What If the Problem Is Not the Person?

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Have you ever had that sinking feeling when someone on your team is not performing?

 

You know the one. Right in the pit of your stomach.

 

It’s been hiding in plain sight for a while. Missed deadlines. Falling short of targets. A flatness about them that wasn’t there before.

 

And the temptation, especially in a small business, is to move fast. Cut your losses. Start again.

 

I understand that. I really do.

 

But here is something worth knowing before you do.

 

Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs), the go-to tool for most managers in this situation, have a roughly three-way split in outcomes: 30% improve, 30% resign from the stress, 30% are let go.

 

60% don’t make it through.

 

And here is the truth about PIPs. They start with the intention of helping the person. But they are also designed to document the decline and protect the business legally. Nursing someone back to their best was never really what they were built for.

 

So, before you reach for that conversation, consider a different one.

 

Over the years, I have heard all the reasons small businesses don’t engage coaches.

 

“We cannot afford it.” “It won’t work for someone like this.” “We do not have time.”

 

And I get it.

 

But there is a maxim in business that has always stayed with me.

 

CFO: “What if we train them and they leave?”

 

CEO: “What if we don’t train them and they stay?”

 

One is treating people as an expense. The other is treating them as an investment.

 

Here’s the numbers, because for an SME owner the numbers matter.

 

The ICF and PwC Global Coaching Study found that 86% of organisations that invested in coaching reported a positive return. The median ROI sits between 5 and 7 times the initial investment.

 

Put that alongside the cost of replacing the person you are about to let go: Between $23,000 and $40,000 for a mid-level role. Up to $60,000 or more for a specialist. And that is before the overtime, the lost client relationships, and the quiet toll on team morale.

 

Coaching is not an expense. It is the cheaper option.

 

A skilled coach helps you get underneath what is really going on, build a plan the person owns, and make a clear-eyed decision based on evidence rather than frustration.

 

For an SME, one person turning a corner can change the energy of an entire team.

The businesses that get this right build something more valuable than cost savings.

 

A reputation as a place where people are genuinely invested in, not just managed.

And in a market where 61% of Australian employees are already watching for their next opportunity, that reputation is worth more than any recruitment budget.

 

I would welcome your thoughts in the comments.

 

Reply with “Coaching” and we will contact you to tell you more about our coaching programmes.

What Do Socrates and Your Best Managers Have in Common?

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We spend an awful lot of time in organisations talking about culture, engagement, retention, and wellbeing.

These are BIG words. Important words.

But somewhere in the middle of all that conversation, a simpler thing gets lost.

The quality of the dialogue.

Socrates believed that knowledge wasn’t “given.” It was produced through the shared exchange of words. He called it dialogue.

Fast forward to the 21st century, and we have replaced that profound exchange with Slack and Teams messages and target-setting exercises.

We are talking more but genuinely connecting less.

I am not talking about structured one-on-ones where the agenda is set and the week’s hot topics get ticked off.

I am talking about real conversations. The kind where a manager asks a courageous question, leans in, and actually hears what is going on for the person sitting across from them.

 

After 15 years of coaching leaders, one thing has never changed.

 

The quality of the conversation determines almost everything else.

 

That is coaching. And most organisations are desperately short of it.

 

Marshall Goldsmith, the world’s preeminent executive coach, puts it simply.

 

“Successful people become great leaders when they learn to shift the focus from themselves to others.”

 

It sounds obvious, yet the execution is still our biggest hurdle.

 

Here is what the data tells us.

 

Australian employers spent an average of just $1,122 per employee on training in 2025.

 

For context, that is less than the cost of one day of lost productivity from a disengaged team member.

 

And yet the International Coaching Federation reports that 87% of organisations that invested in coaching saw a positive return.

 

The median ROI sits at around 7 times the initial investment.

 

And AHRI’s own research confirms that leadership development ranks as one of the most effective strategies available for improving retention.

 

So, the question is not whether coaching delivers a return.

 

The data is clear on that.

 

The question is why more organisations are not making it a priority.

 

Coaching is rarely something people just figure out. It is a skill that must be built.

 

This is where the “Accidental Manager” gap shows up most painfully. These are the people promoted because they were brilliant at their technical job, then left to muddle through the complexities of human leadership without a map.

 

There is a world of difference between a manager who says, “Here is what you need to do,” and one who asks, “What do you think would work here?”

 

The first one gets compliance. The second one builds capability.

 

Two millennia after Socrates, the Socratic method remains the most sophisticated

technology we have for building that capability.

 

It is not a soft skill. It is the highest-returning investment a business can make.

 

So where do you start?

 

The most practical first step is engaging an experienced coach for your managers.

 

Not a one-day workshop. A meaningful relationship built over time that develops the habits and self-awareness to bring out the best in others.

 

As Goldsmith famously said, “What got you here won’t get you there.”

 

The skills that made your managers great individual performers are not the ones that make them great leaders.

 

But those skills can be developed. And when they are, everything changes.

Is coaching something your organisation invests in, or is it still sitting on the nice to have list?

 

Drop your thoughts in the comments. I would love to hear your perspective.

The hiring game has changed. Has your approach?

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I was reading through the AHRI summary of the recent AFR Workforce Summit, and one thing jumped straight out at me.

 

The conversation has shifted.

 

It is no longer just about finding someone with the right experience or the right qualifications.

 

The leaders in that room were talking about something far more interesting.

 

What does the right person actually look like in today’s business environment?

 

And here is what they landed on.

 

Five qualities that separate the people who will thrive from the ones who will struggle.

 

Critical thinking. The ability to work through complexity, challenge assumptions, and make sound decisions when the answers are not obvious.

 

Curiosity. A genuine openness to new ideas, new ways of working, and new possibilities. The kind of person who leans in rather than switches off.

 

Adaptability. Not just coping with change but embracing it. Moving with the business rather than waiting for the dust to settle.

 

Persistence. Staying the course when things get hard. And right now, things are getting hard for a lot of organisations.

 

Optimism. Not the head-in-the-sand variety. The kind that keeps people solution-focused even when the environment is uncertain.

 

And do you know what the really interesting part is?

 

Every single one of these attributes is measurable.

 

Not through a gut-feel interview. Not through a CV scan. Through a validated psychometric assessment.

 

Here is the good news. As GPI distributors, we can put together a customised assessment that measures all five of these dimensions precisely. Tailored to your organisation, quick to implement, and a lot more affordable than you might think.

 

Critical thinking. Curiosity. Adaptability. Persistence. Optimism.

 

All five. In one assessment.

 

So, the next time you are sitting across the table from a candidate and wondering whether they have what it takes for today’s environment, you do not have to wonder.

 

You can know.

 

Want to see what your five dimensions look like?

 

Drop “MY5” in the comments, and we will send you a free assessment to try.

 

(Link to the AHRI AFR Workforce Summit summary in the first comment below.)

AFR Workforce Summit Summary

Something Happens When You Promote Your Best Person

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And most organisations never see it coming.

 

AHRI’s latest research is clear. Australian organisations are investing heavily in technical skills but falling short when it comes to developing the human ones.

 

Yet we keep taking our best technical people, giving them a bigger desk and a round of applause, and leaving them to figure the rest out themselves.

 

And the same AHRI research tells us that only 15% of Australian employers plan to invest their training budgets in leadership and management development this year.

 

So there they are. Brand new managers. Responsible for the careers, the performance, and the well-being of the people around them.

 

Given a pat on the back and sent on their way. Sure, it’ll be grand!

 

Sound familiar?

 

Here is what usually happens next.

 

A gun salesperson gets promoted to sales manager.

 

The best engineer becomes head of engineering. The person who could always be relied upon to get the job done is now responsible for making sure everyone else does, too.

 

The person who never put a foot wrong is suddenly in charge of making sure nobody else does either.

 

Everyone waits for the magic to continue.

 

And then it goes pear-shaped.

 

We call it the Promotion Trap.

 

The skills that made them exceptional before, drive, focus, personal accountability, and the ability to just get things done, are often the very skills that work against them as a manager.

 

Because great management is not about focusing on yourself.

 

It is about getting the best out of the people around you.

 

And unless they are naturally gifted people managers, most newly promoted leaders default to doing instead of leading.

 

They struggle to delegate.

 

They take the work back.

 

They micromanage without meaning to.

 

Meanwhile, the team starts to disengage.

 

Good people quietly look elsewhere.

 

And by the time the resignation letters arrive, the damage is already done.

 

This is not a personal failure. It is a systemic one.

 

We set people up to struggle and then wonder why they do.

 

The Peter Principle was written in 1969.

 

Here we are in 2026 and the research suggests we are still living it.

 

The good news? This is entirely avoidable.

 

It starts with genuinely understanding who your people are before the promotion is made.

 

How do they think?

 

How do they influence?

 

How do they handle pressure and ambiguity?

 

Do they understand the difference between being a leader and a manager, and can they be both?

 

The most effective approach starts with benchmarking your best managers to understand what actually makes them successful.

 

Then compare your next potential leader against that benchmark.

 

Identifying the gaps honestly.

 

And providing the right support through experienced coaching.

 

Remember, coaching is not teaching.

 

It helps your people to learn, at their own pace, in the context of their own role.

 

Ideally, a promotion should never come as a surprise.

 

It should be part of a deliberate process of building bench strength so that when the moment arrives, your people step into the role with confidence, not apprehension.

 

A promotion should never be a reward for past performance.

 

It should be a considered decision about future fit.

 

Have you seen this play out in your organisation?

 

Where have promotions worked, and where have they fallen short? Drop your experience in the comments.

 

Link to the AHRI research.

Maslow worked this out long before any of us could even spell “Artificial Intelligence”!

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Everyone is talking about AI.

 

And yet, in the conversations I am having with HR professionals and people leaders, what comes up more than the technology itself is the anxiety sitting underneath it.

 

The people I talk to generally have mixed feelings. They see AI as a tool that can help them get stuff done, but at the same time, they are really worried about what it means for their job, their role, and their family.

 

And honestly, that worry makes complete sense.

 

About one in four leaders say the push to implement AI is already stressing out their staff.

 

More than half of employees feel left behind when it comes to AI skills and say they are not getting enough direction or support from their leaders.

 

That is not a technology gap. That is a people gap.

 

Recent studies tell us that in organisations investing in AI, the strongest predictor of whether employees actually embrace and use it is not the software or the rollout plan.

 

It is whether their direct manager backs it and gets behind it.

 

The manager.

 

Which brings us to something I keep coming back to.

 

People do not resist technology because they are not capable. They resist it because nobody has taken the time to sit with them and explain what it actually means for their role, their future, and their mortgage.

 

Maslow worked this out long before any of us could even spell “Artificial Intelligence”.

 

People need to feel safe before they can grow. AI adoption is no different. Until leaders address those very human concerns around security and belonging, no amount of technology investment will move the needle.

 

This is a brilliant opportunity for people leaders. Because the skills needed to navigate this moment, empathy, self-awareness, and the ability to bring people with you through uncertainty, are skills that you can’t download. You have to develop them.

 

And these are skills we can identify, develop, and support through the right assessments.

 

The organisations that get AI right will not necessarily be the big ones with the deepest pockets. They will be the ones whose leaders understand their people well enough and have the skills to bring them on the journey.

 

What is your experience? Are your people getting into AI, or quietly hoping it passes them by?

 

I would genuinely love to hear your thoughts in the comments.