Give Your Team a Good Kicking
Taking a different approach to poor performance.
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What should you do with an underperforming team?
At work yesterday, a team came in to present to us.
You could see they were nervous and struggling to get it together from the start. They seemed unsure what each person was supposed to be doing and the presentation fell apart at times. Particularly so as they tired near the end of their slot. It’s tough being out front in front of a large group of people who you know will have strong opinions.
But they got through it and received the approval they needed for their project.
At the end of the meeting, we shouted abuse at their team leader and threw cups at them. We hope that will ensure they do better next time.
Let me explain…
Now, of course, this didn’t happen at work yesterday. If I worked somewhere like that I would leave very quickly.
It did happen somewhere though.
For those who haven’t guessed yet, it happened at a football stadium in Germany on Tuesday night but lessons we can draw from this have implications for how we all approach those tricky times.
This post is for those times when we come across an individual or team that is underperforming.
Briefly, back to the football
England had performed badly again. This time in their third and final group game of Euro 2024. Despite this, they qualified for the group stage in first place guaranteeing them a place in the easier side of the knockout draw. They will now avoid meeting Spain, hosts Germany, France, and Portugal until the final.
And yet, at the final whistle on Tuesday night, the team were booed and their manager had paper cups thrown at him as he thanked the supporters at the final whistle.
I get the frustration but we must consider the impact on the humans involved here.
So what can we take from this?
We’ve all been there. Maybe it was in the audience or maybe we were the ones struggling on a particular day. What helped you get it together again following the incident?
It’s how we all react that decides what happens next.
Firstly, consider people as people
People are complex organisms. A lot is going on behind the scenes that you don’t see. You don’t truly know what’s going on in someone’s life at that particular moment. They could have been up all night worrying or with a newborn baby or someone close could be struggling with their health.
You just don’t know what they’re dealing with or the struggles they have had to come through to get that work to the stage of presenting it that day.
Set aside some time to chat and listen. I mean properly listen.
People respond much better to encouragement
They didn’t fail on purpose. They didn’t come into a meeting purposefully under-prepared and not caring.
Quite often nerves mean exactly the opposite. Nerves mean people may care too much. They have built it up into something big in their heads and simply can’t deliver what they’ve prepared.
You have a role to play here.
It is up to you to help prepare an environment that encourages rather than critiques. This should be a supportive atmosphere that gives them the best possible chance of being relaxed so they can bring their best work.
Create an atmosphere where people are relaxed and can bring their best work.
Be aware of the power you hold
Sometimes, as we navigate the world through our point of view, we forget the power we have over others.
It might be a hierarchical power of the Director over their team or the CEO over their employees. Or it could be power that comes from people respecting you. You might build respect over time through all the right ways but with that respect comes power that you maybe don’t realise you have. Where people listen and hang on your every word - that is power.
Have a bad day or let your standards slip and you can inadvertently be in a position where you are abusing that power you’ve gained.
Imagine Taylor Swift suddenly advocating cocaine use. See? Where would that leave her armies of fans? Distraught? Maybe. Betrayed. Probably. Worse case, they’ve been influenced!
Be aware of the power you hold and use it wisely.
Don’t let them suffer for your bad mood
And yet we all have bad days. Put yourself in the position of the high-powered exec.
Just before you are due to present to the Board, some disaster occurs somewhere else in the business. You know you’ve got an afternoon of hearing different presentations on a range of topics. The skilful, and very difficult, thing to do here is put the emerging disaster to one side and give these presentations your best self. After all, they’ve spent the last few weeks preparing.
There’s nothing more deflating than being on the end of a boss’s bad mood for no fault of your own.
You many be having a bad day but that doesnt mean its ok to push that on to others.
Know your role
There are times to speak up and there are times to support.
Back to the England football example for a second. Let’s be clear, booing and throwing cups at the England players is not going to help them improve for the next game. They know they didn’t play well. The team has experts behind the scenes analysing every kick, pass, and shot.
It’s not the job of the supporters to suddenly jump in and be the manager. Supporters should support. The power of positive vibes and encouragement will carry a team through many bad patches.
I’ve been at many football games where the players feed off the anxiety of the crowd. Do the players respond by playing better? NEVER - not in 30 years of watching football has this happened.
The natural response to negative, destructive, and aggressive criticism is to retreat into yourself.
Know your role in building wider success.
Help them get that extra 5%
Even if something didn’t quite hit the mark the likelihood is that they were probably 95% of the way towards creating something great and what they need is the support or guidance to get that extra 5%.
Quite often you will find that it’s the last few yards of work that tip something from being ok into being top-class. Maybe it is how it was presented, or the structure, or a missing point that brings it all together.
There’s often not a lot that is missing but by working together you can find that missing X factor that will set the whole thing off.
Bottom line - support people and you will create great work together.
So how are you going to bring a new level of support to your teams?
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I'm not sure the football analogy entirely holds, but still. I agree that, in most circumstances, encouragement and support are the key ingredients of getting people to work better. However, unfortunately, some people take advantage of this touchy-feely stuff and, frankly, need a good kick up the arse. For example, on occasion I've had to mentor trainee teachers who came to the lesson unprepared because they'd enjoyed a night on the tiles the night before. Well I'm sorry, the kids are the ones who suffer in that scenario and I don't see any point in trying to sugar-coat the pill, that that behaviour is unprofessional.
In a different scenario, I wrote on a student's report that as he spent more time being the class clown than actually working I was preparing to throw him off my course. His parents came to the school to thank me -- and he did too. Result? He worked bloody hard and got a brilliant grade in his 'A' Level.
Sometimes, managers have to, er, manage, and part of the job is being tough when toughness is needed.
In short, I am in favour of fair management, which sometimes means being "robust".
Great post marrying my love of business and football! Thanks for the shoutout