Coaching Perspective:

When you use vague terms like “Sales,” “Marketing,” or “Growth,” your create immediate misalignment within a team.

Team members are left confident in what they heard you say, but guessing in what specifically you means.

When I coach founders, the first thing we do is adopt the language of performance—terms that define outcomes, not actions.

For example, instead of you saying “We need to improve sales,” your would reframe the conversation to discuss movement of your market between GM1 and GM2 (your engagement and monetisation growth markers).

This is how performance language works: It’s precise, measurable, and actionable. It eliminates ambiguity and moves teams from discussing performance to driving it.

Industry Perspective:

In the early 2000s, Billy Beane transformed the Oakland A's baseball team by replacing vague scouting terms with precise performance metrics—he introduced an entirely new language for baseball.

He focused on a metric called on-base percentage rather than vague attributes like “power” or “potential.” Beane gave the Oakland Athletics a shared frame of reference that aligned decisions across the team.

Every player, scout, and coach now spoke the same language of performance, and that clarity turned a small-budget team into a competitive powerhouse. Beane’s success wasn’t about the numbers—it was about using performance language to inform decisions and actions.

Now Challenge Your Perspective: