What Is Performance, Really?

I’ve seen it again and again: Companies where performance is talked about constantly but rarely understood. The word gets thrown around in meetings, 1-on-1s, and check-ins. But ask ten people to define it, and you’ll get ten different answers.

More often than not, no one’s aligned on what performance really is or how to spot it when it’s happening. Teams fixate on narrow productivity metrics, leaders struggle to offer meaningful guidance, and performance reviews get crowded with vague praise or surface-level feedback.

Here’s the real question we should be asking:

Are we delivering value?

Most founders I coach eventually hit the same wall. The team is skilled. The vision is compelling. But progress stalls. When we dig in, we usually find the same root cause: There’s no alignment on what performance actually means.

It’s not that people aren’t trying. It’s that no one’s clear on what performance looks like — or how to measure it consistently, across and up and down the organization.

Performance isn’t activity, effort, or potential. It’s not about how hard someone’s working or how much they care. So what is it, really?

Let’s explore what performance truly is, why it matters, and how to spot where it is (and isn’t) in your organization.

5 Signs of Real Performance

It’s easy to confuse activity with performance. We reward people who stay late, respond fast, juggle ten things at once. But none of that guarantees they’re delivering value. 

Real performance isn’t about being busy. It’s consistently delivering meaningful outcomes, at or above spec, fast enough to keep up with what the business actually needs. It’s measurable, repeatable, and visible. And most importantly, it’s the single best way to determine whether someone is adding value.

It’s about doing the right work, at the right standard, in a way that moves the business forward, day in and day out.

Performance shows up in five critical ways:

1. Clear roles, accountabilities, and responsibilities (RARs): Every Seat exists to accomplish something that matters. One person should be accountable for every outcome the business needs to win at each of the 5 Stages of Development associated with building a great company. As your business progresses through these stages, the need for role clarity only grows. RARs define what each Seat exists to do. Without that clarity, performance stays ambiguous.
2. Meaningful outcomes: Performance isn't about effort or intentions. It's about outcomes. It’s about doing what the Seat is accountable for, when it’s needed, and seeing it through to completion. But the work shouldn't just be marked as "done" — it should make a difference. That’s what moves businesses forward: the line between activity and impact, between looking busy and delivering value.
3. Meeting an agreed-upon standard: Performance involves more than simply completing a task — it should focus on doing it at spec. Spec is the agreed-upon quality standard. It should never be vague, and if it is, your first priority should be to ask and get clear. When someone is performing, the work doesn’t trigger re-dos, fire drills, or last-minute fixes. It meets the bar. And if someone consistently misses spec, they’re not performing, regardless of effort.
4. Working at the right pace: Performance should happen at the speed the business requires. Not faster than necessary (that leads to burnout), and not slower than acceptable (that creates drag). Pace isn’t about hustle. It’s about rhythm. The work should arrive when it’s needed, without constant chasing or delay. And just like spec, if the pace isn’t clear, it’s time to ask and align. Because pace at spec (look for another blog on this soon) is what separates professionals from amateurs.
5. Operating with increasing autonomy: If someone’s performance requires constant supervision, it’s not full performance yet. Sure, during the first 90 days in a new Seat, it’s normal to be getting up to speed. But after that, performance matters. People who perform solve problems, take initiative, and finish the Work without draining leadership’s time through chronic clarification, rework, or overcommunication.

How Performance Builds Trust

To thrive inside a high-performance, founder-led company, know this:

Performance is the language of trust.

In founder-led companies committed to high performance, trust isn’t granted based on a person’s résumé, their good intentions, or their potential. It’s earned through results.

Those who consistently deliver — at spec, at pace, and with increasing autonomy — build the kind of trust that leads to greater responsibility and impact. Not because they asked for it, but because they’ve shown they’re ready.

When high performance becomes the norm, it creates space for growth, influence, and more meaningful Work. It signals to leadership that someone is ready for the next level of complexity.

That’s the power of performance. It shapes careers. It opens doors. And it builds the kind of trust that lasts.

The Standard Is a Shared Responsibility

Performance can only be measured when both sides agree on the standard.

It’s on us as founders and leaders to define what great performance looks like — for every Seat, across every Stratum. That means setting clear RARs, aligning on spec and pace, and reinforcing agreements through systems and coaching.

But it’s just as much on individual team members to seek clarity, self-assess honestly, and rise to meet the standard. No assumptions. No ambiguity.

Take a sales lead who’s responsible for bringing in new business. If the definition of a good lead isn’t clear or if there’s no shared sense of how many leads the business needs each week, then performance becomes unclear and inconsistent. And if that person doesn’t ask questions or check in on results, the disconnect only grows.

This is why defining and meeting the standard is a shared responsibility. Both sides have to engage for performance to be real and sustainable.

High-performance cultures aren’t built on guesses. They’re built on clarity, alignment, ownership, and follow-through.

Performance Means Progress

Performance shouldn’t be a mystery. When it’s clearly defined, agreed upon, and upheld throughout the organization, everything works better. Accountability strengthens. Trust builds. And the company grows with more stability and momentum.

At Ninety, we’ve built our platform around exactly this — making performance visible at every Stratum. From clearly defined Seats and RARs to tools that track real outcomes and accountability, we help leaders build companies where performance isn’t assumed. It’s supported and reinforced every day.

If you want to build a high-performance team, start by defining what performance looks like in your world. Make it observable. Make the standard unmistakable. Form agreements around it, and uphold them.

At its core, the question is simple: Is every person providing value? If the answer is no, move on from those aren't. Hire and retain people who don’t just love your idea but align with a culture grounded in real performance.

That’s how you build a great company, one that scales not just on ambition but on systems and standards strong enough to carry it forward.

A company where standards aren’t slogans, but shared commitments.

Where performance isn’t the exception. It’s the norm.

And where progress isn’t just possible. It’s inevitable.