It's easy to tell when someone is working, but how can you tell when they're making progress? Simple work, like mowing a lawn or washing a car has transparent progress: as each small unit of work is completed it's visible to everyone. But with complex work, building software, running a business, writing a novel, it is harder to identify true progress. Some of the work will require thinking and exploration which may go on for hours or days before there are visible results. Other work may involve so many different sub-tasks or conversations with others that there's no way to know how efficiently the work is being done, or if the effort expended is contributing to progressing the project. Complex work, or work with large numbers of people, always makes it harder to separate work from progress.
While this fact is the lifeblood of slackers everywhere and explains why they often find cozy homes in large organizations, it's a frustration for managers. They feel accountable for the collective progress of the team and without easy ways to measure it they're never sure how things are going or what leadership work needs to be done.
Why progress is subjective
The first big challenge with progress is admitting that it's subjective. There is no universal ideal of progress that you can use to judge whether things are improving or not (despite what the self-righteous believe). One project might be to dig a hole in the ground, while another might be to fill one in. The removal of dirt can be progress or a setback depending on what the purpose of the work is supposed to be.
On poorly managed teams conflicting and irrelevant work is allowed to go on because leaders don't notice, care or take the time to guide people's efforts in more useful directions. Capable ...