A middle leader is not improving, despite the feedback and support already given
Expectations have been raised and support has been offered, and the leader’s performance has still not changed.
A middle leader is not meeting what the role requires, in their team leadership, their strategic contribution or both. Concerns have been raised with them, support has been provided, and the position is much as it was. Others have noticed, and the cost is now being carried by people other than the leader concerned.
Presenting symptoms
- The same concern has been raised more than once and the conversation feels familiar.
- Other people are absorbing work that belongs to the role.
- Agreed actions from previous meetings are partly done, or done late.
Possible causes
- The expectation may have been given as feedback rather than as a requirement, and heard as a suggestion.
- The leader may lack a specific capability that encouragement alone cannot supply.
- The post may carry more than the time allocated to it can hold.
- The leader may understand the expectation perfectly well and not accept it.
The expectation was given as feedback rather than as a requirement.
Your most useful next step: Write down in one page what must be different and by when, give it to them in person rather than by email, and say plainly that this is a requirement of the post rather than advice.
Lead behaviours
They are trying, and a specific capability is missing.
Your most useful next step: Name the single capability that is missing, then arrange for them to watch it done and practise it alongside someone who does it well, rather than being told about it again.
Lead behaviours
The post carries more than the time allocated to it allows.
Your most useful next step: Decide the two things this post must deliver this year, move or stop the rest, and judge them on those two.
Lead behaviours
They understand what is required and do not accept it.
Your most useful next step: Ask them directly what they make of the expectation and why, and be ready to find that part of the objection is sound. If it is not, say plainly what happens if the position does not change.
Lead behaviours
Core behaviours
Feedback that carries no consequence is a suggestion. The commonest reason this situation persists is that the leader has been told repeatedly and never told what follows if nothing changes.
Underperformance has at least four distinct causes that need opposite responses. Encouragement given to someone who lacks a capability, or training given to someone who disagrees with the expectation, both cost a term.
You have almost certainly formed a view by this point. Asking what they make of the expectation, before restating it, is what surfaces the obstacle or the objection you have not yet heard.
This situation usually persists because the follow-up was softer than the first conversation. The improvement is made or lost in the weeks between meetings rather than in the meetings.
Part of the problem may be yours: an expectation never made concrete, a post never resourced, or support offered but never arranged. Checking that first is what makes everything that follows defensible.
Secondary behaviours
Use this when restating the expectation. A requirement whose purpose is understood is easier to meet and much harder to dispute later.
Use this where the post is genuinely overloaded. Naming the two things it must deliver is more useful to everyone than a longer list of what is not happening.
Use this where a specific capability is missing. Seeing the thing done, and doing it alongside someone, teaches what another conversation about it will not.
Use this where duties have accumulated on the post over the years. Moving work off it is a legitimate response, and often faster than building the capacity to carry it.
A useful first action
Read back over what you have actually said to them. If you cannot find a point where you stated a specific requirement with a date attached, that is the first thing to fix, before concluding anything about the person.
Suggested approach
- Check your own record first, and establish whether a specific requirement with a date has ever actually been given.
- Ask them what they make of the expectation before restating it, and listen for an obstacle or an objection you have not heard.
- Decide which explanation fits: unclear requirement, missing capability, overloaded post or genuine disagreement. Each needs a different response.
- State what must be different, by when, and what follows if it is not, in person and in writing.
- Follow up on the dates you set rather than at the next scheduled meeting, and record what you find each time.