Have you ever felt like you’re carrying the performance of your entire team? If you’re not in the room, standards slip. If you’re away for a day, productivity drops. Every decision seems to come back to you and no matter how hard you push, it never quite feels like enough.
It’s a conversation Adrian has with leaders all the time. Whether it’s during coaching sessions, workshops or leadership debriefs, the same frustrations keep coming up.
“I’m carrying too much.”
“If I’m not there, performance drops.”
“I just need better people.”
At first glance, it feels like a people problem. Sometimes it is. But more often than not, it’s a culture problem.
That’s a confronting realisation because most leaders genuinely care about their people. They work harder, put more pressure on themselves and try to solve every problem that comes their way. Adrian knows because he did exactly the same thing.
When he first stepped into management, he believed the answer was simple. If performance wasn’t where it needed to be, apply more pressure. If that didn’t work, have more meetings. If that still didn’t work, maybe it was time to find better people. Looking back, he sees that as one of the biggest leadership lies we tell ourselves.
The truth is, there is potential in every person.
The role of a leader isn’t to squeeze more out of people. It’s to uncover that potential and help people grow into it.
After working with countless leaders and teams, Adrian has found that poor performance often comes back to the same few things. People aren’t clear on what’s expected. Accountability is inconsistent. Managers fall into micromanagement because they know how to get the result themselves.
Before long, people stop making decisions. They become dependent on their leader instead of developing confidence in themselves. That’s the moment leadership has to shift. Instead of managing tasks, you start leading people. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it’s one of the most important transitions a leader can make.
Here are six shifts that can completely change the performance culture of your team. These apply whether you’re leading a business, managing a team or simply wanting to become a better leader in your own life.
SHIFT ONE:
Stop Treating Performance Management Like Damage Control
For a lot of people, performance management has a bad reputation.
When someone is called into a performance management meeting, everyone knows what it meant. Something had gone wrong. Someone was underperforming. Or someone was on their way out. That mindset follows many leaders into management.
Performance conversations only happen once problems appear. By then, we’ve already missed countless opportunities to coach, guide and support someone before they reached that point. Imagine being called into your manager’s office and hearing the words:
“We’re having a performance management conversation.”
For most people, fear kicks in immediately. But what if performance management wasn’t about fixing people? What if it was about helping people become their best?
Professional athletes don’t wait until the grand final to work on their weaknesses. They’re constantly reviewing, refining and improving throughout the season. Leaders should approach performance in exactly the same way. Create a regular rhythm of growth conversations instead of waiting until things go wrong.
The role of a leader isn’t to performance manage people out. It’s to performance manage people up. That simple shift changes everything.
Data also plays an important role. Without data, leaders often create stories about how someone is performing. Sometimes the individual believes they’re doing better than they actually are. When performance is measured properly, conversations become far more productive. You can clearly identify strengths, highlight opportunities for improvement and create a personalised plan to help someone grow.
Alongside the numbers, people also need clarity. They need to know exactly what good looks like. What behaviours are expected? What attitudes matter? What standards are non-negotiable? When those expectations are clear, people have something to grow into. Performance management stops feeling like punishment and starts becoming part of everyday leadership.
SHIFT TWO:
Audit Your Process Before You Blame Your People
One thing I’ve learnt over the years is that part of every good process is assessing the process itself. This lesson really hit home when I moved into managing a new team. I’d spent thirteen years with one business, working my way into a senior leadership role before stepping into management. I knew the business inside out. I was part of the furniture. It wasn’t until I moved somewhere new that I had to learn someone else’s systems and processes. That learning phase opened my eyes.
As leaders, our role is to create efficiency and productivity. To do that, we need to remove friction, double handling and bottlenecks wherever we can. I remember looking at one piece of paperwork and asking a simple question. “Why do we get this signed?” I asked one of the team members and they shrugged. “I have no idea.” So I went looking for the answer. One person sent me to another department. That department sent me somewhere else. I spent the next hour and a half bouncing around the business asking the same question. Finally, I reached the last person. Their answer? “We haven’t needed that form for seven years.”
For seven years, people had been following a process they thought was mandatory. They’d been chasing signatures, creating extra work and wasting valuable time because nobody had ever stopped to question it. It’s a simple example, but it happens more often than you’d think.
Businesses invest in software after software. Everyone talks about automation and efficiency, yet the people making those decisions often aren’t the ones actually using the systems every day. One platform doesn’t talk to another, so the team ends up entering the same information twice. Processes become clunky. Frustration builds. At the same time, leaders wonder why their people seem disengaged or resistant.
Would an AFL premiership team accept that kind of friction? Probably not. So why do we?
Whatever industry you’re in, ask yourself what league you want to play in. Are you operating like the local backyard team? Or are you trying to perform at an elite level?
The standard you accept determines the culture you create. If you want high performance, remove the things that stop your people from performing. Have an open conversation with your team. Ask them where the bottlenecks are. Ask what’s slowing them down. Ask what feels unnecessary.
You won’t fix everything overnight, but you’ll be surprised how often the people doing the work already know the answer. Sometimes they’ll say, “If we cut out A, B and C and went straight to F, we’d save hours every week and get exactly the same result.” Those are the conversations leaders need to have.
Before you blame attitude, audit the process. Sometimes people aren’t frustrated because they don’t care. They’re frustrated because they can see they’re spending time on work that adds no value. That’s a process problem, not a people problem.
SHIFT THREE:
Recognition Shouldn’t Only Exist at the Finish Line
One of the biggest mistakes leaders make is only recognising outcomes. It doesn’t matter whether you’re in sales, a service-based business or any role where there’s a measurable result. Too often, recognition only comes once the job is done.
I think a lot of that comes from the environments we were raised in. You either got the sale or you didn’t. You either hit the target or you missed it. Everything was measured by the final result. I used to do exactly the same thing. Every time one of my team finished with a client, I’d ask the same question.
“How did you go?”
It’s an outcome-framed question.
The answer was either, “I got the sale,” or, “I didn’t.”
One answer was treated like success. The other felt like failure.
The problem is, that person could have done ten things brilliantly during that interaction. They might have handled difficult objections. They might have built incredible rapport. They might have stayed calm under pressure. They might have shown consistency in areas they’d previously struggled with. But unless they got the outcome, none of it was acknowledged.
That doesn’t mean every little win needs a financial reward. Sometimes people simply need to know their effort was seen.
Acknowledgement. Recognition. Praise. Because all of those things reinforce the behaviours you actually want repeated.
The reality is, we don’t control every outcome. At the end of every conversation, every sales meeting or every client interaction, another human being still gets to make a decision. You can do everything right and still hear the word “no”. As a leader, your response in that moment shapes what happens next.
If someone walks away believing they’ve failed, they’ll carry that emotion into the next conversation. Their confidence drops. Their energy changes. Eventually, their performance follows. That’s why I changed one simple habit. I kept a Post-it note on my computer for over a year because I needed to retrain myself. Instead of asking, “How did you go?” I started asking, “What went well?” It’s such a small shift, but it changes everything.
Instead of immediately looking for success or failure, people start looking for progress. They recognise what they did well before looking at what needs work. That doesn’t mean ignoring mistakes.
It’s always:
What went well?
What needs work?
What can we do differently next time?
Think about an Olympic diver. If they’ve performed that dive a thousand times and make one small mistake, do you want them climbing the ladder for their next dive beating themselves up? Or do you want them remembering what they executed well while making one small adjustment? That’s how growth happens.
Recognition shouldn’t only exist at the finish line. Celebrate the behaviours that lead to great outcomes, not just the outcome itself.
One thing I also learnt over the years is that not everybody asks for recognition. Some people will tell you they don’t need praise. They’ll say, “Don’t worry about me, boss. I’ve got my own goals.” And maybe that’s true but I’ve also learnt that everybody appreciates being seen. Even the toughest people warm to genuine acknowledgement.
Don’t wait until someone crosses the finish line before recognising their effort. Find the wins along the way.
SHIFT FOUR:
Build a Culture Where People Feel Safe to Grow
One of the biggest misconceptions in leadership is that people fear failure. In my experience, they don’t. What people really fear is the judgement that follows failure. If we’re serious about building a high-performance culture, then we have to create an environment where people feel safe to have a crack.
Too often, someone makes a mistake and they’re ridiculed, criticised or made to feel like they’ve let everyone down. That’s one of the quickest ways to kill ambition, growth and innovation. Whether it’s in business, sport or even within a family, people stop taking risks when they believe every mistake will be held against them.
Instead, we need to create psychological safety. Not a culture where mistakes don’t matter, but one where mistakes become part of learning.
One of the best examples is a baby learning to walk. Think about how many times they fall over. Nobody stands there saying, “Maybe walking isn’t for you.” We cheer them on. We clap. We encourage them to get back up and try again. Every stumble is celebrated because we know it’s part of the process. Somewhere along the way that changes.
As children, then teenagers and eventually adults, we start attaching judgement to failure. We worry about looking silly. We worry about what other people will think. Eventually, we stop trying altogether. As leaders, we have the opportunity to change that. Of course, we’re going to coach people. We’re going to correct mistakes because we want better execution next time. But correction should never come at the expense of confidence.
If someone takes a step they never would have taken six months ago, recognise that. If they used to avoid difficult conversations but now they’re having them, acknowledge the progress. If they used to freeze every time they picked up the phone but now they’re getting halfway through a conversation before stumbling, that’s growth.
Nobody is born confident. Nobody comes out of the womb knowing how to lead, sell, communicate or solve problems. Those skills are built over time. That’s why the language we use matters. Instead of saying, “I’m no good at this,” encourage people to say, “I’m not good at this yet.” That one word changes the conversation.
High-performing cultures don’t expect perfection. They expect progress. That’s the culture you want to create, not only within your team but within yourself.
SHIFT FIVE:
Your Morning Meetings Are Either Creating Energy or Killing It
Morning meetings aren’t everyone’s favourite part of the day. Whether you’re the person leading them or attending them, there’s one question worth asking. If people didn’t have to come, would they? It’s an uncomfortable question, but it’s an important one. Because if the answer is no, then we need to ask whether the meeting is actually adding value.
Too many meetings exist because they’ve always existed. We repeat the same information we covered yesterday. Tuesday sounds exactly like Wednesday. Wednesday sounds exactly like Friday. Meanwhile, everyone is thinking about the work they could actually be getting done. Time is one of our greatest resources. If we’re asking people to spend part of their day with us, it needs to be worthwhile.
When I became a manager, one thing I wanted to bring into our meetings was diversity. Am I a fan of daily meetings? Absolutely. Because the leader brings the weather. If I walk into that room flat, negative and low energy, there’s a good chance that’s the tone the team will take into the rest of their day. But if I show up with purpose, optimism and energy, I set the standard for everyone else. That doesn’t mean pretending to be someone you’re not. There are plenty of people who aren’t morning people and that’s completely fine but as the leader, your job is to create the environment your team walks into.
Your energy gives people permission to lift theirs.
The other thing I learnt is that every meeting should leave people better than they were when they walked in. Maybe it’s a role play that gives someone another tool. Maybe it’s sharing a lesson from a recent challenge. Maybe it’s explaining a change in process or solving a problem together. If it adds value to everyone, bring it into the team meeting. If it only applies to one person, save it for a one-on-one. That’s where a lot of leaders get it wrong.
Individual performance conversations don’t belong in front of the whole team. Likewise, topics that benefit everyone shouldn’t stay locked away in private conversations. Every meeting should have a purpose. It should improve capability, build connection or create clarity. Otherwise, it’s simply taking time away from the work that matters most.
High-performing teams don’t waste time. They use it intentionally.
SHIFT SIX:
Know What Actually Drives Your People
If I had to choose one shift that makes the biggest difference, this would be it.
Most leaders know their team’s KPIs. They know the sales targets. They know the monthly numbers. They know exactly what each person needs to achieve. But very few know what actually drives the people behind those numbers. That’s the opportunity. Because leadership becomes far more powerful when it stops being about targets and starts being about people.
I’ve had countless conversations over the years where I’ve asked someone,
“What are your goals?”
Sometimes they don’t even know. That’s okay. In fact, it’s one of the best places to start. Get clear on what they want. Maybe it’s a financial goal. Maybe it’s a promotion. Maybe it’s building a business. Whatever it is, don’t stop there. Ask why.
Why is that important?
What will achieving that actually give you?
For one person, it might be creating stability for their family. For another, it might be saving for a proposal. It could be private school fees. A deposit on their first home. Helping their parents. Supporting family overseas. Or creating a life they never had growing up. That’s where purpose lives.
Once you uncover that, you’re no longer relying on motivation. Motivation comes and goes. It feels great in the moment, but it fades quickly. Purpose lasts.
When people know why they’re doing the work, they don’t need someone constantly trying to fire them up. They already have something worth moving towards. That completely changes the conversations you have as a leader.
Instead of saying,
“You need another three sales.”
You might say,
“Remember the house.”
“Remember why you started.”
“Remember that engagement ring.”
“Remember your kids.”
That’s not manipulation. Those are their goals. You’re simply reminding them what they’re working towards. It’s one of the biggest drivers of performance I’ve ever seen. Not because people suddenly become more motivated, but because they reconnect with something that’s deeply meaningful to them.
Over more than twenty years in leadership, one lesson continues to stand out. Performance is far more emotional than it is operational. Yet so many leaders try to solve emotional problems with operational solutions. That’s the gap. It’s the difference between managing tasks and leading people. When you shift your focus from controlling performance to developing people, everything changes. The culture becomes stronger. People become more confident. Performance improves because people genuinely want to be there and want to grow. That’s the kind of culture every leader should be building.
Building a high-performance culture isn’t about putting more pressure on your people. It’s about creating an environment where people know what’s expected, feel supported to grow and understand why their work matters. When you make these shifts, you stop carrying the weight of the entire team on your shoulders. Instead, you build capable, confident people who can think for themselves, take ownership and consistently raise the standard.
Leadership isn’t about having all the answers. It’s about creating the conditions where your people can find them.
If you’re ready to start putting these ideas into practice, I’ve created a free resource to help. The Performance Culture Playbook breaks down these six shifts into practical actions you can apply straight away with your team.
If you’re looking to take it a step further, the Amplify Workshop Series goes deeper into leadership, culture, wellbeing and sales, giving your team the tools and strategies to build lasting performance from the inside out.
Because at the end of the day, performance isn’t just about systems and processes. It’s about people. And when your people grow, your business grows with them.
Listen to Episode 10, How High-Performance Cultures Are Built , on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Until next time,
