Managing Performance Starts from the Top

You ask your management team how things are going. The reply: “Everything’s on track.”

Great. Until a customer complains. Or a deadline gets missed. Or an issue that should have been sorted out weeks ago suddenly lands on your desk.

And your first thought is: How did we get this far without anyone telling me?

It’s a challenge most senior leaders know well.

You don’t want to be looking over your managers’ shoulders all the time. You hired them to manage, and they need the space to do that. But you also can’t be so far removed from what’s happening that you only hear about problems once they’ve become serious.

So how do you get the balance right?

How do you pass on ownership while still being confident that the business is on track? And how do you spot the warning signs early enough to do something about them?

I recently interviewed Helen Zille on The Business Hour on SAUMA Radio. She is the DA’s mayoral candidate for Johannesburg in the November 2026 local government elections.

One of the interesting parts of our conversation was not really about politics at all. It was about something every business leader must deal with:

How do you lead a large organisation and still know what is really going on? The discussion highlighted an important question for senior leaders: how do you remain accountable for results when you cannot personally oversee every employee?

Delegation needs a clear management process to ensure delivery of the intended work.  Clear expectations need to be set, and clear outcomes must be agreed. 

Make responsibility clear to those you are delegating.

• WHAT, you want done and by WHEN. 

A senior leader sets the direction. Department managers translate that direction into objectives which must be prioritised. Team leaders turn those priorities into tracked daily actions. Everyone needs to know what it owns, what it can decide and what it must report.

Managers are responsible to produce productivity and competence and thus are accountable for the performance of the teams they lead. That includes making sure their team leaders recognise problems early, act on them diligently, and report anything that needs support or a decision from above.

“Improve customer service” is vague and not measurable, it’s a broad intention. “Resolve customer complaints within two working days, with the service manager reviewing overdue cases each morning” is SMART!  This wording creates an outcome, an owner and a review point.

When responsibility is vague, a problem will pass from one person to another without anyone taking charge of resolving it.

Ask for evidence behind the update; “Everything is fine” gives you very little to work with. A dashboard can bring priorities, milestones, deadlines and budgets into one view. 

When progress falls behind, use it to investigate: what is blocking delivery, which step has been missed and who needs to act? A report should help you identify where intervention is needed.

A useful management update explains what was agreed, what has been delivered, what is behind schedule and what needs a decision.

Keep the measures relevant to the work. A sales manager might report on conversion and overdue follow-ups. An operations manager might report on delivery times, rework and unresolved issues.

For example, if your weekly report says 95% of orders were delivered on time, ask about the remaining 5%. Are the same problems recurring? Who owns the corrective action? When will you review whether it worked?

That gives you visibility into performance while keeping responsibility with the manager. Build a regular review rhythm.

Accountability becomes stronger when people know their commitments will be revisited.

A practical weekly structure is the LION process: Last week, Issues, Opportunities and Next week’s priorities. Use it to review delivery, identify obstacles and agree the next actions. The appropriate frequency depends on the work, but the principle is consistent: agree the outcome, review the evidence and follow through.

Team leaders may need daily checks on urgent operational issues. Department managers can review weekly delivery, risks and support needs. Senior leaders can focus on trends, significant exceptions and decisions that cross departments.

At each review, ask:

• What was the deliverable?
• What was the actual delivery?
• Is there a gap?
• What needs to get done to resolve the issue?
• By When?

Make sure every meeting has an action plan for all actionable items.  And then follow through on the items at the next meeting.  Without this simple way of working, the same issue can appear on the agenda for months.

Make it possible to raise problems early.  You cannot keep tabs on what people feel unable to tell you. If managers expect blame whenever they report a setback, they may delay raising it. By the time it reaches you, your options may be limited.

Set a clear expectation: raise material risks early, explain the impact and bring a proposed response where possible. Agree which issues require immediate escalation, such as a serious customer complaint, a safety concern or a deadline that puts another department’s work at risk.

Reporting a problem early should lead to a useful conversation. Repeatedly hiding it or failing to act needs a different response.

Stay connected to the work. Reports are valuable, but they are only one view of the business. Customer feedback, occasional site visits and conversations with employees can help you understand whether the reported picture matches people’s experience.

Use those conversations to learn and identify patterns. Take concerns back to the responsible manager, agree what needs to happen and follow up. Giving instructions around your managers can leave teams confused about who is responsible.

Senior leadership requires both trust and visibility. Your managers need the authority, skills and support to deliver. You need a clear view of results, emerging risks and actions being taken.

If a problem developed in one of your teams today, how quickly would you know, and who would be responsible for resolving it?

Why not take a self-assessment and score your business … how consistently are your managers putting these habits into practice. Take the Management Consistency Scorecard