Leaders can boost their team\u2019s productivity and cut through drama and conflict with a single self-assessment practice we call \u201cbe your own consultant.\u201d It centers on three questions: (1) What does a successful outcome look like for the business? (2) How does your team, unit, or department contribute to that outcome? (3) How, specifically, does your role contribute \u2014 what are the 2-4 specific, repeatable actions you take to produce that result? Answering all three surfaces the unclear expectations and misaligned effort that usually drive both underperformance and interpersonal drama. And these questions work at any level of leadership, from CEO to frontline manager.<\/p>\n
Boost Productivity by Ensuring Your Team Can Answer These Questions<\/h2>\n
Do you ever feel like your team\u2019s busy but doesn\u2019t have enough to show for their work? They work toward deadlines, fill the calendar, but all that work doesn\u2019t add up to what the business actually needs. Most leaders never learned to boost productivity by looking at their function the way an outside consultant would: a set of activities that either move the needle on the organization\u2019s real goal, or don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the thinking behind what we call \u201cbe your own consultant.\u201d Before you bring in outside expertise, and before you assume friction or disengagement on your team is a people problem, run yourself through the same three questions we ask our consulting clients. These questions work whether you\u2019re the CEO, a mid-level manager, or a frontline leader.<\/p>\n
Ask them in order. Each one depends on the answer before it, and skipping straight to question three \u2014 the one about your own daily work \u2014 is exactly how teams end up busy without being effective.<\/p>\n
1. What does a successful outcome look like for the business?<\/strong><\/p>\n 2. How does your team, unit, or department contribute to that outcome?<\/strong><\/p>\n 3. How, specifically, does your role contribute? What are the 2-4 specific, repeatable things you must do to achieve those results?<\/strong><\/p>\n The highest performing teams and organizations have clear alignment in their answers to these questions. Every individual knows how they make a difference every day. Every team knows whatthey must do to help the organization succeed. And the organization is clear about the difference it makes. The specific words might vary, but the CEO, a middle-manager, and a frontline employee will have aligned answers.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at each question and then some examples of how different teams and individual employees might answer them.<\/p>\n 1. What does a successful outcome look like for the business?<\/strong><\/p>\n The first question asks what matters most to your organization. If you\u2019re familiar with Let\u2019s Grow Leaders, we call these the Strategic MITs (Most Important Things). What are your strategic objectives? You shouldn\u2019t invent your team\u2019s answer to question one. It should trace back to one company-level outcome that every function in the business ultimately serves.<\/p>\n 2. How does your team, unit, or department contribute to that outcome?<\/strong><\/p>\n This second question takes that strategic goal and breaks it down to a team or group\u2019s most important work. Knowing the difference your team makes for the big picture not only provides clarity for prioritization, decision-making, and how best to use resources, it also connects the work to meaning and purpose.<\/p>\n A task is never\u00a0just<\/em> a task. There\u2019s a good reason for the work (and if not, why waste time with it?)<\/p>\n 3. How, specifically, does your role contribute? What are the 2-4 specific, repeatable things you must do to achieve those results?<\/strong><\/p>\n Even in organizations that can answer the first two questions clearly, we often find a gap in the answers to number 3. What are the specific repeated activities (habits) that lead to success?<\/p>\n It seems like an easy question, but too often, people know a set specific tasks that they\u2019re required to do, but they don\u2019t understand what outcomes those tasks achieve or which tasks are most important relative to the team and strategic goals. For many team members, they genuinely don\u2019t know how to make the difference their role requires.<\/p>\n If you ask your team these questions and their answers aren\u2019t what you would hope, don\u2019t treat it as a failed quiz. This is an opportunity for you to invest in greater clarity, boost productivity, and reduce unnecessary drama and friction.<\/p>\n Let\u2019s look at three examples of how teams and individuals might answer these questions. We\u2019ll look at three different teams: finance and accounting, product marketing, and engineering.<\/p>\n In our hypothetical business, let\u2019s choose a big-picture strategic goal: revenue growth that\u2019s profitable and sustainable. This will be the same strategic goal for all three teams.<\/p>\n Finance and accounting\u2019s contribution is to protect the \u201csustainably\u201d half \u2014 they close the books accurately and on schedule, manage cash flow, keep the company compliant, and produce forecasts that leadership trusts.<\/p>\n Product marketing drives the \u201cgrows\u201d side of the strategic goal, translating what the product does into language customers care about, arming sales with positioning and messaging, running launches that build real awareness, and feeding customer insight back into the business.<\/p>\n Again, the same company-level goal \u2014 but engineering\u2019s job is making sure the product itself can carry that growth reliably and securely. Every outage, security gap, or performance problem that erodes customer trust works directly against \u201cprofitably and sustainably.\u201d<\/p>\n A staff accountant\u2019s 2-4 repeatable things might be:<\/p>\n A product marketing manager\u2019s repeatable actions might be:<\/p>\n For a backend engineer, 2-4 repeatable activities might include:<\/p>\n Notice the pattern here: three very different teams with three very different sets of daily work, but every one of them can trace a straight line from what they do this week back to the one outcome the whole organization\u2019s working toward. That\u2019s what alignment looks like in practice, and it\u2019s the difference between a team that\u2019s busy and a team that\u2019s effective.<\/p>\n Too often, leaders settle for vague corporate jargon<\/a> like \u201ccollaborate effectively.\u201d That\u2019s a fine concept, but what does it mean? For that product marketing manager, there\u2019s a specific observable activity: sit in on weekly win\/loss reviews with the specific intent of learning what\u2019s working and what can improve.<\/p>\n When your teams are specific about the results they contribute and individuals are specific about the habits that lead to success, you have foundation for performance. When something doesn\u2019t work, together you can analyze what\u2019s getting in the way and fix it or try something else. And if it\u2019s a performance issue, now you also have the foundation for a fair, specific performance conversation.<\/p>\n But without this level of clarity, you\u2019ll be stuck in endless circles of frustrations and drama as everyone argues about how to \u201cjust collaborate more effectively.\u201d<\/p>\n We invite you to start by asking yourself these three questions. If you\u2019re not sure of the answers, start there.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re confident in your answers, next, go ask your team these three questions. Don\u2019t make it a quiz. Show up with genuine curiosity and see what they say.<\/p>\n If their answers aren\u2019t what you would hope, this is an opportunity for you to invest in greater clarity, boost productivity, and reduce unnecessary drama and friction.<\/p>\n And if you want to master performance conversations so you can lead with clarity and confidence, check out our live-online Human-Centered Performance Management Accelerator<\/a> (This is the same program normally only available to corporations that bring us in directly.)<\/p>\n![\"clarity](\"https:\/\/letsgrowleaders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Additional-cards-02-300x187.png\")
<\/p>\nQuestion 1: Start With the Shared Goal<\/h3>\n
Question 2: Localize the Shared Goal<\/h3>\n
Question 3: Personalize the Shared Goal with Specific Habits<\/h3>\n
How This Plays Out on Three Different Teams<\/h3>\n
Question 1: What does a successful outcome look like for the business?<\/h4>\n
Question 2: How does your team, unit, or department contribute to that outcome?<\/h4>\n
Finance and Accounting<\/h5>\n
Product Marketing<\/h5>\n
Engineering<\/h5>\n
Question 3: How, specifically, does your role contribute? What are the 2-4 specific, repeatable things you must do to achieve those results?<\/h4>\n
Finance and Accounting: staff accountant handling accounts payable<\/h5>\n
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Product Marketing: product marketing manager<\/h5>\n
\n
Engineering: backend engineer<\/h5>\n
\n
Boost Productivity with Specificity<\/h3>\n
Your Turn<\/h3>\n
![\"Performance](\"https:\/\/letsgrowleaders.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/IMG_2167-1024x683.jpeg\")
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