PERFORMANCE IS AN OUTCOME
- Mar 4
- 1 min read
Most leaders are managing the wrong end of the chain. They focus on performance. Chase results. Measure outcomes.
But here's the problem: performance is a lagging indicator. By the time you see it, the decisions that created it are long gone.
The real sequence looks like this:
Conditions → Behaviour → Results → Performance
If you want better performance, you don't 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩 with performance. You start with conditions.
What environment are people operating in?
What are they being incentivised, explicitly or implicitly, to do?
What behaviours does the system actually reward?
Because behaviour doesn't happen in a vacuum. It's a response to conditions. And results are simply the accumulation of repeated behaviour over time.
So when performance disappoints, the instinct to hold people accountable for outcomes is understandable. But it's the wrong lever.
The harder, much more honest question for any leader is:
What conditions have I created that made this outcome almost inevitable?
Change the conditions. The behaviour follows. The results follow that.
Performance is just the receipt.