Turn a Bad Team Leader into a Good Team Leader

Got an underperforming Team Leader on your hands and looking to turn the situation around?

It can be done!

Our Editor – Megan Jones – spoke to Katy Forsyth, Maria McCann, Martin Teasdale, and Matt Riley for their top tips and advice on what it takes to turn a bad Team Leader into a good Team Leader.

Here’s what they said…

Observe Your Team Leader in Action (Don’t Jump to Conclusions!)

Don’t jump to conclusions about what is compromising your Team Leader’s performance.

This can really help you to gather some notes and position yourself as a non-judgemental observer, giving you the information you need to decide how best to proceed. You could even ask someone to do this exercise with you across a day or week and compare notes afterwards.

Ask Yourself “Is the Problem Really Within Their Control?”

When you’ve done this, review your insights and first ask yourself if your Team Leader is really to blame for their current performance output and how much is within their control.

“There are so many challenges right now that could be holding your Team Leaders back and compromising their performance – including overloading them with admin, lack of training and support, too many KPIS, lack of direction, technology frustrations, and lack of peer support too.” – Martin Teasdale, Founder of the Team Leader Community

Don’t underestimate the increased pressures on Team Leaders right now either – a situation that’s only expected to get worse (in the UK) given the 6th April 2025 increase in the National Minimum Wage and adjustments to National Insurance contributions.

“The biggest consequence of all of these changes is where we are finding space to reduce salaries further up the chain.

We’re seeing people cut out middle management, we’re seeing people grow sizes of teams to reduce Team Leaders, we’re seeing some of the support services being cut.

What’s happening there is we’re increasing the Team Leader’s job, so the Team Leader is becoming really bottlenecked in doing a whole multitude of jobs, that perhaps used to be done by different experts.” – Katy Forsyth, Managing Director of Red Recruitment

So, before you do anything else, take a moment to consider the wider pressures on your Team Leaders right now and the changes you could make to better support them. A good question to ask yourself here is, quite simply, “What do I want my Team Leaders to be doing?”.

To learn more about why Team Leaders really are your secret weapon for success, and how to empower them, watch our webinar: Boosting Agent and Team Leader Effectiveness in Customer Service

Double-Check Your Team Leader Knows What They Are Supposed to Be Doing

If there are no obvious barriers in place and the rest of your Team Leaders seem to be rising to the challenge of the role, your next port of call should be to double-check they know what the role of a Team Leader actually involves.

It may very well be that no one ever sat down and gave them a checklist, so they’re just running with their own assumptions.

You should also check your team leaders aren’t just chasing metrics, for advice on this, read our article: Are Your Team Leaders Too Busy Chasing Metrics?

Buddy Them Up with High Performers to Turn Their Weaknesses into Strengths

When you’ve established where any assumptions have been made and where their weaknesses are, it can really help to start buddying them up with Team Leaders who are doing that bit particularly well – so they can do some side-by-side learning.

“It may be as simple that your Team Leader doesn’t understand daily processes and how to carry them out efficiently, so give them the opportunity to see what best practice looks like.

This can really help to bring the learning to life. Also think about the wording you use here.

Don’t just point out, “You’re doing that wrong”, say, “This part of the role is really challenging, but Sophie here has been in the role for 2 years now and is doing it really well, why don’t you sit with her for a bit and see how she handles it?”” – Matt Riley, Contact Centre Performance Specialist

Nip Attitude Problems in the Bud ASAP

Unfortunately, it may not be as clean cut as this, and you may have an attitude problem on your hands – such as a Team Leader who acts in a very superior and dismissive way and is often rude to their direct reports.

This is where it’s critical to have that honest conversation sooner rather than later – even if it does feel uncomfortable.

For advice and actionable steps to handle toxic employees, read our articles: How to Identify and Manage Toxic Employees

Keep a Close Eye on Them to Check Progress is Being Made

Of course, all of the above isn’t a one and done exercise! So be sure to keep a close eye on how their performance improves in the coming weeks and months.

This could involve regular catch ups, asking the Team Leader to show evidence of how they’ve started to address their weaknesses, and general observations (as you did at the very beginning) to see for yourself how their behaviour has – hopefully – changed for the better.

Know When it’s Time to Admit Defeat

Sadly, despite your best intentions, your efforts will sometimes fall on deaf ears, and you will inevitably need to escalate the situation to HR.

If you’re lucky it may be a case of “right person, wrong role”, and they’ll openly admit “I love it here, but this role isn’t for me” and you can work collaboratively to find something more suitable for them internally.

However, if it turns out to be “wrong person, wrong role”, you’ll have very little choice left but to say goodbye.

You can’t afford to keep bad Team Leaders around for long!

What Have You Tried to Get Your Bad Team Leaders Back on Track?

Join our LinkedIn community and let us know.

With thanks to the following people for sharing their thoughts and experiences for this article:

• Katy Forsyth, Managing Director of Red Recruitment
• Maria McCann, Co-Founder of Neos Wave
• Martin Teasdale, Founder of the Team Leader Community
• Matt Riley, Contact Centre Performance Specialist

If you are looking for more information to help you develop your contact centre team leaders, read these articles next:

• Team Leader Experience (TLX) Explained
• How to Prepare Agents for Their First Leadership Role
• How to Coach Resilient Contact Centre Team Leaders

Reviewed by: Jo Robinson