The Most Expensive Performance Problems Are the Ones Leaders Don't See
I've spent more than twenty years working in talent development, leadership development, and performance improvement. During that time, I've noticed something that shows up again and again.
When performance stalls, leaders are usually aware that something is wrong. They can see the missed deadlines, quality issues, turnover, customer complaints, and productivity challenges.
What they often can't see are the workplace conditions contributing to those outcomes. As a result, many organizations end up solving the problem they can see instead of the problem that's actually creating the issue.
Most Leaders Are Looking at Symptoms
Think about the last performance challenge you experienced. Maybe a team wasn't meeting expectations, engagement was declining, or customer complaints were starting to increase.
What was the first question that came to mind? For many leaders, it sounds something like this: Do people need more training? Do we need more accountability? Do we have the right people in the right roles?
Those aren't bad questions. They're just not always the first questions we should ask.
Over the years, I've learned that performance challenges are often more complex than they appear on the surface. Before deciding what to fix, it's important to understand the environment surrounding performance.
A Simple Example
Several years ago, a global financial institution found itself at the center of a major scandal. Employees across the organization had opened unauthorized customer accounts in an effort to meet aggressive sales goals.
When the story became public, many people focused on the employees involved. How could employees make those decisions? Why didn't they simply follow the rules?
Those are fair questions. The question I find more interesting is this: What workplace conditions existed that made those behaviors possible across so many locations and over such a long period of time?
Employees had received training. Policies existed. Leaders had communicated expectations. Yet the behavior continued.
Eventually, the organization paid a steep price. The fallout resulted in billions of dollars in fines, settlements, customer remediation efforts, and reputational damage.
When I look at that story, I don't start by asking, "What's wrong with the people?" I start by asking, "What was the environment encouraging people to do?"
That question often leads leaders to very different insights and very different solutions.
What If the Problem Isn't the People?
I've never met a leader who intentionally created conditions that made performance harder. Most leaders are doing the best they can with the information they have available.
The challenge is that workplace conditions are often difficult to see. They don't show up on financial reports. They don't appear in organizational charts. They don't always reveal themselves in engagement surveys.
Yet they influence performance every day.
The way work is structured. The tools people use. The signals systems send. The priorities leaders reinforce. The behaviors peers tolerate. All of these things shape performance, whether leaders realize it or not.
Why I Created the JL³ Masterclass
The JL³ Masterclass was designed to help leaders look beyond symptoms and better understand the workplace conditions influencing performance.
At the center of the experience is a workplace conditions diagnostic. Participants complete a guided assessment that helps them evaluate six workplace conditions that influence performance:
Shared Capacity
Skill Readiness
Tool Support
System Cues
Peer Norms
Mindset Alignment
Together, these conditions create the environment in which performance occurs.
When those conditions are strong, performance becomes more predictable. When those conditions are weak, leaders often find themselves dealing with recurring challenges that never seem fully resolved.
The goal isn't to assign blame. The goal is to create visibility.
What Makes This Different?
Most workshops focus on what leaders should do. The JL³ Masterclass focuses on what leaders should see.
That's an important distinction because solutions are only as effective as the assumptions behind them. If leaders can't clearly see the conditions influencing performance, they risk investing time, energy, and resources into solutions that address symptoms instead of causes.
Participants leave with a personalized Executive Brief that summarizes their results and highlights potential areas for further exploration. More importantly, they leave with a framework for examining workplace conditions before deciding where to focus improvement efforts.
You Can't Fix What You Can't See
One of the core beliefs behind the JL³ framework is that performance is not simply the result of effort, talent, or motivation. Performance is influenced by the conditions leaders intentionally create.
The most expensive performance problems are often the ones leaders don't see until they show up in financial reports, customer complaints, turnover data, or missed business goals.
The question isn't whether workplace conditions are influencing performance. The question is whether leaders can see them clearly enough to act before the consequences become visible.
That's the work we do inside the JL³ Masterclass.