Harold S. Geneen once said, “It is an immutable law in business that words are words, explanations are explanations, promises are promises but only performance is reality.” Immutable law? You bet. You’ve probably heard it this way: “Talk is cheap.” “Don’t tell me, show me.” “Money talks and baloney (or something similar) walks.”  Get the idea?

Immutable means “not subject to change.” What Geneen is saying is that performance is what counts in business. Not promises of performance. Not excuses for a lack of performance. It’s about performance. Period. Well….in a vacuum. After all, the best performers lose all of their value in an organization if they are a distraction, a problem, a drama queen, a poison pill, or a narcissist. Football fans will recognize these types of performers immediately – Randy Moss, Terrell Owens, like that.

The subject at hand, however, is performance. Results. What people do. And the primary challenge with performance is how to get the best of each of your employees AND create a team of people whose collective results exceeds their individual contributions. With that idea in mind, consider what former Avis CEO Robert Townsend said:

“One of the most important tasks of a manager is to eliminate his people’s excuses for failure.”

I don’t think Townsend was thinking that people always make excuses (which may, in fact, be a reality); rather, I think he was suggesting that managers bear substantial responsibilities in assuring high performance from employees. How? By eliminating the opportunity to fall back on common excuses as reasons for performance failures. Eliminate the source of the excuse and you eliminate the ability to use the excuse. Simple enough.

The Two Most Common Excuses

The good news is that there are two major excuses that can completely be eliminated from an employee’s vocabulary if a manager does his or her job well. If you think about it, the most common excuses are these: “I didn’t know.” “I didn’t know how.” Both of these are avoidable – completely avoidable – if you do your job well.

I didn’t know.
I didn’t know when it was due.
I didn’t know you wanted that.
I didn’t know how many.
I didn’t know who to ask.
I didn’t know that was more important.
I didn’t know the next step.

I didn’t know how.
I didn’t know how to proceed.
I didn’t know how to operate the equipment.
I didn’t know how to input the data.
I didn’t know how to complete the form.
I didn’t know how things work.

These are communication or training issues – items that are completely within your control. If the employee doesn’t know, whose fault is that? If he or she doesn’t know how, whose fault is that? In fact, throughout the day as a manager, you should add two simple ideas to your thought process: Do my people know? Do they know how?

The key is not to assume they know or know how. Make absolutely sure. How? First, communicate consistently and clearly. Once is never enough. Create clarity for each issue. Reinforce in-person and by email. Second, train and test. A good manager never assumes that an employee knows how. He or she trains the employee and then tests for competency. This is not insulting to employees – this is good management. Once you are sure they know how, you can rest assured they can do their jobs – without your direct and constant oversight (which is what you hired them for, I’m fairly certain). The alternative – to assume they know how – is to invite disaster.

Eliminating these excuses will dramatically improve employee performance. Now you know that, and now you know how to address it.