It’s Not Culture. It’s How You’re Leading.

Eddie Geller
3 days ago
2 min read

Updated: 2 days ago

Team performance issues rarely show up in the boardroom until it’s too late. Missed targets. Slow execution. Slipping margins.

By the time it’s visible in the numbers, the damage is already done.

The truth? Underperforming teams are one of the most overlooked profit killers in business.

And most of it comes down to one thing: leadership.

According to Gallup’s 2025 State of the Global Workplace Report, only 27% of managers are engaged. Global employee engagement has dropped to 21%. And the most significant factor driving both?

The way teams are being led.

Most Leaders Don’t Know Where the Gaps Are

Companies often assume culture and engagement are “fine” — until people start quitting or execution slows to a crawl. But the early signals are almost always there: confusion, disengagement, misalignment, lack of accountability.

We just don’t measure them.

Instead, we look at lagging indicators like attrition, productivity dips, or whether people “seem happy.” But these don’t tell us what’s really happening inside teams.

Manager Performance Is the Leading Indicator

The manager is the single biggest factor in team performance. When managers lack clarity, courage, or consistency, teams drift. Goals blur. Feedback disappears. Accountability fades. And performance stalls.

The problem is that leadership performance — especially at the team level — is rarely measured in a structured, consistent way. It’s Not Culture. It’s How You’re Leading.

That’s the gap. And it’s costing companies more than they realize.

It Can Be Measured — From Both Sides

The good news: team dynamics, leadership impact, and culture health can be measured — if you're looking through the right lens.

SKOR does this by assessing both the manager and the team separately, giving a full 360° view of how leadership is being delivered and experienced.

People Leaders are assessed on how they lead — are they setting clear goals, reinforcing values, and creating psychological safety?
Individual Contributors are assessed on how they experience leadership — do they feel supported, recognized, accountable, and aligned?

When you bring both perspectives together, you get a much clearer picture of where leadership is driving performance — and where it’s holding teams back.

Culture Isn’t Soft. Poor Leadership Is Expensive.

This isn’t about engagement for engagement’s sake.

This is about understanding how leadership behavior impacts execution — before it shows up in missed numbers or lost people.

If you’re seeing stagnation, misalignment, or inconsistency across teams, it may not be a strategy problem.