When a high performer starts underperforming, the instinct is to focus on what changed with them, but the better and more honest question is what changed around them. High performers do not suddenly forget how to perform; something in their environment shifted, whether it is a lack of clarity, a loss of recognition, a change in leadership, or a culture that has started rewarding the wrong things. Before having the performance conversation, leaders owe it to themselves and to the employee to have the environment conversation first: What did we build that might be getting in the way? The leaders who ask that question and sit honestly with the answer are the ones who get their best people back. The ones who skip it and go straight to a performance improvement plan often lose exactly the people they can least afford to lose.
