I was entering my third year with a team when new leadership came in. They chose to keep me, in part because of my content and relationships with the players. I’d spent the previous year addressing the team and building our identity and focus. Then they wanted to stop me from meeting with primarily those same players. The concern was that I would confuse them. There were also concerns about too many words on my slides and the wrong font. It felt like crap! I was confused and felt like I lost my voice. They valued what I brought enough to keep me, but I was losing the opportunity to contribute it. I’m not above feedback. If the slides need work, let’s improve them. If the message needs alignment, let’s get clear on it. I can work within a direction without needing every detail to be my choice. 𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐧𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐰𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐩 𝐚𝐫𝐞𝐧’𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠. Research on employee voice offers a related lesson: people can hold back useful ideas when they believe speaking up is risky or inappropriate. Silence doesn’t necessarily mean they have nothing to contribute. When people can't influence their environment, they shut down and give in to the status quo. As leaders, we need to consider what our decisions teach people about how much their judgment is actually wanted. Set the direction. Be clear about the standards. Agree on when to check progress. Then give people room to do the job and support them when they need it. 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐟𝐞𝐥𝐭 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐞𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐝𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤? 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐢𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐝𝐨?

I came across this study and thought it was pretty interesting. 77% of leaders believe performance reviews are valuable, yet 67% believe eliminating them would either improve results or make no difference. That got me thinking about the difference between evaluating people and actually helping them improve. In baseball, we spend a lot of time evaluating players. We have reports, data, grades, and meetings. All of that has value, but identifying where someone needs to improve doesn’t mean we’ve actually helped them get better. To me, evaluation should be the starting point. What matters is what we do with that information. Do we have a clear plan? Does the person understand it? Are we helping them make progress? And are we checking whether it’s working? I’m curious how others approach this. What’s something you’ve seen organizations spend a lot of time evaluating or measuring without actually doing much to improve it?

@Michael Grossman asked, When does helping become over coaching? How do you know when your job as a leader is to step in and when it's to get out of the way and let someone figure it out for themselves? Curious your thoughts on this I’ll drop my thoughts in soon!

𝐖𝐄𝐋𝐂𝐎𝐌𝐄 𝐓𝐎 𝐃𝐔𝐆𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐒 I'm Jeremy Barnes. I've spent my career in professional baseball working with players, coaches, and staff to help people improve. I started this community to connect with people from different backgrounds, share experiences, and learn from each other about coaching, leadership, and human performance. 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄'𝐒 𝐖𝐇𝐀𝐓 𝐘𝐎𝐔'𝐋𝐋 𝐅𝐈𝐍𝐃: - 𝐃𝐮𝐠𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬: Conversations with interesting people about their experiences and what they've learned. - 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐭𝐲: Ask questions, share ideas, and learn from others. - 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐬: A deeper look at the principles and processes behind helping people improve. 𝐈𝐍𝐓𝐑𝐎𝐃𝐔𝐂𝐄 𝐘𝐎𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐋𝐅 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐖 What do you do, and what brought you here? 𝐎𝐍𝐄 𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐓𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆... If you know someone who would bring an interesting perspective to these conversations, invite them in. They don't have to work in sports. In fact, I'd love to learn from people outside of it. Glad to have you here. Jeremy