Leadership Essentials: Setting Clear Expectations and Building Layered Goals

Individual goals are important but a team is more than a collection of individuals. That's why team, organization, and business goals are just as important to measure performance.

As a leader, my job is to get more out of low performers, not drag more out of high performers. How do I do that? I must set clear expectations.

I need to dispel the high performer myth. I don’t want people to work more hours. High performers should actually work less because performance is about efficiency. Masters use the fewest steps to build the simplest solution with the highest value. It’s the combination of those 3 that make someone a high performer. The myth comes from leaders overloading high performers with more work than everyone else.

Then I need to define performance with individual, team, organization, and business impacts. I need to create layered goals. Everyone has their own goals, and they also need to see a chain connecting those goals to each level.