Your team is underperforming. How can you help them turn things around?

It is important to deep dive and understand the underlying problems. One skill that I have found useful is taking time to listen to the team’s ideas, issues and offering guidance to unlock the opportunities and challenges. In order for teams to perform optimally, individuals need to feel valued, motivated and that their ideas matter to the overall organization’s success.

Need to do a diagnosis on root cause of under performance and later on proper action to be initiated post finding the gaps in the team, many a cases lots of gaps are identified but in some cases leaders are himself responsible for under performance of the team i.e favoritism, poor team building skill, no timely review and no proper guidelines to the team etc. Some time a leader/Team leader need to lead from the front or take the team out for fresh air and generate creativity. Team building is also a skill and by giving proper focus to the team on goal orientation and on each member performance, underperformance can be addressed.

To help an underperforming team turn things around, start by identifying the root causes of the issues, whether they're related to communication, skill gaps, motivation, or external factors. Provide constructive feedback and support, offering resources, training, and coaching as needed to address deficiencies. Set clear expectations and goals, emphasizing accountability and collaboration. Foster a positive and inclusive team culture, encouraging open communication and problem-solving. Empower team members to take ownership of their work and contribute ideas for improvement. Lead by example, demonstrating commitment, resilience, and a proactive approach to overcoming challenges. Regularly assess progress and adjust strategies.

Effective leadership is crucial in guiding a team towards improved performance. One of the strategies is to identify the root cause of this, which could be as a result of intrinsic or extrinsic factors. By extrinsic factor, it could include leadership style, communication style, working environment, low pay and benefits which could be demotivating. Intrinsic factors could be as result of personal issues the employee is currently experiencing at home e.g marital issue, sickness or even divorce. The leader needs to have the emotional intelligence to know this and also be able to call the employee for a meeting that should be handled professionally so as to get the employee to trust and share such

With my sales team, I prefer to use the “GROW” model. A pep talk twice a week, pitch practices and power of connecting with their target buyers. G- Goal (Picking goal for the week, what they can do realistically). R - Reality (We look at the performance figures, metrics, and the gap they need to cover up for. How realistic is the expectations from previous week and what needs to be pushed out to achieve this.. O - Options- I allow them state the motivators that can propel them to move. They need to find that catalyst that can make all the difference in their actions and thoughts. They need to see what they were doing wrong and how they can use simple steps to change. W- way forward: We act and map out the action plans.

Having a candid conversation and being transparent helps. Share facts and figures to the team and invite perspectives from them. Understanding the challenge(s) and then solutionizing helps.

Plan A First define the reason may be lack of experience or misunderstanding for their responsibilities. Second I have to be aware where they are setting from their performance to start from that point. Third small goals per week and one meeting for discusion their act. increase the difficulty of the goals week after week . Fourth after 45 days evaluate the previous steps and the success rate to go with plan B .

Communication is key here…make sure the team understands what’s going wrong. Majority of the times individuals would already know how to get the project back on track. Welcome suggestions and advice from seniors.

Set goals with freedom of work And make him responsible for their work, help teams to grow And arrange teams mates counter check goals of co team workers

Task and process conflict will show up as an under performing team. When this occurs a leader needs to understand if there is underlying or unresolved conflict within the team that could be impacting trust. If a team does not have trust its impossible to reach high performance. There may also be personalities that are not compatible and have not had a chance to understand one another better. Again, this can be addressed by understanding how each person on the team likes to work, their problem solving approach and how they typically resolve conflicts. .

In my experience a well informed team would have clarity on the path to success, buy-in to the vision and the broader sense of the task. Regular feedback ensures timely adaptation towards accomplishment of tasks.

I agree, another is to remove obstacles: Identify and eliminate any barriers that may be hindering team performance, such as communication breakdowns, resource constraints, or unclear processes.

As per my experience, feedback is very important for the team, as they will get to know what is right or if something gone wrong, I have seen few work cultures where meeting happens only once a year during the performance appraisal, which doesn't help. And during the feedback sessions instead of just saying negative things just listen. Sometimes while listening to what team goes through can fix the underlying problem.

The best-designed performance management systems make it easier for managers to provide continuous feedback on the performance and development goals of the individual. Especially if the performance review process is designed to be a record of conversations throughout the year and not a one-time exercise.

Effective coaching hinges on understanding each team member's needs. Some flourish with probing questions, while others thrive on positive reinforcement. Workshops and formal training may benefit some, while others require exposure to diverse challenges. The key to unlocking potential lies in a personalized approach. Great coaching isn't a one-size-fits-all solution; it's a blend of techniques tailored to individual needs. Ultimately, a deep desire to fuel someone else's growth is the cornerstone of successful coaching.

Coaching has to be the norm of leaders, even if they are high performing team, keep coaching them to maintain their success. In a situation of team performance, you may have one to one or team depends on the issues that you may identify at the beginning stage.

This is another self-reflection moment for the Manager/Leader. Ask most Managers if they can coach and the answer will be yes. My next question is how do they know that they can coach, what tangible evidence have they got to demonstrate the effectiveness of their coaching. Ask yourself - who coaches the coaches? Ineffective coaching can be more dangerous than no coaching at all.

As Simon Sinek says, leaders are not responsible for the work the team needs to deliver, they are responsible for the people responsible for the work. Coaching and mentoring thus becomes an inevitable and unavoidable skill in leadership. The leaders dealing with multiple generations- millennial, Gen X, Gen Z need to inculcate coaching in their skillset as the society evolves and with rapid changes both in technology and the way work is perceived, adequate discussions around career development and personal growth is necessary which yield positive results for colleagues as well as the organization in the broader perspective.

We need to set by example, we need to show our team how to things smarter and to show them the tricks that we gained through out our years of experience to do things faster and better

Culture and purpose are the cornerstones of a thriving organization. They provide the framework to empower and engage your team, unlocking their full potential. Autonomy without direction can lead to wasted effort, but within a well-defined framework and with proper coaching, your team can achieve remarkable results and find genuine fulfillment in their work.

In our experience a team would underperform either because the strategy is not clear, transparent and leadership's view with team implementation are not aligned. By empowering team members, motivation and commitment can be reestablished.

I had an experience with a team that was heavily demotivated, disengaged and refered to as "underperforming" from the mamagement. The problem was not the members but the mentality of micromanagement and not allowing people to do their work, suppressing their opinion. I believe that people should take pride in their work and feel they are not just heard and respected but are allowed to take decisions. Asking for input, genuine and honest, is the first step. Supporting them with what they need with resources. Finally recognition which is vital to boost moral and engagement. Managers need to let go of control, afterall if you hired someone, you hired that person because you saw the potentials and the abilities.

One method to pinpoint the causes of poor performance is by evaluating personal career goals and potentially realigning job roles and tasks accordingly. Inadequate knowledge or resources could be contributing factors, thus offering additional training and necessary resources is essential. It's also beneficial to assess team and company dynamics to address any underlying issues.

This to me is the most powerful way of guiding the team out of chronic underperformance. An empowered team that is committed to the objective, sees the benefits of end results, feels appreciated, given the autonomy to voice out and bring changes, can do wonders. A little bit of empathy, not hesitating to make one's hands dirty themselves helps (and this doesn't mean micro management - hope you see the difference).

Sometimes a team of talented people are somehow not able to deliver results as expected. The could be quite a few reasons for such a situation to occur. One of them could be that since they have a good track record for delivering results, they tend to be given additional responsibilities which go beyond their available band width. This is where a Leader needs to step in and stop the flood of work from breaking a high performing team. A good leader understands when to ease up to give their team time to recoup and recharge , so that they are able to sustain their high performance. Another reason could be that the team members are performing tasks,which don't play to their strengths, here a Leader can reallocate tasks to optimize their output.

A High performer should not be rewarded with more work. The performance will quickly die down. Instead high performers should be empowered more and given a team who could perform just like he/she once did (eventually) to maintain consistency and achieve the sense of validation. Performance reviews when conducted for 'Achievers' should be fairly backed up with compensations.

The "Team" either (1) refuses to accept underperformance, or (2) is not cohesive enough so that it's collective intelligence is below the minimum necessary. The first calls for redoing their perspective by making them take a cognizance of their performance indicators right at the micro level tasks. And for the later, the team needs to do some experiential simulations in an alien environ, to understand each other thus, collimate productively.

It is important to identify the root cause leading to underperformance. Most often, team doesn't have clear goals and direction provided to them leading to chaos on the ground. As a leader, it is important to change that. There could also be scenarios where one or more of the team members are not the right fit for the work and the team ethos leading to them not being able to work cohesively and deliver. Ensuring that team has objective and SMART Goals, right team construct, regular progress checks, timely feedback and open & transparent communication can help turn around the team's performance. Do not beat them, rather hold them accountable with assertive messages. Along the journey of turnaround keeping giving positive reinforcements.

One thing I've found helpful is to encourage teamwork through collaborative projects or team building activities as well as to promote a culture that encourages diverse ideas and recognize, celebrate and reward achievements and successes even the small ones.