Russell Raath

It is important to be able to communicate - in this sequence - the following: 1. A future aspiration - what are you committing to achieving - goals, impact for the community, impact for employees 2. Then articulate how the way you’re working today won’t get you where you need to get to … i.e. you need to work differently 3. Then be substantively clear about what that “work differently”looks like > not vague and thematics, but real observable behaviors 4. Invite people to believe in this future … to demonstrate their commitment. Ultimately their belief in where you want to go is what will get people to work differently (which is really what culture change is all about.) 3.

As a leader, be clear about the sort of company you want to be leading tomorrow, and five years hence. Don’t apologize or compromise. If you want to experience faster execution, don’t dial that back because you’re concerned people might be worried or concerned - own it. As always, acknowledge the teams who have made possible what you now have - the integrated team - and that you get to build the future company together. Ultimately people want certainty and clarity - so being clear about what the world will look like sooner rather than later is key. If someone is unsure about whether they want to be a part of the future, having clarity on what that will look like sooner rather than later is always preferred.

It may seem harsh, but if the executive is unable to correct performance it may be necessary to consider transitioning the executive out of the role/company. Tolerating poor performance will send the message to the remainder of the team that standards are not upheld or that sustained poor performance is acceptable.

An executive should not need to have remediation and monitoring of performance; that said of this is necessary a transparent and regular review of key indicators should be established. There should be complete transparency to the indices and what is meant by them so avoid any justification of results.

Assuming there has been explicit clarity on the performance objectives and the performance miss, the conversation should not be a surprise with the impacted executive. Seek to understand factors that may be driving this weak performance but explain that as an executive there is an expectation that goals will be met. Identify if there are any intractable problems that cannot be easily solved and what support might be needed to resolve this.

If this is a case of consistent underperformance it has already been noticed by others on the team. In fact it is reasonable to expect that the other (performing) leaders are wondering why it took as long as it did to address this. There is no reason to go into personal drivers of poor performance however, being factual about the sub-standard performance and that corrective action is being taken is entirely reasonable. A supportive executive team will approach this as an opportunity to support one another and to grow together.