Why vague feedback costs you the people you see, and the ones you don’t. There’s a phrase that sounds like encouragement until you hear it in the wrong moment.
“Keep doing what you’re doing.”
Most leaders don’t mean anything negative by it. You’re performing. You’re dependable. You’re doing your job. Said in passing, it’s a compliment.
But when someone asks, “What do I need to do to get to the next level?” that phrase is not an answer. It’s a detour. And the person on the receiving end knows the difference.
When the Path Forward Goes Quiet
For a while, most people trust it. They assume there’s a process. That someone is paying attention. That eventually, something will open up.
But trust has a shelf life when it isn’t backed by movement.
Gradually, not all at once, something starts to shift. They begin to question whether anything is actually going to change. And once that question takes hold, everything follows it. Motivation dips. Energy shifts. Effort becomes more measured. Not because they stopped caring, but because they stopped seeing a path.
That’s not a performance problem. That’s a clarity problem. And it’s one that leaders create, often without realizing it.
The Responsibility Runs Both Ways
To be fair, there’s something the individual can own here too.
If “next level” is the goal, what does that actually mean? What role are you working toward? What skills or experience does it require? Where are the gaps between where you are now and where you want to be?
Most people never define that clearly before asking someone else to define it for them. And when you walk into that conversation without clarity, you’re more likely to walk out with a vague answer.
I watched this play out firsthand. Someone close to me was working toward a leadership role and needed a specific performance rating to be eligible. They came close one year but didn’t get there. The feedback was, “You just need more experience.”
Which sounds reasonable until you ask what that actually means.
Because without specifics, there’s nothing to act on.
So we sat down and worked through it. What role are they aiming for? What experience would actually matter there? Where are the gaps, and how could they start building now? Who could help?
They went back to the conversation not with frustration, but with a proposal: “This is what I think I need to work on. Am I on the right track?”
That changes everything. It moves the conversation from vague encouragement to shared ownership.
But here’s what that story also reveals: the individual had to do that work themselves. No one handed it to them. They had to decide they weren’t going to keep waiting for direction that wasn’t coming.
That capacity to sense when something isn’t working, to adapt, and to take action rather than wait is exactly what separates leaders who grow from those who stall. It’s not about being aggressive or impatient. It’s about staying in motion when the path isn’t obvious.
What Gets Lost When Clarity Is Missing
When this pattern continues, it doesn’t stay contained to one person.
High performers don’t remain in environments where they feel like they’re running in place. And when they do stay, they disengage, not loudly, but quietly. They stop volunteering. They stop reaching. They do what’s required and not much beyond it.
But the more significant loss is often the people no one is watching closely.
Every organization has them, people with real capacity, real curiosity, and real potential who haven’t been fully seen or developed yet. They’re doing solid work. They show up. They’re reliable. But they’re not on anyone’s radar as a “high performer,” so no one is having the conversation with them either.
When there’s no direction, no clarity, and no real investment in what’s next, that potential stays untapped. Over time, those individuals either leave or they settle. They stop asking. They stop reaching. They do what’s required and quietly close the door on what they could have become.
And that becomes the culture. Not because anyone decided it should be. But because no one decided it shouldn’t.
What Leaders Who Say It Need to Hear
“Keep doing what you’re doing” is often a signal, not about the person hearing it, but about the leader saying it.
You don’t have a plan for them. You haven’t thought through their next step. Or you’re avoiding a harder conversation about what it will actually take to get there.
None of that makes you a bad leader. But all of it has consequences, for the individual, for the team, and for the kind of organization you’re building over time.
Developing people is one of the most important responsibilities you carry as a leader. Not promoting everyone, but giving people something real to work toward. Helping them see what’s possible. Being honest when the path is unclear rather than offering encouragement that sounds like direction but isn’t.
Because leadership isn’t about keeping people where they are.
It’s about preparing them for what’s next, even when that’s within the role they’re already in.
And that doesn’t happen by running in place.
Related: Protect Your Capacity or Watch Your Leadership Erode