Drivers of Performance: Why Managing Outputs Alone Fails Your Team

Learn how to diagnose the real drivers of underperformance and build the conditions that produce lasting results.When performance is lagging, most leaders jump straight to managing outputs: reviewing numbers, setting tighter expectations, and increasing reporting. This episode challenges that instinct and draws a clear line between performance as an outcome and the conditions that shape it.Lee covers a practical five-part framework, looking at clarity, capability, energy, trust, and feedback, alongside the structural factors that no performance dashboard will ever show you. He also addresses why this distinction becomes even more critical during periods of major change or AI adoption, where the drivers of performance are most volatile and most likely to be ignored.Accountability still matters. This episode makes the case for doing both halves properly: diagnosing the environment first, then holding people to realistic, well-supported standards.CHAPTERS00:00:00: Introduction: performance vs. its drivers00:02:00: Why managing outputs alone fails00:04:00: What overmanaging performance looks like00:05:00: Accountability without support is just pressure00:06:00: The five drivers: clarity, capability, energy, trust, feedback00:09:00: Structural drivers and broken systems00:09:30: What good diagnostic leadership looks like in practice00:11:00: Why complex change makes this even more critical00:13:00: Key takeaway and one action to take this weekRESOURCES MENTIONEDEnhanced Leadership by Lee Whitmore: referenced in the discussion on trust and psychological safety. Available at https://mybook.to/EnhancedLeadershipKEY TAKEAWAYS FOR LEADERSPerformance is a lagging indicator. The drivers, clarity, capability, energy, trust, feedback, and systems, are what you can actually influence. Diagnose before you prescribe. Accountability without first examining the environment is pressure, not leadership. During change programmes, the drivers become more volatile, making this discipline more important, not less.KEY TAKEAWAYS FOR COACHESClients presenting performance challenges in their teams are often describing symptoms. Use the five-driver framework as a diagnostic lens. The trust point is particularly relevant: people need psychological safety before they will be honest about what is really getting in the way.Thank you for watching/ listening.#ad Editing my podcast used to be the most time-consuming part of my week. I now use Descript to edit my audio and video by simply deleting words from a transcript. It allows me to create my YouTube Shorts and TikTok clips in a fraction of the time.If you want to try it for your own projects, you can sign up here: https://get.descript.com/LevelUpUsing this link costs you nothing extra, but the small commission I receive helps support the work I do on my podcast and articles. Paid plans start at around £12 / $16 per month (billed annually) for the Hobbyist tier.Music, jingles, and images - attribution.Podcast Background Track: https://pixabay.com/users/poorartistt-45918667/Guitar Jingle: https://pixabay.com/music/introoutro-guitar-intro-ident-151972/Images: https://gemini.google/overview/image-generation/ & https://www.perplexity.ai/Disclaimer.LevelUp and the podcast host do not endorse, verify, or take responsibility for any products, services, views, or claims presented by guests during podcast episodes. Any opinions or statements made by podcast guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views or  positions of LevelUp or its representatives.© 2026 LevelUp.This episode is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International. To view a copy of this license, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/