If you have two salespeople to reward:
- One of them hits their numbers
- The other doesn’t—but they come close.
Who should get the bonus?
Most would instinctively say: the one who hit the numbers.
But let’s dig a little deeper.
The first salesperson operated in a booming market, during an unusually easy year. Opportunities were abundant, leads practically converted themselves, and the conditions made it hard not to succeed.
The second salesperson, meanwhile, faced a far more difficult environment—an unresponsive market, shifting customer needs, maybe even internal constraints. Yet they hustled, adapted, and pushed hard. They didn’t quite hit the quota, but they came impressively close despite the odds.
So—who really deserves the bonus?
The honest answer: the one who struggled but almost made it.
Because numbers alone don’t tell the whole story. They don’t reflect effort, constraints, or context. And if we’re serious about recognizing real performance, we need to go beyond surface-level metrics.
What does this mean for leaders?
This story is not just about bonuses.
It’s about how organizations measure value—and how leaders understand what’s actually happening in the business.
If leadership decisions are based solely on spreadsheet targets, we risk missing the very people who are doing the most meaningful work in the hardest places.
Leadership isn’t about checking numbers off a dashboard. It’s about knowing the terrain. It’s about listening. It’s about seeing the difference between results that were handed to someone and results that were fought for.
And most of the time, that depth of understanding is missing.
At Libra, we help make great work visible. If you want to learn more about us and what we do, check out this article: https://makegreatworkvisible.com/introducing-libra/