A good leader does more than set lofty goals and lead from a tall pedestal. Instead, a good leader walks the walk and leads the team by example from the ground floor. 

However, for the leader-employee relationship to work, the leader should check in with the team and track specific performance metrics to ensure that forward progress is happening. There are employee check-in templates that can make this process easier for leaders.

While these specific metrics should not be micromanaging, your leader should be able to set expectations, count on your team, and understand, at a high level, how the business is operating.

While we know that leaders need more time to check the metrics of every employee they work with, specific performance metrics should be tracked to ensure your team’s success.

1. Employee Attendance and Reliability– Set your attendance expectations. 

I recently talked with a peer complaining that one of her remote employees was always suspiciously quiet during the work day. My follow-up with her was to ask if this employee was just quiet but also getting the work done or if this person was quiet and also completely blowing everything else off.

After further consideration, she said that her employee was getting the work done but just wasn’t very communicative on their remote chat channels.

 This led to a conversation about my friend as a leader and what expectations she needed to set for her team’s attendance and reliability.

In my friend’s example, she just assumed that since she worked 9-5 and was always communicative on the group chat, then her employee would be as well. But, unfortunately, since she didn’t see those expectations, that was not her employee’s reality.

Leaders need to do more than assume people are going to show up. They need to go above and beyond a “team handbook” signed at the beginning of employment–they need to follow up.

Some ways to get your attendance expectation across to your team could sound like this: 

• “You work as a W2 employee for 40 hours a week in an office – we expect all of our employees to be there during our 9-5 office hours.”
• “As a digital agency, we allow our team to work flex-time, as long as 4 of your working hours overlap our business hours, which are 9-5.”
• “Let us know if you plan on taking PTO, as it will help us find coworkers to help with the workload.”

Setting these expectations and tracking them in this way will help you as a leader gauge who is reliable with their attendance and who isn’t. After these expectations are set, and you understand who is absent and on time, you will be able to identify behavior patterns and take necessary action to address any issues.

Knowing the reasoning behind absences also allows a better understanding of employees’ needs and potential solutions to improve workplace satisfaction and productivity. 

My friend’s answer was not that her employee wasn’t doing the work but that she wasn’t setting 

attendance expectations and communicating them down the line.

So, set expectations and follow up with them to see how your team is tracking.

2. Work Quality– How does the quality of work being produced compared to standards and your expectations?

We can easily get caught up in meeting deadlines and quickly tick off tasks from our to-do lists. However, the quality of work matters just as much as the quantity.

As a writing team manager, I would take one well-written article over for four shoddy articles any day of the week. Just because you have more of something doesn’t necessarily mean you are in a better position. One high-quality piece trumps four any day – especially since clients want the best possible work, and they can typically sniff out lousy jobs.

As a leader, you do not want your team sending out bad work with your name on it, so you need to check in on your team regularly to see the quality they are creating. You can look for the following metrics:

• Are they producing high-quality work that requires minimal revisions?
• Are they meeting deadlines?
• Are their deliverables up to our brand standard?
• Are they taking the necessary steps to create high-quality work?
• Are clients happy?

Paying attention to the quality of work produced can significantly impact overall success and growth. Setting and adhering to high work standards ensures your team meets and exceeds expectations.

3. Task Completion– Monitor progress on tasks assigned to employees.

Take this one with a grain of salt since we all know that leaders do not have enough time in the day to go into everyone’s tasks and manage what has been done and not done. 

However, you still need to have a high level of understanding of what tasks are working on and if they are completed on time.

If there are specific tasks that are throwing a bottleneck in the process, you should know. If there are tasks that need to be corrected, you should know. But how do you get there without delving into each task? Easy – use a project management platform.

Using a project management platform to track tasks will be your best friend. These platforms will allow you to see a bird’s eye view of tasks, deadlines, progress, and real-time tracking of work being completed.

Any good project management software will also come equipt with reporting and personal dashboards. Setting up your task reporting is as simple as a click of a button and can give you updated insight into what is going on with tasks, who’s working on them, and when they are due.

Ultimately, tracking tasks this way will help you meet goals and deliver quality work, which can lead to greater success for the organization.

4. Adaptability– How well do your employee adapt to changes in the workplace?

As a leader or an employee, you cannot afford to be a one-trick pony team. Adaptability is becoming an increasingly critical trait in the workplace, and you need to build a team of employees who can lean into these changes.

As a leader, you should observe how well each employee adapts to changes in their work environment. Some of these changes you can monitor include adding new tasks, switching deadlines, and adjusting deliverable expectations.

To assess how well your team responds to change, pay attention to the following: 

• Do they take on new tasks and challenges with enthusiasm?
• Do they offer innovative solutions when faced with complex problems?
• Were they able to learn new skills quickly and with minimal issues?
• Do they stay level-headed when problems arise or crumble under pressure?

Having a team with the capacity to be flexible and adaptable will only make your work easier as a leader. As challenges arise, you need staff to step up and lean into a challenge quickly. 

Adding more or different work onto your employee’s plates isn’t meant to overburden them or trick them into taking on someone else work. Instead, it can be a valuable way to gauge their potential. 

Employees who quickly adjust to new situations and take on new challenges are more likely to succeed. This trait benefits not only the employee but also the organization as a whole. If they are adaptable, your employees can tackle new problems and overcome obstacles, leading to improved productivity and growth for your company.

5. Start leading by example

As a leader, you expect your team to follow you– but it’s a two-way street. Your team needs to be receptive to your leadership, and you should be transparently able to track the team’s performance metrics.

These metrics should not be a secret. 

You don’t have to hide that you are checking performance, looking at who is doing good work, or setting expectations. You are the leader–it’s one of the main parts of YOUR job title…to lead your team. So, make sure to track these performance metrics, and you will be able to identify the areas that need improvement and reward and recognize any of the top performers.