How do you measure your team’s success? Do you reward those who hit their targets and penalise those who don’t?

It’s a familiar formula – but it often misses the bigger picture.

Take two salespeople in the same organisation. One is focused solely on converting leads, with the right product and solid support behind them. The other is juggling multiple leads, managing a small team, and dealing with an unfinished product. Is it really fair – or effective – to measure both against the same metrics?

Rewarding results is a powerful motivator, but when people aren’t operating on a level playing field, it can quickly have the opposite effect. If success feels unachievable, motivation drops, resentment builds, and morale suffers.

That’s not to say that underperformance should be ignored or rewarded. Instead, leaders should take the time to understand why results differ – and what barriers might be standing in the way of success.

Many performance barriers can be removed once they’re recognised. Capacity issues – too much to do in too little time – can be solved through smarter delegation, sharper prioritisation, and better time management. Limited resources, such as systems, budgets, or data, can be addressed, or targets adjusted to reflect reality. And if poor management is the problem – whether it’s lack of support, micromanagement, or personality clashes – it needs to be flagged so leaders can act fast before it becomes a bigger problem.

Of course, ability plays a part – some people are naturally stronger in certain roles. However, developing skills through training and coaching can generally bridge ability gaps, but even the most capable employee will struggle in a misaligned or unsupported environment.

Before concluding that someone “isn’t performing,” we need to consider – are they lacking the ability – or facing barriers that prevent them from succeeding?

SuccessTargets is a performance management system that can help us answer this question. It works on the premise that there are five key elements that should be considered when trying to get the best out of people in a job role:

1) The ability level required for the role
2) The employee’s assessed ability level against the required level
3) The employee’s potential for improvement (considering the individual and the environment they are working in)
4) The amount of effort the employee puts into improvement
5) The employee’s workload capacity

By analysing performance data, SuccessTargets offers a real-time visual representation of every employee’s full-picture performance in relation to these five elements. With this information, an organisation can establish where someone needs further training and development, where existing skills are not being used to their maximum potential, and where barriers to using these existing skills are impacting performance.

True performance management isn’t just about measuring outcomes; it’s about understanding the conditions that create them.

So, when employees fall short of expectations, ask yourself: is it a question of ability, or are there barriers standing in their way?