Episode 38 - Holding Your Team Accountable Without Burning the Relationship with OPENLANE EVP James Coyle
James Coyle, EVP and President Marketplace of OPENLANE and a former senior leader at Amazon, joins The Lift to talk about holding a team accountable without burning the relationship. The conversation covers why avoiding a hard conversation always costs more than having it, what basketball taught him about self-awareness, and the framework he uses to decide what to do with underperformers.
A manager tells an employee for three years that their work is excellent. Then one day, the employee is let go. Nobody saw it coming except the person who signed the reviews.
James Coyle has watched this play out more times than he can count. He is the EVP and President Marketplace of OPENLANE, a leading digital marketplace for wholesale vehicles, and a former senior leader at Amazon during its most aggressive growth years. His view of that scenario is direct. It is not a performance problem. It is a leadership failure.
The conversation you skip has a cost
Putting off a hard conversation can feel like the safer choice in the moment. James holds the opposite view: avoiding the hard conversation is always more expensive than having it. The question for any leader is not whether the conversation will happen, but whether it happens early, when it can still change the outcome.
Self-awareness is rarer than it looks
Basketball taught James a lesson about self-awareness that carries well beyond the court. Most players on a team believe they are one of the two best players on it. Only two of them can be right.
Deciding what to do with underperformers
When someone is not meeting the bar, James uses a three-bucket framework to decide what happens next. He also draws a clear line between an average employee and a great one, and he treats that difference as something leaders need to be able to name.
What to do this week
Compare the most recent review you gave each direct report with what you actually believe about their performance.
Choose one hard conversation you have been postponing and put it on the calendar this week.
Ask yourself where you would honestly rank on your own team, and whether your team would agree.
Write down, in your own words, what separates the best performer on your team from an average one.
Related episodes
Episode 17: Conflict at Work: Amy Gallo on How to Have the Hard Conversation You’ve Been Avoiding
Episode 23: How To Fire People Properly: When Waiting Too Long Goes Wrong
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