How to spot poor performance early and act

Poor performance is not a surprise event. It is a pattern that shows up in everyday work before it becomes an issue.

When you know where to look, you can act early and fairly. No drama. No long programmes. Just a steady routine that keeps expectations clear and support close to the work.

This guide shows you how to read the early signs, how to talk about them like an adult, and how to run a short reset that helps people get back on track. It fits inside a normal week. It works in operations, sales, engineering, HR and support.

What “poor performance” actually means

It means a person is not meeting agreed outcomes or behaving in ways the team has said are required. It is not about effort measures like hours online or number of messages. It is about whether work lands right and on time, and whether the basics of the role are present. That definition protects fairness. It gives you something concrete to point to and something concrete to improve.

Keep a clean line between outcomes and effort. You can praise effort and still hold a line on results. People respect that clarity.

Early signs

You see the same few tells across teams. Deadlines slip without a clear blocker. Decisions move from today to next week without anyone owning the call. Updates and language get vague. Rework rises on recurring outputs. Colleagues start picking up pieces quietly. Customers feel the wobble first in small ways, then in bigger ones.

Calendars tell a story as well. Some people are overbooked and cannot get to the real work. Others have space but no owned outcomes. Both produce the same result. Missed commitments and thin outputs. Neither needs a new tool to diagnose. It needs attention to the week and a common language.

Look in four places each week

Start with the goal for the week. It should be one sentence that names the outcome and the evidence. If the sentence is missing or vague, you already have a signal. Mid-week, ask for a small show me. A screenshot, a draft, a tick in the decision log. If proof is always tomorrow, you have drift. On Friday, compare what was promised to what landed. If misses repeat with no learning, you have a pattern. Finally, watch right first time on one or two outputs that matter in your world. Rising rework means something upstream is off.

You can run this rhythm on a shared page, a light sheet or the board you already use. Keep it in one place. People stop looking when the home changes every fortnight.

The one to one that surfaces the truth

Open simply. “Tell me the one thing you are moving this week, what could get in the way, and what you need from me to land it.” Then listen. If the goal is fuzzy, write it together in one line. If the blocker is real, remove it or change the promise in public. If the need is a skill gap, offer support matched to the gap.

Close with a fairness check. “On a scale from underused to stretched to overloaded, where are you this week. What evidence would you show either way.” You will learn more in ten minutes here than in any monthly report.

If you want the exact phrasing for feedback or a missed deadline, take the lines in Ten ready-to-use lines for common manager moments and make them yours.

Root causes you can actually act on

Most performance slips trace back to the same causes. Clarity, skill, load, or environment.

Clarity is missing when people cannot say what “done” means this week. Fix it by writing a one-sentence goal with an evidence line and a date.

Skill is missing when someone knows the outcome but cannot do the move. Fix it with a short task-led module, a shadow, or a quick demo. Then ask them to use it in the live work and bring back proof.

Load is the issue when the person owns too many things at once. Fix it by moving one item down the list in public and protecting focus.

Environment bites when handovers are messy or decisions stall. Fix it with decision-first meetings and a simple log that captures owner and date so calls do not drift.

Keep the fix inside the week. The person should feel progress in days, not months.

A fair reset in two to four weeks

Week one is about a clear promise and a small win. Agree one outcome that matters, write it in a line, and ask for a mid-week show me. Remove one blocker you control. Check in on Friday with the artefact in front of you. Keep the tone calm and adult.

Week two builds a run of good examples. Keep the same structure. Make the next outcome a little larger if the win landed cleanly. Share a tidy artefact in your team space so others can see what good looks like. Do not make a show of it. Just show the work.

Week three tests consistency. Keep the weekly goal and the mid-week touch. Add a decision-first opener to one meeting where this person owns the call. Help them land it and capture the owner and date. That small responsibility often resets confidence.

Week four is where you decide the next step based on evidence. If outcomes are landing and right first time is rising, carry on with the same rhythm and reduce the check-ins to a normal level. If misses keep repeating, bring HR in and move to your formal policy with the same evidence you have collected. You have not changed the person’s rights by acting early. You have kept the process honest.

One-sentence goal template with date, owner, outcome and evidence

Phrases that keep the conversation adult

You do not need a script. You need a few clean lines that make the point and leave room for context.

To reset a vague update, try “Let us write this as an outcome with evidence and a date so we both know what good looks like.”

To name a gap without spike, try “This is close. The gap is here. Close it by Friday and post the update so we can both see it.”

To protect focus, try “If we add this, what moves down. Which item slips, and to when.”

To stop drift in meetings, open with “The decision we need today is this. Options are A or B. I am leaning A because of X. Any better option before we decide. Then we will capture owner and date.”

People copy phrases that help them move work. Use them often enough that the team recognises them and knows what is coming.

Keep records light and useful

You are not building a case file. You are keeping notes that help two people stay honest. Record the weekly goal, the mid-week proof, the Friday outcome, and any decision that changes the plan. Put it where both of you can see it. A shared note is enough. If you later need a formal process, you already have dates and artefacts. That protects everyone.

Avoid side channels and private “gotchas”. If a promise changes, change it in the same place you set it. Trust comes from daylight.

Reduce risk without micromanaging

Managers worry that acting early means hovering. It does not. It means making expectations visible, giving ownership of outcomes rather than task lists, and checking proof at smart points in the week. You intervene to remove a blocker, not to take the work back. You adjust the size of the promise to match reality, not to avoid stretch. The person still owns the result.

This is also where your LMS helps. Keep the support one click from the problem. A short course on writing one-sentence goals. A clip on decision-first meetings. A printable one pager for one to ones. A simple decision log. When access is open through a company licence, managers do not wait for permission to learn. They dip in when the need appears. See Build your own leadership library in your LMS and Company licence vs per-seat for the set-up.

Measures worth watching

You do not need a dashboard overhaul. Four small signals tell you if your early actions are working. How many people wrote a weekly one-sentence goal by Monday. How many had visible proof by mid-week. How many landed as written on Friday. What happened to right first time on one or two outputs that matter to your world. You can publish this as a tiny chart for your team. Add one real artefact each week so the story looks like the work.

These signals do not replace your formal process. They reduce the chance you need it.

Remote, hybrid and on-the-floor

The rhythm does not change with location. Put the goals and proof in a place everyone can open. Use the same phrases in chat that you would use in person. Keep one to ones regular and short. Ten minutes beats nothing for a month. For shift teams, tie the mid-week proof to handover points so the check is natural rather than an extra meeting.

Where to go next

Start with one person this Monday. Write a one-sentence goal together. Ask for a small show me on Wednesday. Close it out on Friday with the artefact on the screen. If it slips, name the blocker and set a new date. Then repeat next week. Small moves, done consistently, change outcomes and make formal processes rarer.

If you want the template and the short courses that sit under this, start a free 7 day trial to preview a selection of full modules. If you prefer a quick walk through first, message us and we will show you how it works in under fifteen minutes.