Strengthening Leadership Teams when you didn’t choose the Team

Across the sector their have been many mergers and acquisitions and one of the most consistent conversations I have is around inherited poor performers.  Teams have been rebuilt with individuals who have arrived through mergers, acquisitions or organisational restructuring, and who are now sitting in critical roles without the capability, pace or behaviours the current environment requires.  This is also often a problem that new leaders face when they inherit a team, it is rare that the team is high performing with no “weak links”.

This edition looks at why inherited underperformance is so difficult to resolve, what leaders can do to address it, and how the recruitment decisions made now will determine whether organisations carry this cost forward or break the cycle.

1. Why Mergers create underperformance that lingers

When organisations merge, they inherit:

• legacy structures,

• legacy behaviours,

• legacy expectations,

• and legacy performance standards.

People who were “fine” in one environment suddenly become misaligned in another and able to perform in the new organisation.

The problem is that inherited underperformance takes a while to assess. It shows up in:

• slow decision‑making,

• inconsistent delivery,

• weak ownership,

• cultural drag,

• and teams who are compensating for capability gaps.

By the time leaders see it clearly, it has already impacted the numbers as there is often the assumption that they will perform as they did in their previous world.

2. Why This Is Hard for Executive Leaders to Fix

Inherited poor performers are difficult to address because:

• they were not hired by the current leadership,

• expectations were never reset post‑merger,

• capability was assumed rather than assessed,

• and cultural fit was never tested against the new environment.

Leaders often feel constrained by history, loyalty, or the complexity of restructuring, and the result is that underperformance becomes embedded rather than resolved.  There is also a hope that they will get there as there will be people within the business saying that they can do the role.

This is where external support becomes essential, not to “remove” people, but to help leaders understand whether capability can be developed, repositioned or replaced.

3. What Leaders Can Do Now

There are three actions that consistently create clarity:

Reset expectations (quickly)

Inherited performers often operate to old standards. Leaders need to articulate what “good” looks like now, not historically. Document these conversations, it speeds the process up later down the line should you need it.

Assess capability against the current environment

Forget about the past, this needs to focus on their performance against the pace, complexity and expectations of the organisation today.

Make decisions early

Underperformance rarely improves without intervention. Leaders who act decisively protect culture, pace and credibility.

These steps are simple, but they require discipline and objectivity which is why many organisations bring in external support to ensure the assessment is fair, accurate and aligned with the leadership environment.

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4. How We Help Leaders Resolve Inherited Underperformance

We support leadership teams by:

• resetting the definition of “good” for the role so leaders can assess inherited performers against the right benchmark,

• identifying whether underperformance is due to unclear expectations or genuine capability misalignment,

• advising on repositioning, development or replacement,

• strengthening leadership teams through targeted search,

• and ensuring new hires are aligned with the culture you are building, not the culture you inherited.

This is also where our Senior Role Clarity Framework is a useful tool because without clarity of that role is, leaders cannot assess fairly and cannot hire effectively.

5. Breaking the Cycle: Hiring Well After a Merger

The most effective way to stop inherited underperformance from repeating is to hire with precision.

That means:

• deep understanding of the role,

• clear expectations,

• cultural fit assessed properly,

• leadership behaviours tested,

• and a search partner who represents your environment accurately.

This is where partnership matters, to ensure the best people are joining the team who are right for the business that is being built. Not just employing someone to put a bum on a seat, that will create a bigger headache further down the line.

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A Closing Observation

‍Inherited underperformance can feel like it is a problem that has to be endured, however in reality, it is a leadership test that identifies strong leaders who deal with it and raise the bar of their team.

‍If you want support assessing inherited performers or strengthening your leadership bench post‑merger, I’m always happy to talk it through.  Click here to book a short call with me.

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