The Secret to Effective Performance
I love sharing this study with people—because it keeps things simple.
And if you’re busy or overwhelmed right now, simple is exactly what you need.
For years—literally over more than a decade—the Corporate Executive Board kept asking the same questions across thousands of people in companies all over the world. They looked at the teams that consistently performed well and asked:
“What are the managers in those teams actually doing?”
What they found barely changed.
Over and over again, three things came out on top. Not thirty. Not ten. Just three.
And they’ve been quoted as saying:
“Three core manager actions—clear expectations, frequent feedback, and role alignment with strengths—account for up to 70% of the variance in employee performance.”
A study done over this period of time, with this many people that gave such consistent findings is really good news.
Because if you’re a leader trying to do everything, this gives you permission to just stop. Take a moment and realign. Because if you just do these 3 things, you probably won’t go far wrong.
1. A Few Clear Objectives
Have you ever noticed how once a list gets past three things, you can’t remember them all?
Neither can your brain.
That’s not laziness. It’s about making the most of your working memory – and that of your teams. Your working memory—the part of your brain keeping track of your to-do list isn’t as big as you think.
Modern cognitive psychology now suggests it comfortably holds three to five meaningful items before it starts getting waylaid or mixing things up. That’s why aiming for just three clear objectives isn’t a soft option – it helps our brains actually remember and focus on what matters.”
Your brain can only juggle about 3–5 meaningful chunks at once. Add more, and things fall off the mental shelf.
So yes—have clear goals, and be ambitious about what people can achieve over the course of say a year. But prioritise and dish them out a few at a time.
2. Feedback, In the Moment, From Someone You Trust
This one’s massive. Hands up who loves a two hour long annual performance review? Anyone?!
You need a nudge. A moment. A quick comment from someone who’s got your back.
Why? Because timing matters and trust is crucial.
Your brain learns best when feedback is close to the moment it’s relevant. The reward system kicks in, and learning sticks.
And trust matters too. When feedback comes from someone safe, we stay open. The prefrontal cortex—the thinking bit of the brain—stays online. Otherwise we risk going into fight/flight/freeze and missing the message.
Science proves that in-the-moment, specific, real-time feedback actually rewires the brain to learn better. If you want to join me in a super-geek moment here’s how:
- Feedback is an Error Signal – Our brain detects the difference between what we expected to happen and what actually happened because someone brings it to our attention – otherwise we might not notice.
- This gives a Dopamine Spike – This makes the moment memorable—our brain tags it as “important.”
- Thicken the Myelin – Repeating the alternative ‘right’ behaviour because someone has helped you get back on track, thickens the substance that surrounds the neural pathways – and the pathways are strengthened – the right thing becomes faster and easier to do next time.
I describe myelin to clients as brain concrete!
Imagine you are building a tunnel, it would crumble if it was just a tunnel bored into the earth right?. So in building one we coat the tunnel in concrete which forms a protective shell around the pathway. This is helpful as we want to be able to travel through the tunnel quickly, and not have it crumble or leak over time. It’s the same for brain pathways. Neural pathways for a new behaviour are coated in myelin. The more we do things, the stronger that neural pathway becomes.
So regular feedback that we are doing something well and slightly corrective observations help to myelin coat the right pathways.
3. Work That Plays To Your Strengths
This one’s easy to overlook—especially in fast-paced jobs.
But when people get to do more of the stuff they’re good at—and that they like—they’re more motivated, more energised, and more productive.
This is how you create flow, that magical state where you lose track of time and just get stuff done.
Gallup’s research shows that teams that use their strengths regularly are 12.5% more productive, and six times more engaged.
💪 Gallup research on strengths-based teams
So if you’ve ever done a psychometric—MBTI, Insights, TMSDI—dig it out.
Ask your team:
Are we working in ways that make sense for who we are?
Is there a better way to share out what needs to be done?
What To Do With This?
If you’re feeling stressed or stretched, this is your reminder to keep leadership simple.
Focus on:
🎯 A few clear goals
🧠 Timely feedback
💪 Strengths-based work
That’s it. Nothing new, no buzz trends. Just simple human stuff that works that makes the most of us being wired as we are.
And if you’re too busy for all three today?
Just start with one.
I hope that helps you—or someone you lead—this week.
We listen. We understand. We are confident that we can create a bespoke solution
that really adds to your bottom line.
