Every leader will eventually face the challenge of a team member who isn’t delivering.
But how you show up as a leader in the moment can make all the difference in that employee’s long-term success at your organization.
True leadership starts with curiosity, not correction. Your instinct might be to intervene quickly with steps like a performance improvement plan or more frequent check-ins.
But what if instead you asked: What’s really going on?
By understanding the full human behind the performance, you support your team members’ growth and elevate your entire team.
What Goes Into Human Performance?
In the Exos model of human performance, we break down the drivers of success into three factors:
- Psychological Drivers: These are a person’s values, goals, and motivation.
- Performance Capacity: These are their skills and abilities (including their mindset).
- Functional State: This is the individual’s readiness in the moment.
Underperformance often traces back to one of these categories. Your goal as a leader is to seek to understand what’s leading to poor performance in each.
That starts with a mindset shift: Coach, don’t correct. That means reframing the conversation and leading with empathy, without compromising expectations.
How to Support an Underperforming Employee
Explore Their Psychological Drivers
You might already have an inkling that the employee’s values, goals, or motivation are somehow not aligned with their work. For example, perhaps you know this person hopes to be an entrepreneur someday, so they’re less invested in your team’s mission and dynamics.
After a quick check-in, you learn they’re spending weekends developing their own startup. Discipline likely won’t help; their heart’s just not in their current role. So instead, try:
“I want you to succeed, even if your ultimate goal lies elsewhere. But your shift in focus is affecting the team. How might we find a path forward that supports both?”
Other times, you may need to have a deeper conversation about what’s driving them. Ask the employee:
- What are you looking to get out of your time with our organization?
- Where do you see yourself in five years?
- What work do you feel naturally motivated to do?
Then, try responding with:
“I want to give you the right opportunities to help you learn and grow, so that in five years you can be there. How might we find a path forward that supports both the team’s goals and yours?”
In either scenario, this approach reframes the conversation from control to collaboration. You give them room to realign or move on with clarity.
Assess Their Performance Capacity — Work Skills
Not all underperformance is about motivation. Sometimes people simply lack the tools or knowledge to meet the moment. Helpful questions for you to ask include:
- Are there areas of our business you’d like to learn more about?
- How are you feeling about implementing recent changes?
- How can I support you in acquiring the skills you feel you need to perform your best?
A common example these days is a team member who feels overwhelmed by technological change. Let’s say your team is expected to integrate generative AI tools into daily workflows. One member, a seasoned creative, is quietly panicking. They’re not anti-change. They’re just underprepared.
The right response here? Upskilling, coaching, and confidence-building:
- Offer a course tailored to their strengths (e.g., AI for creatives).
- Provide mentorship from a peer who has navigated similar shifts.
- Suggest 1:1 time to process the change together.
This isn't coddling. It's targeted development. According to the World Economic Forum, 50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025 due to the acceleration of automation and AI.
Address Their Performance Capacity — Mindset
Sometimes what’s missing isn’t technical. It’s internal.
Let’s say your employee is self-doubting, reluctant to take initiative, or overly perfectionistic. This might point to imposter syndrome, or feeling like they haven’t earned their success.
In this case, try reinforcing mindset performance qualities by asking the following questions:
- Curiosity: Are they open to learning?
- Inner Awareness: Can they name what they’re feeling?
- Self-Regulation: Can they pause and reset when needed?
- Flowability: Can they block distractions and focus?
- Grit: Can they bounce back after setbacks?
Frame imposter syndrome as a sign of self-awareness. That recognition alone can build trust and improve their performance. Let the employee know you will continue to support them as they find ways to work with that feeling of imposter syndrome rather than letting it affect performance.
Flowability is a key performance quality we at Exos define as our ability to enter a flow state with limited distractions. In other words, it’s your capacity to get in the groove. Research shows finding flow reduces stress and improves creativity, both essential to high-functioning teams.
Check on Their Functional State
An employee’s functional state is how well they’re able to show up at any given moment. This fluctuates often, based on nutrition, hydration, sleep, stress management, and more. Remember: Your employees are fully human!
Which means even highly skilled, motivated team members will struggle sometimes. They might hit a wall due to stress, burnout, poor sleep. These all erode performance.
If you suspect an underperforming employee could use more support in these areas, ask yourself: How can I help this person show up in a better state?
Generally, these individuals need recovery.
One Exos leader shared a story of a team member who was chronically sleep-deprived due to having a newborn at home. Instead of docking performance points, the leader adjusted their expectations and helped the employee restructure their workday so they could get in a midday nap and then focus during peak hours.
The result: higher output in fewer hours. And a teammate who felt seen.
Consider small ways you can tweak your work environment to better support your team’s functional state, such as:
- Offer flexible hours.
- Protect focus time.
- Encourage breaks before creative tasks.
- Provide nutrient-dense snacks in the office kitchen and whole foods for catered meals.
- Suggest walking meetings when appropriate.
- Schedule emails and other team-wide communications for working hours to avoid disturbing personal time or sleep.
- Model helpful behaviors yourself, such as taking breaks, staying hydrated, and getting regular exercise.
Co-Create a Realistic, Motivating Plan
No matter how well your conversations go with an underperforming employee, a performance improvement plan still may be the best next step. But it doesn’t have to feel like a punishment. Build it together, and it can feel like support. Make sure the plan includes:
- Shared goals that connect the employee’s growth to team outcomes.
- Tactical resources like coaching, courses, or schedule shifts.
- Checkpoints to reflect, adjust, and celebrate progress.
Human-Centric Leadership
Supporting an underperforming employee doesn’t mean lowering the bar. It means being clear about the bar, and giving them a fair chance to rise to it.
That begins with your mindset. Start thinking like a coach, not a critic. Lead with empathy and see the whole human, then seek to understand and stay curious.
Want to help raise the bar for your whole organization? Talk to us today about Exos’ Human Performance Coaching.
About the Expert
Stefan Underwood, MS, CSCS, is Exos’ Senior Vice President of Methodology and a recognized authority on human performance. He holds a BSc in Exercise Science and a MS in Organizational Psychology. With 20 years of coaching elite athletes, Special Operations Forces, and Fortune 500 leaders, he helps turn human potential into peak organizational results. Stefan leads Exos’ multidisciplinary Performance Innovation Team and teaches cutting-edge methods worldwide through Exos Education.
