Many years ago, I had a strong employee suddenly start missing expectations.

At first, I assumed it was a performance problem.

My thoughts immediately went to:
→ Are they disengaged?
→ Are they not prioritizing well?
→ Do they need more accountability?

But when we finally sat down and talked, the real issue became obvious:

They weren’t actually clear on what “good” looked like.

They didn’t know what mattered most.
They didn’t fully understand how their work connected to the bigger picture.
And they weren’t sure how success was being measured.

That conversation changed the way I lead.

Because I realized something uncomfortable:

A lot of what leaders call “performance problems” are actually clarity problems.

💡 The Vault Insight

Most people want to do great work. But people struggle when:

Clarity creates confidence.
Confidence creates ownership.
Ownership creates performance.

So instead of immediately increasing pressure, I focused on increasing clarity.

Here’s what I changed:

→ I created documented work quality guidelines

→ I ran workshops to coach the team on quality, goals, and how their work tied directly to business outcomes

→ I created clear daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly ownership expectations for every employee—with every task tied to a KPI or business outcome

The result?

That employee’s performance turned around quickly.

But more importantly, the entire team became more engaged and motivated because they finally understood:

We hit record revenue and EBITDA that year in part because the team became obsessed with moving the needle on the right things.

Not because I added pressure.

Because I added clarity.

—Ashley Walton, CMO & Treadmill Desk Advocate