I was having dinner with an old friend recently, and we were talking about some of her challenges at work having taken over an established yet underperforming team.
This isn’t a new situation to my friend as she has a reputation for being able to take underperforming teams and turn them into highly motivated and incredibly successful ones. Whilst Jane (not her real name!) relishes the challenge, I was reminded that not every manager feels the same way. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if we could prevent consistent underperformance right from the start?
However, if underperformance is a challenge for you, there are classic strategies for dealing with it that many leadership experts have written about. This article takes a different perspective, examining the root causes and exploring how preventing underperformance begins with leadership rather than individual performance management.
Do You Just Have a Team of ‘B’ Players?
Let’s explore the team you have first.
Just a few years ago, Leicester City Football Club won the English Premier League, demonstrating what’s possible when leadership transforms team culture. They didn’t have a team of star players, yet look what they achieved.
When you look at your team, do you see a team full of stars? Probably not. Most teams comprise a variety of individuals, including some whose work is adequate but could be so much better. Yet it’s not poor enough to trigger a performance improvement plan.
Many team members settle for ‘just enough’. But why? Is it because they lack motivation for their role? Can’t achieve more due to lack of skills or knowledge? Is it about their attitude?
The evidence suggests it’s none of the above. An underperforming team is often a mirror for the leader. If anyone is underperforming here, it’s the leader.
Whether there’s an issue with settling for mediocrity or you genuinely have a team of ‘B’ players, leadership is key to developing a team into a cohesive unit of high performers.
Three Strategies to Step Up as a Leader
The goal is to step up as a leader. The good news is that there are many time-tested ways to accomplish this. Here are three strategies that can transform team performance.
1. Build a Vision and Purpose
Create a vision that inspires your team and one that they buy into. Something that is stretching without being overwhelming. Involve them in mapping out the plan of how, as a team, you can work together to turn things around.
Ask your team: “Why do you exist as a team?” and “What do you do day in day out, and what is that really about?”
A colleague once worked with a group of stroke rehabilitation nurses. Their initial answer was: “We work with patients so they can return home to continue their recovery”. Eventually, they realised what they did every day was “We give people a second chance at life”.
Now that is more inspiring and powerful, wouldn’t you say? How can you relate what your team does daily to something like this?
When teams connect their work to meaningful outcomes, everything changes. They’re no longer just completing tasks – they’re contributing to something that matters. This emotional connection transforms mediocre performance into excellence.
2. Create Team Values and Culture
Once you have a vision, decide what’s most important to you as a team about how you operate. Choose three or four values that will underpin how you do your day-to-day work.
These might include commitment to quality, supporting one another, innovation, or integrity. The specific values matter less than ensuring they’re authentic to your team and actively practised rather than just displayed on a wall.
It’s also crucial to create bonding in a team to fully engage everyone. Social time together helps to break down barriers and allows people to build closer relationships and, importantly, trust. This doesn’t require elaborate team-building exercises – regular informal interactions can be just as effective.
Research from Harvard Business Review1 shows that teams with strong, clearly defined cultures consistently outperform those without. The key is making values actionable rather than aspirational.
Culture isn’t what you say – it’s what you do repeatedly. Leaders must model the behaviours they expect, recognise when others demonstrate desired values, and address actions that contradict the culture you’re building.
3. Accountability and Responsibility
True leaders who step up are accountable for their actions, and they encourage their team to be the same. Until you take responsibility, you’re a victim. Being a victim is the exact opposite of being a leader.
Victims are passive. They are acted upon. Leaders are active. They take the initiative to influence outcomes. Though this might be uncomfortable to hear, accountable and responsible leaders have few underperformance issues in the first place – perhaps a lesson for all of us here.
Accountability isn’t about blame – it’s about ownership. When something goes wrong, accountable leaders ask “What can I do differently?” rather than “Who’s at fault?” This mindset shift is transformative.
Create clear expectations about roles, responsibilities, and standards. When everyone knows what’s expected and feels supported to deliver it, accountability becomes natural rather than forced. Regular check-ins that focus on problem-solving rather than monitoring create an environment where people want to take ownership.
Notably, this approach hasn’t focused extensively on skills or knowledge. Returning briefly to Leicester City: yes, they trained five days a week and practised their skills. However, evidence suggests it was the manager’s vision, the team spirit, the trust, the roles people took, and being accountable on the pitch that played the most significant part.
As their success grew, so did their belief, which resulted in continuing achievement and commitment to the team. This is what’s possible when a leader looks in the mirror, stops blaming the team, and takes responsibility for their own performance.
Could this be you?
Frequently Asked Questions About Coaching Underperforming Teams
Taking Responsibility for Team Success
The mirror test for leaders is simple but challenging: when your team underperforms, look first at your own leadership before examining individual team members. This perspective isn’t about blame – it’s about recognising where you have the most power to create change.
Building inspiring vision, creating strong culture, and establishing genuine accountability aren’t quick fixes. They require consistent effort, honest self-reflection, and courage to challenge your own leadership habits. However, the results are transformative.
Teams that understand why their work matters, operate according to shared values, and take ownership of outcomes don’t just meet expectations – they exceed them. They become the high-performing units that other teams aspire to emulate.
The question isn’t whether your team has the potential to excel. The question is whether you’re ready to provide the leadership they need to realise that potential.