The Art of the Weekly Performance Ritual

When we talk about leadership in hybrid teams, people often jump to tools. They ask what software stack you use. Slack or Teams? Notion or Confluence? Loom or Zoom?

But the most effective tool in my leadership kit was not a platform. It was a ritual. A simple, consistent, structured meeting that anchored the team and created alignment.

At Guild, we called it the Weekly Performance Review. It was the heartbeat of our hybrid team, and the single most valuable leadership habit we put in place.

This is how it worked. And more importantly, why it worked.

Why Rituals Matter in Hybrid Teams

Hybrid working can be powerful, but only if you design for it. Without structure, it drifts. Communication gets patchy. Priorities get misaligned. Momentum fades. You end up with a collection of smart people, all working hard, but pulling in different directions.

The answer is not more meetings. It is better rituals.

A good ritual is consistent in timing, clear in purpose, and predictable in format. It sets expectations for how we show up, what we focus on, and what good looks like. It builds rhythm into the work.

In hybrid teams, that rhythm is critical. Because we are not seeing each other in the corridor. We are not picking up signals from body language or office chat. Rituals replace those signals with structure.

What We Did at Guild

We made Mondays our anchor. Every Monday, the whole team came into the office. It was one of only two mandatory in-person days per week. And the first thing we did, before diving into our own work, was a performance review.

It was not a status update. It was not a dashboard review. It was a shared reflection on what mattered most. Here is the format we used:

1. What did we set out to achieve last week?

2. What actually happened?

3. What are our top priorities for this week?

4. Where are the blockers or risks?

5. What do we need from each other to move faster or more effectively?

Every team lead came prepared with their own notes. We used a shared document to track themes and carry forward context week to week. We kept it tight. Ninety minutes max, even with a leadership team spanning product, marketing, engineering, community, and ops.

The goal was not reporting. It was sense-making. The conversation allowed us to connect performance to strategy, activity to impact. We could catch issues early, shift priorities, or reallocate resources based on what we were learning in real time.

What Made It Work

There were a few key principles that kept this ritual valuable over time:

1. Consistency
Same time, same place, every Monday. No rescheduling. No skipping. It sent a signal that this meeting mattered more than any individual diary clash.

2. Shared ownership
This was not the CEO’s meeting. It was the team’s meeting. Everyone came prepared. Everyone contributed. There were no passive observers.

3. Focus on learning
We never used the session to assign blame or over-index on what went wrong. We focused on learning fast and moving forward. This built trust and encouraged honesty.

4. Link to delivery
We did not stop at insights. Every week, we translated discussion into clear priorities. We tracked delivery week to week. It kept us grounded in execution.

What We Learned

The impact of this ritual went far beyond performance metrics. It strengthened alignment, morale, and trust across the team. It made our hybrid model work, because people had a shared sense of purpose and direction. It also gave everyone a sense of progress, even during messy or ambiguous sprints.

In product leadership, you cannot fix everything. But you can create focus. You can make sure people are working on the right problems, with the right support, in a way that compounds over time. That is what this ritual enabled.

We also learned that less is more. You do not need a dozen meetings. You need a few, well-designed rituals that drive alignment, clarity, and ownership. Once the Monday review was working well, it allowed the rest of the week to breathe. People had autonomy, but within a clear structure.

How You Can Try This

If you want to implement a similar ritual in your team, here is a simple starting point:

• Choose a fixed time each week. Ideally early in the week.

• Get everyone together. In person if you can, otherwise on video with cameras on.

• Set a clear agenda: last week’s results, this week’s priorities, known risks, and key support needed.

• Use a shared doc or tool to keep track of themes, decisions, and follow-ups.

• Keep it focused. This is not a place for deep dives or debates. Keep it directional.

• Make attendance and prep a cultural norm. Start with your leadership team.

Most importantly, do it every week. Rituals only work if they are repeated.

In a world of hype and frameworks, it is easy to overcomplicate leadership. But some of the most powerful tools are simple. A well-run, honest, focused weekly review can transform how your team performs. Not because of what you talk about. But because of the habits you build together.

Leadership is not about knowing everything. It is about creating the space where the right things get done.

Start with Monday.