Raising Performance
The Seven Most Common Performance Obstacles
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Lack of clear expectations
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Misalignment between self-perception and external feedback
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Failure to leverage feedback
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Inadequate skills or training
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Low motivation and engagement
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Poor job fit or role misalignment
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Low emotional intelligence
As a manager or individual contributor, you can work on these areas to bridge performance gaps, drive growth, and achieve excellence. Sources: 1, 2 & 3), Harvard Business Review, 4) McKinsey, 5), Deloitte, 6), McKinsey, 7) Gallup
1) Lack of clear expectations
​When people lack clearly defined goals or metrics for success, their work becomes fragmented and misaligned with what matters most, what needs to be done and organizational priorities. This issue is consistently reported as the #1 performance blocker by a long list of comprehensive research by sources including HBR and McKinsey who found that unclear expectations erode accountability and lead to inconsistent performance outcomes.​
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As a leader, your starting point for raising team and individual performance is setting clear, specific goals. Sheryl Sandberg
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The foundation for this is creating a job spec that actually works.
2) Distorted Self-Perception
​Leaders, professionals and senior specialists often overestimate or underestimate their own competence relative to peer or managerial evaluations. This gap impairs growth and decision-making, as highlighted in leadership development research stressing the need for structured feedback and reality-based self-assessment.​
Have You Heard Of The Lake Wobegone Effect?
The Lake Wobegon effect is the tendency for people to overestimate their own abilities and achievements compared to others, leading to a belief that they are "above average" in numerous ways.
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Lake Wobegon is the setting for a from a story written by Garrison Kaillor featured by a radio program "News From Lake Wobegon". Described as a small rural town in central Minnesota sparsely populated, were settled only in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, largely by immigrants from Germany and Scandinavia.
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The typical monologue began: "Well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, Minnesota, my hometown, out there on the edge of the prairie.
The programs featured events and adventures of the townspeople with wealth of humorous and often touching stories.
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The monologue would close: "That's the news from Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average."
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The Lake Wobegon effect captures the tendency for people to overestimate their abilities—believing they are above average, much like the fictional town where “the men are big and strong, the women beautiful, and bright.
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There's a tendency for a lot of people (particularly men) to think that they are more accomplished, more competent and better than they actually are - this is a massive obstacle to personal growth and performance.
By recognizing this bias, we can become much more objective and pragmatic, giving ourselves a stronger, real foundation for growth and improvement. Self-perception is directly related to self-awareness, which is one of the five dimensions that shape emotional intelligence—it's the cornerstone of emotional intelligence. Only about 10 to 15% of people are truly self-aware, despite 95% of individuals believing they are self-aware.​
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Developing your self-awareness, and that of your teams, can be expected to boost performance at work.
3) Failure to leverage feedback
Feedback is the easy habit that changes everything.
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If you’re new to managing people, or haven’t yet made giving and receiving feedback a habit, consider this: it’s a no-brainer.
It’s easy to do, delivers quick wins, and is highly effective in bridging skills and performance gaps—gaps that often can’t be closed by simply reading tutorials or textbooks.
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If building feedback into your routine isn’t second nature yet, try setting daily reminders to keep it top of mind and ensure you make it a consistent practice.
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Effective feedback requires a structured and consistent approach by the manager. This means working from a clear list of key activities that need to be performed well or addressed, and reviewing them regularly—daily or weekly as appropriate. Psychological safety is also essential: people must feel comfortable asking questions, expressing uncertainty, or admitting they don’t understand something. They should be able to raise issues or seek clarification without fear of judgment. The goal is to keep communication clear, two-way, and focused on learning and improvement rather than criticism.
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Here's what Gallup recommends:
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Provide feedback frequently and promptly, ideally a few times per week, making it part of ongoing dialogue instead of rare events.
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Feedback should be inspiring, instructive, and actionable, tied directly to specific actions or behaviors.
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Managers should practice active listening, inviting the employee’s perspective and encouraging two-way conversation rather than one-sided critique.
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Here's some snippets of what McKinsey’s suggest:
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Use a three-step framework: 1) Describe specific, observed behavior, 2) Explain the impact it had, 3) Offer suggestions or discuss next steps.
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Keep the conversation respectful and balanced, with empathy and focus on solutions rather than personal criticism.
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Engage in follow-up to ensure feedback leads to constructive change and continued dialogue.
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Here's what we'd like to add:
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Rather than simply giving feedback, ask first - ask things like: how's it going, how do you feel that situation went, how did you find handling that problem, how are you feeling, how good or bad was that and so on
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Find out first before criticizing. It's easy to offer feedback without actually understanding the context—before offering feedback or criticism, try to find out the facts. If you criticize someone and have jumped to the wrong conclusion, you'll have to backtrack.
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You’re probably giving feedback because something has gone wrong or because you want to help someone develop a skill. If it’s the latter, consider observing the person during key moments and setting daily or weekly reminders to prompt regular, constructive feedback.​
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Best practice suggests that when giving feedback or criticism, your focus should be on the person’s behavior or approach- how it could be improved, or where it didn’t work well this time - rather than making personal judgments like, “You’re bad.” This keeps the conversation constructive and makes it easier for the individual to learn and grow.
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​4) Inadequate skills or training
Inadequate skills or training can present in many ways. As a manager, it’s important to identify the specific skill gap, while individuals looking to progress must also recognize their areas for development.
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Problems may not always be directly tied to the job itself. For example, an employee working in an international environment or in a country where they are not a native speaker may struggle to communicate verbally or in writing. Their message might be misunderstood simply due to language barriers or cultural differences.​
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Similarly, someone might join your team lacking adequate education, industry background, or relevant job experience—arriving with pre-existing gaps that must be addressed.
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It’s common for new hires, especially those in specialist roles or new to an organization, to need time and support to develop company-specific skills and expertise required for success in that environment
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When looking to close skills gaps, assess which ones will yield the most positive results, determine the order in which you should tackle them, and set a realistic timeframe. Remember, you don't have to fix everything or everyone—some gaps and individuals may not warrant the investment when considering your current goals, priorities, and resources.
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Want to know how to identify skills or performance gaps?
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5) Low motivation and engagement
Here's what we've got to say...
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If motivation is low because someone's in the wrong job type that's probably because you didn't interview them properly when you hired them.
Otherwise you need to tune into people, as teams or individually. Is it team problem or an individual one?
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How about this for a tongue twister "toxicity"?
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Research suggests that 20-80% of companies have a toxic environment. Not very convincing stats. ​ The reality is that workplaces exist on a spectrum—some environments are genuinely positive, others are mediocre, and some range from mildly unpleasant all the way to deeply toxic.
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To truly eradicate a toxic culture, the fundamental shift required is making it easy and safe for everyone to speak up. This will almost certainly require the CEO and leadership team to create a universal shift.
Without which, people will be scared to open up, scared to speak up, scared that if they speak up—they may be put in the naughty corner, or their job or future prospects may be at risk. If the CEO is the problem, it may require his or her removal.
When openly voicing concerns becomes the norm, trust and psychological safety rise, and destructive behaviors lose their hold. The journey to a healthier workplace starts with encouraging and rewarding honest communication at all levels
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You need to be addressing the right problem, which means first working to identify what that problem actually is—so ask and encourage them to open up. As a manager, you should ask people how they like to be managed and tune in to what motivates them.
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People crave for recognition...
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Motivation often hinges on feeling respected and recognized.
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Without respect, people feel taken for granted, disengaged, angry even!
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Respect is widely regarded as one of the most fundamental needs that people crave, often even more than love, admiration, or other forms of social validation. The psychological need for respect is deeply linked to one’s sense of identity, belonging, and self-esteem, making it a crucial component of mental health and well-being.​
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Here's what Deloitte and McKinsey research emphasizes: ​
Demotivation often stems from unclear progression paths, insufficient recognition, or role overload. That sustained engagement requires personal purpose alignment, developmental support, and meaningful autonomy.​
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​6) Poor job fit or role misalignment
Firstly picking up from the above point about motivation. When you hire people, you need to tune into peoples motivations and observe repeated themes when interviewing them - things they repeatedly say. Also reasons why they left employers, why they joined them, what they liked about it, recognise when they get excited - this all points to motivations and motivations need to be aligned with jobs.
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Secondly, as a follow on to that - you need to interview and assess people properly, and if you do this, there'll be less chance of you hiring people who are a poor fit for the job.
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Thirdly, however well you interview people you'll end up with a mix of types and capabilities. There's a need to manage people individually, in doing so, the trick is to understand their particular strengths and align them with activities. You may wish to check out StrengthsFinder from Gallup - it's a really engaging and cost effective concept.
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7) Low emotional intelligence
Emotional intelligence accounts for 58% of performance in all job types.
Self-awareness, empathy, and emotional regulation—are strong predictors of leadership and professional effectiveness. Studies of senior managers show that deficits here hinder collaboration, conflict resolution, and the ability to motivate others.​
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Unlike your IQ, your emotional intelligence equivalent, your EQ is something that you can develop.