When teams struggle, many leaders jump to the wrong conclusion: “We need stronger people.”
“We need more experienced managers.”
After two decades coaching leadership teams across industries and continents, I know this is almost never the real issue. Teams rarely fail because people lack intelligence or potential. They fail because they have not learned the behavioural skills needed to turn personal excellence into collective performance.
The Nov. ’25 Forbes article, “Common Traits of ‘Bad’ Managers”, captures this well. These traits are not signs of malice. They are gaps in skill. Bad managers are not bad because they wake up intending to be bad boys or bad girls. They simply never learned how to lead.
Ultra-high-performing teams (UHPTs) succeed not because they are superhuman, but because they have mastered the behavioural foundations that most teams eternally lack.
Kick the ball, not the person
Managers often confuse motion with progress. They fill calendars, not pipelines. They create activity, not accountability. This is not incompetence. It is a lack of prioritisation, decision discipline and clarity of ownership.
UHPTs separate noise from impact. They play ball while others hide in meetings. They play ball to score together.
There are no points for internal corporate ping-pong. UHPTs have no patience for the 30–50 percent of Covid-grown “bullshit jobs” that slow everyone down with the nonsense they produce to make others believe they deserve to be there.
UHPTs orchestrate time to think strategy, then make space for play.
Communicate with craft, communicate with kindness
Communication failures destroy teams. Leaders fail to listen, to set expectations or to give meaningful feedback. Messages become vague or inconsistent.
But communication is a skillset, not a genetic inheritance.
UHPTs learn to:
- Ask with Curiosity & Assert with Presence
- Tackle the hard Problems through vigorous discussion
- Trust each other – blindly
Lead with intention – remove the bullshit bingo
Many managers never make the psychological shift from doing to leading. Under pressure, they return to what they know best: being experts. They hide in knowledge. They hide in jargon. They hide in “bullshit bingo”.
Leadership requires intentionally stepping into orchestration, not execution. It is a shift that can be learned and must be practised.
UHPTs make this shift deliberately.
Stop the show. Build courage
I see this clearly in our Leadership in Action boxing seminars. Big, strong managers become visibly terrified when asked to walk across the room blindfolded and trust a colleague to guide them.
The egos are strong but the flesh is weak.
Accountability requires courage – the courage to set expectations, enforce them, trust others and be trustworthy in return.
UHPTs show the courage to act together.
Behaviour eats talent for breakfast
Most “bad” behaviours can be fixed. The negativity, the fear, the micromanaging and the neglect are not defects. They are mostly the result of missing skills. There is only one exception: the sociopathic, narcissistic self-promoter. They do not learn, they do not change and they must be removed. Everyone else can grow.
Behaviour beats talent every single day.
Corporate learning starts when the entertainment stops
Many leaders assume managers will simply learn these skills “on the job”. Or that corporate training will magically fix gaps. Let us be honest: much corporate training does not. People arrive late, open their laptops and continue business as usual. They expect the trainer to be the clown who entertains without disturbing them.
As one of my best friends says: “The teacher pretends to teach, the student pretends to learn, without the brain of either getting involved.”
Real learning begins only when people are fully present. When I ask participants to fasten their seatbelts, fold their tray tables, close their laptops and introduce themselves with something meaningful – everything changes. When communication shifts from PPPM (Perfectly Polite, Perfectly Meaningless) to IPP (Interesting, Personal and Provocative), real development begins.
Adult learning starts where the entertainment ends.
Small new skill creates big shifts
Today, I coached a highly successful Fortune 100 top manager on Situational Leadership. In 60 minutes he learned how to diagnose what his team members need, here and now, for a specific task.
One hour. One skill. The impact on his confidence and his team will be transformational.
Managers do not need pep talk and cake. They need skills. Identify the gaps, work on them one by one, and everything shifts.
They have learned complex things before. They can learn again.
Stop importing excellence. Grow it.
Across industries, companies fall for the idea that external hires will solve everything. They bring in “experienced” managers hoping for instant pleasure and impact. Instead, they dilute the Foundational DNA.
They harvest PowerPoint & Process, not Impact & Retention.
Meanwhile, the people who built the early success are pushed down the hierarchy, even though they bring the drive and the skill. A bit of new skill would pay the bill.
External excellence is not the promised panacea.
The investment that pays off in minutes
Let us stop pretending that weak performance improves through motivational posters or another offsite about “co-creating team spirit”.
Let us diagnose deficiencies and build capability – one behaviour at a time. The return is a healthier team with motivated members, better business and innovation instead of ‘defenseful stagnation’.
UHPTs are not an accident. They are not a mystery, not a matter of talent. They are deliberately built.
Please feel invited to complete the confidential questionnaire: Leadership Learning Items | W-focus Portal and find out where you are missing essential skills.
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