Is Emotional Intelligence The Missing Link Between People, Performance and Growth?
Performance Management Starts Earlier Than You Think
Performance management doesn’t start when performance drops, it starts the moment someone engages with your business.
I was at Wolferstans Quarterly Employment Update recently, and the focus was on performance management, capability, conduct, and what happens when things end up in tribunal territory. It was a really useful session. Practical, grounded, and very real.
But as I was listening, one thing kept coming up for me.
We spend a lot of time talking about what happens at the end but it seems to me too little time is spent talking about what should have happened at the beginning.
Because the reality is, by the time performance becomes a formal issue, the real opportunity to fix it has often already passed us by.
According to Gallup's research, 70% of engagement comes down to the manager… yet we still treat performance as a process issue, not a leadership one. Performance issues rarely start at the end, they start at the leadership level.
The Real Problem With Performance Management
In many organisations, performance management is something that appears when there is already a problem.
A manager is frustrated, targets are not being hit or Something feels off.
We then move into “managing performance”. Having formal conversations, processes and warnings.
But when you look a little closer, the signs were there much earlier.
Expectations were unclear from the start. A role that evolved continually but was never reset. A compete lack of feedback and conversations completely avoided and managers unsure how to address what they are seeing.
And perhaps most importantly of all, absolutely no shared understanding of what “good” actually looks like.
So performance becomes subjective.
And once that happens, everything becomes harder.
Setting People Up to Succeed
This is where performance management really begins.
Not at the point of underperformance, but at the point of entry, before someone even starts. It's about making sure some fundamental questions are absolutely clear:
What is this role really here to do?
What does success look like in this role?
How will that success be measured?
What does good look like day to day, not just on paper?
KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) can be part of this, but they are not the whole picture.
What matters is clarity.
Clarity of expectations.
Clarity of direction.
Clarity of what “great” looks like.
Because if that is not in place, you are not managing performance. You are just guessing and guess what?
So is the person doing the job.
Performance Management Is Not an Event
Done well, performance management is not something that happens once a year, or only when something goes wrong.
It is ongoing.
It shows up in regular one to ones, in small course corrections. It means providing honest and timely feedback. And it is in noticing when something shifts or changes, and addressing it early.
It is also about creating an environment where people feel able to speak up.
Where they can say they are struggling.
Where they can ask for support.
Where they are clear on what is expected of them.
Because when that environment exists, dips in performance are much easier to address.
They do not escalate in the same way.
Where Emotional Intelligence Comes In
Where do I see the biggest gap when I work with organisations?
Well I can tell you it's not in the processes, but in people!
Managers are often promoted because they are good at what they do, not because they have been trained to lead others. They are expected to have difficult conversations, give feedback, manage performance, and navigate complex situations…
Basically giving someone the job, without the tools to do it well.
This is where Emotional Intelligence becomes critical.
It is what allows a manager to notice what is really going on, not just what is visible on the surface. It provides the understanding whether someone is struggling, disengaged, overwhelmed, or unclear.
It enables you to have a conversation early, without it escalating into something bigger. To balance empathy with straightforwardness.To stay measured, even when conversations feel uncomfortable.
Because performance issues are rarely just about performance.
Capability, Conduct…Skill or Will or Something Else?
One of the most important distinctions that came out of the session was this:
Is it capability, or is it conduct? Or put more simply… is it skill or will?
Can’t do, or won’t do? It sounds straightforward, doesn't it? But in reality, it is rarely that clean because there is often a third category sitting underneath both.
People who could do the role…
…but are not set up to succeed.
They lack clarity.
They have not had the right support.
They have not been given feedback early enough.
They are unsure what is expected of them.
So what shows up looks like underperformance.
But, it is not always a skill issue.
And, it is not always a will issue.
More often than not, it is often a leadership, environment, or clarity issue and this is where things start to unravel.
If we misdiagnose the problem, we take the wrong path, we follow the wrong process, We have the wrong conversations, and we escalate something that could have been resolved early.
What could have been turned around with a simple, honest conversation, now becomes formal, drawn out, and often damaging for everyone involved.
The Cost of Getting It Wrong
By the time things reach a formal capability process, or worse, a tribunal, the cost is already high.
Time.
Energy.
Money.
Impact on team morale.
Damage to relationships.
And often, it results in losing someone who could have been supported to succeed or managing someone out of a role that was never clearly defined in the first place.
A Different Way to Look at Performance Management
Performance management should not be about catching people out, it should not be something that only shows up when things go wrong.
Done well, it is about creating the conditions for people to perform at their best from Day One!
Clarity.
Direction.
Support.
Challenge.
Done well, it's managers who have the confidence and capability to have the conversations that matter, when they matter.
Because that is where the real work happens, long before anything becomes formal.
The Next Step
If you are recognising some of this in your own business, you are not alone. Most organisations do not have a performance problem. They have a clarity, consistency, and capability problem.
This is exactly where Emotional Intelligence makes a measurable difference. The next step is understanding what is really going on beneath the surface.
This is where the Emotional Capital Report comes in.
It gives you a clear, evidence based view of how your people are thinking, responding, and showing up at work. Not just what they are doing, but how they are doing it. More importantly, where to focus development so performance improves in a way that is sustainable.
If you would like to explore that, let’s have a conversation.
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