Are your leaders high-performing?

As a CEO, how do you know the leaders on your executive team are high-performing? And how do you ensure they get there?

Over the last several 5 Minute Growth Tips, we’ve discussed the importance of getting your executive team aligned and getting them executing more efficiently, as well as the critical business practices to make this all happen.

So you and your team are now aligned around your One Page Strategic Plan, annual and quarterly plans, and individual roles and accountabilities. And you and the team are executing more efficiently with a Monthly Operating & Financial Forecast, quarterly targets and priorities, an executive meeting rhythm and a results tracking system. So how do you know if all your team members are performing at the level they need to be? And how do you ensure they develop to get there?

For a CEO to grow a thriving small to mid-size company, they need all their executive team members to be high-performing. From both an individual contribution perspective as well as in terms of how each leader collaborates with their team mates, there is no room for average or mediocre performers in this endeavor.

We call this A-Player performance. And while the term A-players can be misunderstood, we define it clearly as achieving excellence while ALSO living the company’s core values.

For executive team leaders, achieving excellence is critical because their excellence is defined by the excellence their teams achieve. And living the company’s core values is critical because this contributes to a cohesive, collaborative, high functioning executive team, and modelling the core values nurtures the company’s desired culture, not only in their own teams, but throughout the company. 

​If you’ve promoted certain team members, you may be keenly aware that they need to develop to be high-performing. If you’ve selected others from the outside or you were hired to lead the company with certain leaders already in place, you might think those leaders should be excellent because they earned their seat. But this is often not the case. New leaders are rarely fully prepared to meet the demands of such leadership roles, much less be high-performing. And leaders hired from elsewhere or who’ve been in such a role for some time have often never been adequately prepared either.

So how does one know what high performance should look like for each executive team leader?

The job scorecard for a role captures high performance. It goes beyond a traditional job description to outline all the expectations of a role, including results, metrics and targets, areas of accountability and responsibilities, authority and behavioural competencies. We also encourage our clients to include their core values in each job scorecard, as well as the specific behaviours that show those core values are being lived. See our earlier 5 Minute Growth Tip for how to create a job scorecard.
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With the job scorecard for each leader as a definition for high performance, how does a CEO go about ensuring their leaders develop to that level? There are four key elements:

• Quarterly Coaching Reviews
• Personal Assessments
• Quarterly Development Plans
• Weekly One-On-Ones

Quarterly Coaching Reviews

The starting point for developing a leader is for them and the CEO to get in the habit of conducting a Quarterly Coaching Review. At the end of each quarter, usually after your executive team quarterly planning, have each leader assess themselves against their job scorecard in order to identify the areas where they are strong and the areas they need to develop in. 

This involves simply rating themselves using a five point scale on each core value, metric, responsibility and competency in their job scorecard. The CEO does the same. They then get together and review their ratings. They note where there are similar ratings, but focus more on where there are differences and why they each view those items differently. 

This often exposes a blindspot for the leader. They thought they were doing fine in a certain area, until the CEO shares their perspective. They quickly become aware that something is missing. This open conversation helps the leader buy into the need to develop in that area.

Personal Assessments

Sometimes, certain areas requiring development are stuck-points: areas the leader has been struggling with for some time. It can be helpful to have the leader complete one or more personal assessments to determine why they might be struggling. 

Such assessments can help pinpoint an underlying root cause a leader needs to work on or how they might be able to go about the work in a different way to be more successful. Or it might reveal that the leader simply won’t be able to, or enjoy, excelling in that area. In the later situation, moving them to another role or out of the organization may be needed. 

A qualified business growth executive team coach can help determine which personal assessment is best for the situation, provide access to the assessment, help interpret the results and help determine what actions could be taken.

Quarterly Development Plans

Once areas for development have been identified, it’s helpful for the leader, with the CEO’s support, to create a brief development plan for the quarter. This involves first narrowing down the areas for development to a manageable number, say the top one or two, as agreed to between the leader and the CEO. 

Then, the leader identifies what methods will work best for them to learn in those areas and successfully turn that learning into sustained skills. One leader may find that their learning needs are best served by taking a course. Another leader may find that they are best to lead a project that will stretch their skills. 

It’s important to document the development plan for the leader and CEO to be able to revisit throughout the quarter, as well as at the next Quarterly Coaching Review, when they’ll check in on completion. An individual development planning tool can be helpful for considering and evaluating the various types of learning and skill development options available for the leader, as well as documenting the plan.

​Weekly One-On-Ones
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The purpose of a CEO’s one-on-ones with their executive team members is to create a space where leaders can discuss their progress, receive relevant feedback (both appreciative and constructive feedback), discuss alternative approaches, ask for meaningful guidance, and access resources. They also create a space for the CEO to really get to know and appreciate the leader, both as a leader and as a person, which strengthens the relationship, contributing to the leader’s engagement, loyalty and retention.

One-on-ones are not a place to set targets, determine priorities, discuss reasons why goals haven’t been met or listen to the leader’s concerns or complaints about other team members. All of this should be handled in the executive team’s regular meeting rhythm: annual planning, quarterly planning, monthly checkins and weekly meetings. This is the place for planning, execution monitoring, healthy debate and holding each other accountable. Doing any of these in one-on-one discussions reduces the alignment, effectiveness and efficiency of the executive team and adds work and hassle to the CEO’s plate.

How often should one-on-ones be held and how long should they be? We recommend once a week for 20 to 30 minutes, scheduled at the time on the same day every week, and attended religiously. This is long enough and often enough for the conversation to build from week to week. Less than this and the momentum, meaning, impact and return are lost.


By implementing a regular rhythm of quarterly coaching reviews, quarterly development plans and weekly one-on-ones, complemented by personal assessments as needed, CEOs can develop their leaders to become high-performing with both excellence and core values alignments, while building strong, connected relationships that fuel their leaders’ engagement.

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These aren't just my ideas. They're discussed in the best-selling book The Strength of Talent, by my colleague Mike Goldman in New Jersey. I'll cover that in the next 5 Minute Growth Tip.

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If you are a prairie CEO who wants to grow a thriving company, team and life more quickly, more easily and with less stress and headache, please contact me here.