I almost walked past her office, but I saw Lorraine with a pensive look through the doorway. “Well?” I said.

“How did you know to stop by?” she replied.

“Dumb luck,” I nodded. “What’s up?”

“I just finished a 1-1 with one of my team members, and I’m frustrated,” Lorraine began. “He has been on the bubble for the past three months, and he knows it. He’s been paying particular attention to all the tasks, and I will admit, he shows up every day, on time, doing exactly what we told him to do, but he is accomplishing almost nothing.”

“And, I assume he had a job descripton,” I chuckled, knowing the answer to my next question. “It was a series of tasks and activities, but little discussion on expectations, objectives or outputs?”

Lorraine looked at me with a furrowed brow. “Yes, maybe that’s the point. In our 1-1, he described how he was doing everything we told him to do, but we never described the output, more specifically, what we expect.”

“Not unusual,” I said. “Most jobs are described as activities, not accomplishments. So, irrespective of the output, most people think that doing a good job is doing the activities. Few roles are described in terms of accomplishment. And, I further assume that, during your 1-1, there was no discussion of accomplishment. And, that’s why you are frustrated.”