Why Teamwork Fails — And How Leaders Can Turn the Tide

In almost every business I engage with, one sentiment echoes louder than the rest: “You just can’t find good staff.” Leaders complain that their teams are disengaged, underperforming, and unreliable. Staff “don’t care,” they’re distracted, or simply not “cut out” for the job.

But here’s a hard truth: if you’re the leader, and this is your reality, it’s yours to own.

Even if you didn’t cause the dysfunction, if you’re tolerating it—through inaction, misalignment, or missed opportunity—you’re complicit. And the consequences aren’t trivial. Gallup consistently reports that the bulk of employee engagement variance is directly attributable to leadership.

So, what’s driving the breakdown?

It’s not laziness or incompetence. In fact, our field experience show that nearly 90% of operational failures stem from organizational shortcomings, not individual ones. That is: people are not failing the business—businesses are failing their people.

When employees are disinterested, disconnected, or disengaged, it’s usually because they don’t see meaning in their work, or they lack the basic tools and support needed to succeed. They default to survival mode—doing the minimum, staying on their phones, and emotionally checking out.

Purpose first: Why are we here?

A lot of leading practitioners and authors, the likes of Etsko Schuitema, Brad Sugars and Bill Campbell among others, has long argued that organizations must be guided by more than profit. If the only reason your business exists is to make money, don’t be surprised when your people do the bare minimum.

A shared purpose—a reason for existing that transcends individual self-interest—is what ignites discretionary effort. Without it, teams rarely rise above mediocrity.

Too often, leaders underperform in one or more of these areas—and the result is a disengaged, underperforming workforce.

Engagement isn’t a workshop. It’s a system.

While structured engagement programs—like the one we offer through ActionCOACH—can kickstart change, they can’t fix a broken culture on their own. Engagement is not an event; it’s a sustained leadership discipline.

When done right, these interventions signal something powerful:

“We’ve heard you.

We’re changing.

And we want you on this journey with us.”

A Call to Action

If you’re serious about transforming your team from “barely surviving” to “fully thriving,” don’t start with a motivational poster. Start with leadership.

Start with you.