Identifying underperforming leaders is one thing; addressing the issue is quite another.

With frontline employees, the relatively concrete, task-focused nature of their roles makes it easy to see what is going wrong. However, when providing performance feedback for leaders, the more complex nature of their roles can make it harder to identify problems. And even when it is possible to determine what is not working, precisely why it isn’t and how to rectify it can be less clear.

With this issue in mind, over the past five years I have collected data from over 7,000 leaders to help identify how and why leaders’ performance can dip. The more senior leaders become, the more their performance is determined by the activity of the people they lead. The research has thus focused not on leaders’ capabilities, but on the impact leaders have on their teams and how this then affects team performance. 

Rectifying suboptimal performance is one of the core purposes of performance reviews. But it’s also one of the hardest parts of the process.

Five issues to look for in underperforming leaders

This data analysis has unearthed five common mistakes underperforming leaders make when managing their teams. Combined, these mistakes account for over two-thirds of all cases of poor leadership performance.

So, if you’re faced with a low-performing leader and can’t quite see where things are going wrong, these are the first five things to look for.

1. Clarity

The most common mistake leaders make is not being clear on what they need from their teams. In fact, over 90% of the leaders in this research over-rate the degree of clarity they create. When asked how much their team remembers what they tell them is important, leaders on average say 98%. But when we ask their teams how much they remember, they say only 27% on average.

So, the first thing to examine is whether the team is clear about what the leader wants from them and is aligned in supporting this. 

2. Control

The most well-known mistake a leader can make is being too controlling or directive. This often results in leaders not operating at the level they should be. They may become overwhelmed and leave no space for their teams to show initiative.

Studies show that even when there is a clear financial benefit to delegating authority, leaders only tend to do so about 40% of the time. So, when a leader complains that their team isn’t being proactive enough, look first at whether the leader is creating a team culture in which people feel empowered.

3. Confidence

Being the boss tends to increase people’s confidence, and sometimes leads to over-confidence. This is a well-known trap that contributes to underperforming leadership.

But what is often less focused on is the impact leaders have on their team’s confidence. 

If the team doesn’t feel confident, it’s not going to perform at its best. And my research suggests that all too often leaders become so focused on tasks that they fail to pay enough attention to how confident their teams feel about these objectives.

4. Openness

Every leadership role comes with the same inbuilt challenge – that people are less likely to be open with them and less likely to challenge their thinking. Combine this with the evidence that being in charge makes people more likely to rely on what they already know and less sensitive to contextual information.

You can see why every leader – whether they realise it or not – has to work hard to ensure good information flows to them. 

Unfortunately, the fourth most common mistake is underperforming leaders ignoring this challenge and not investing in encouraging openness. And without free-flowing information, decision-making inexorably becomes undermined.

5. Understanding

The final mistake underperforming leaders make? A failure to understand their individual impact on the wider team members and their subsequent behaviours and responses. Research shows that the psychological distance involved in being a leader makes it harder to see things from others’ perspectives and understand how they, as leaders, may be affecting others.

If leaders can’t understand their impact, then they are limited in the degree to which they can manage it and thereby get the best from their teams.

Every single one of the five issues above is – to some extent – the inevitable consequences of being a boss.

Course correcting

Rectifying suboptimal performance is one of the core purposes of performance reviews. But it’s also one of the hardest parts of the process. You may see what leaders aren’t doing well enough, but understanding the mechanics of why can be a lot harder to unravel. Without this, knowing how to help underperforming leaders to improve can be difficult.

My research suggests that understanding a leader’s impact on their teams can be the critical missing link in this process.

For instance, if you can identify that the reason a leader’s area isn’t performing well enough is due to a lack of clarity and alignment, then the solution – or at least the first step – is to help the leader clarify and simplify their core message.

Or, if you identify that a leader’s team lacks the confidence to show initiative, then you can help the leader identify a few simple techniques to boost people’s confidence.

As always, understanding the problem is the key to knowing how to solve it.

A final consideration

If a leader is struggling, the natural temptation is to assume that they aren’t right for their role or lack capability. Yet every single one of the five issues above is – to some extent – the inevitable consequences of being a boss.

Targeted pre-emptive training for leaders in how to spot and avoid these five mistakes is likely one of the most effective ways to improve leadership performance, and thereby avoid the challenge of poor performance conversations.