑on‑ones, a monthly KPI snapshot,
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  and a simple quarterly summary work well.
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  Ownership: the employee updates goals and basic status,
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  the manager adds commentary and coaching.
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  HR owns the overall framework.
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  Data sources next - this is where the spreadsheet
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  monster usually appears.
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  Right.
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  Wherever possible, pull data from systems you already use - CRM for sales,
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  ticketing for support, project tools for delivery.
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  Don't ask managers to re‑type numbers that already exist.
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  Then, for documentation, keep it short: in each one‑on‑one,
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  capture wins, misses, KPI status - on track,
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  at risk, off track - and two or three next actions.
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  That's it.
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  So we're not talking about every manager maintaining a massive
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  spreadsheet with forty columns per person.
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  If your tracking requires six
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  tabs and a manager who loves spreadsheets,
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  it will die.
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  The goal is consistent signal,
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  not paperwork.
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  A simple tool that stores goals,
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  KPIs, check‑in notes, and basic reporting is usually enough.
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  And if you don't have software yet,
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  a well‑designed, single‑page template can work as a bridge.
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  And I like
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  your test from earlier: if the metric wouldn't show up in a real performance
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  conversation, it probably doesn't belong.
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  Hours online, number of Slack messages... those are vanity metrics,
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  not performance.
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  Exactly.
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  Track outcomes first, activity second.
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  If a metric doesn't help you answer,
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  "Are we getting the right outcomes?
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  If not, why not?
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  What support fixes it?" - drop it.
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  Alright,
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  we've got the skeleton in place: four KPI buckets,
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  leading and lagging indicators,
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  and a lean workflow.
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  Next we'll dig into the part that really changes culture - using this
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  data for coaching, decisions, and,
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  frankly, better leadership.
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  So Edwin,
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  let's assume a listener has this basic system running: clear goals,
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  a few KPIs, regular check‑ins.
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  Now what?
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  How do they turn those numbers into better coaching and better decisions,
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  not just prettier dashboards?
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  You move from "what happened" to "what should
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  we do now." Look for patterns, not single bad days.
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  Confirm there's a trend, ask why - is it a skill gap,
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  unclear goals, workload, process - choose an intervention,
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  and set a short follow‑up window.
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  Two to four weeks, not six months.
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  Can you give a simple example?
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  Sure.
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  Say a support rep's output is fine,
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  but quality is slipping - more reopens,
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  more complaints.
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  You spot the trend, dig in, and realize the issue is handling one particular
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  type of case.
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  The intervention: targeted coaching on that case type,
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  maybe shadowing a stronger peer,
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  plus a checklist.
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  Then you track quality on that slice for the next month.
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  That's a development plan tied directly to observed performance.
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  And the
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  conversation changes from "be more careful" to "here's the specific behavior
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  we're gonna practice and how we'll know it's working."Exactly.
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  Feedback becomes timely and concrete: here's what I saw,
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  here's the impact, here's what we'll try next,
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  and here's when we'll check back.
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  That's how you make tracking feel supportive instead of judgmental.
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  Let's
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  hit the dark side for a second.
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  What are the biggest cultural risks when a 50‑ to 500‑person company
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  leans into performance tracking?
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  Three big ones.
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  First, surveillance culture - tracking hours,
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  clicks, or "online status" as if that equals performance.
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  People feel watched, not supported,
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  and they start managing optics instead of outcomes.
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  Second, KPI gaming - if you only measure speed,
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  quality collapses; if you only measure volume,
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  people cherry‑pick easy work.
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  Third, inconsistent manager standards - different managers interpreting
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  the same KPI differently, which destroys the sense of fairness.
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  So how
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  do you avoid that spiral without backing off tracking altogether?
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  On surveillance,
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  a simple safeguard is: if you can't explain how a metric helps the employee
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  improve, don't track it.
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  Be transparent about what you track and why.
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  On KPI gaming, use a balanced set - output plus quality plus timeliness,
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  and look at trends, not one‑week spikes.
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  On manager inconsistency, standardize definitions and train managers
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  on the same rubric and cadence.
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  Hmm... So would that apply even in a high‑turnover
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  environment, like a call center or a fast‑growing sales team?
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  Yes - in
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  those environments it's even more important.
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  High turnover and high speed create lots of room for bias and snap judgments.
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  A simple, consistent scorecard and regular check‑ins give new managers
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  a guardrail and employees a clearer sense of what "good" looks like from
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  day one.
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  Let's connect this to bigger talent decisions.
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  How should listeners use performance data when they're thinking about
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  hiring, promotion, or who to invest in for development?
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  First,
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  performance data helps you see who's ready for more scope - not just
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  the loudest voice, but the person who's consistently delivering on output,
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  quality, timeliness, and reliability.
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  Second, it shows you where training dollars actually matter - which teams
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  or skills are lagging.
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  And third, it feeds back into hiring: you can define success profiles
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  based on what your top performers actually do,
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  not just gut feel.
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  And this is where structured assessment data - like
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  OAD or similar tools - can plug in alongside tracking,
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  right?
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  Yes.
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  Tracking tells you what's happening: missed deadlines,
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  recurring conflict, or strong reliability.
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  A validated assessment adds the "why" - things like pace,
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  tolerance for ambiguity, attention to detail,
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  or social style.
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  When performance patterns keep repeating,
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  combining those two lets you choose the right coaching approach,
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  or adjust the role, with much less guesswork.
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  It's not about labeling people; it's about making better‑fit decisions
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  earlier.
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  Alright, let's land this with something very practical.
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  If I'm an HR or talent leader listening on my commute,
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  what are the core steps I could realistically put in place this quarter?
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  I'd
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  keep it to five moves.
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  One: define what success looks like for each key role - a few clear goals
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  linked to team and business outcomes.
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  Two: pick a tiny KPI set in those four buckets - output,
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  quality, timeliness, reliability - plus one or two leading indicators.
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  Three: set a cadence - biweekly one‑on‑ones,
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  monthly KPI snapshots, and a light quarterly summary.
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  Four: give managers a simple template for those conversations - progress,
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  KPI status, support needed, next actions.
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  And five: train managers on how to use the data for coaching rather than
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  punishment.
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  That's super doable in a quarter.
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  You don't need a giant transformation program; you just need to make
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  progress visible and discuss it consistently.
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  Exactly.
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  Start small, keep it human, and remember: performance tracking is there
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  to create clarity and better decisions - for the organization and for
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  the people doing the work.
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  Alright,
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  we'll wrap it there.
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  Edwin, thanks as always for bringing the calm wisdom.
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  Always a pleasure,
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  Claire.
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  And thanks to all of you for listening to The Science of Leading.
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  If you try even one of these steps this quarter - a cleaner KPI set,
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  or a tighter check‑in rhythm - we'd love to hear how it goes.
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  We'll be back soon with more on building systems that actually help people
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  do their best work.
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  Bye for now.
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  Take care, everyone.