“That is SO interesting! I’m going to quote you on this!”
This is a direct quote from my enthusiastic (now) 20-year-old daughter after we had an impromptu deep dive on one of my specialisms: leading across generations.
On one hand, maybe testimonials coming from family are not that trustworthy.
On the other hand, what am I saying? A 20-year-old impressed by professional expertise their own mother shares?!
Who am I kidding? This is as rare as it is precious. Hence why I’m sharing it with you.
All jokes aside, it reminded me of something I think we sometimes overlook as leaders. There’s a particular value in getting access to someone’s accumulated experience on a knotty leadership problem, especially when they’ve seen that same problem play out hundreds of times.
And I mean a real person who’s been in the room as leadership scenarios unfolded, who has had the conversations, made the mistakes, learned from them, and can offer a concentrated dose of practical expertise.
One of those knotty leadership problems is underperformance.
It’s something almost every leader encounters at some point, yet it’s also one of the issues we tend to overcomplicate.
We mix together the expectations, the gap between expectations and performance, the possible reasons for that gap, our frustrations, and our assumptions about the person. Before long, it feels messy and overwhelming.
But what if we started somewhere simpler?
What if we focused first on understanding the gap?
Can you clearly explain the difference between what was expected and what is actually being delivered, without the emotional load, assumptions about why it’s happening, or what you think it says about the person?
If you can, you’re already in a much stronger position to deal with the issue well.
Understanding isn’t the same as excusing.
It’s simply the first step towards addressing underperformance in a way that’s helpful for everyone involved.
That shift in perspective is one of the things I’ve seen make the biggest difference for leaders over the years.
When they stop asking, “How do I fix this person?” and instead become curious about what’s sitting behind the underperformance, they’re able to have much better conversations.
And those conversations often lead to shifts in behaviour, performance, confidence and even team culture.
That’s exactly why I created my Underperformance Deep Dive.
It’s a 30-minute session where I share the practical frameworks I use with leaders to understand what’s really sitting behind underperformance and how to have the conversations that so many leaders (understandably) dread.
It’s the same approach I’ve shared with hundreds of leaders across Australia, and one they’ve used to shift behaviour and performance, as well as their own confidence and stress levels.
If underperformance is something you’re navigating right now, I’d love to share it with you.
You can watch it now and have something useful to put into practice by the end of the day.
And by the way, if leading across generations is something you could use some support with, I’d love to hear from you.
Juliet Robinson
