performance problems - Lisa D. Foster, Leadership Coaching & Training

two people working together as an image of senior leadership effectiveness

Why Senior Leadership Is a Team Sport

February 11, 2026

Senior leadership effectiveness depends less on individual capability and more on how work is shared and sustained. For much of a leadership career, success is built on personal capability. You learn fast.You take responsibility.You solve problems. That identity—the person who gets things done—is often what earns leaders their first big opportunities. At senior levels, however, that same strength can quietly hold you back — because senior leadership effectiveness depends less on individual capability and more on how work is shared…

A team building good leadership relationships

The Relationship Layer Most Capable Leaders Undervalue

February 6, 2026

Alignment and Effective 1:1s

Many leadership challenges that appear strategic or operational actually have their roots in leadership relationships. At senior levels, leadership stops being primarily about execution and starts being about relationships. Not relationships in the social sense.Not networking.Not politics. But the quality of working relationships that determine whether influence flows, trust holds under pressure, and decisions actually move groups forward. Many capable leaders underestimate this layer—not because they don’t value people, but because earlier success rarely depended on it. Key Takeaways: Why…

A smoking tire as a symbol of leadership friction

The Hidden Cost of Leadership Friction (And Why It Rarely Shows Up in Metrics)

January 28, 2026

Motivation and a Culture of Performance

Leadership friction is the hidden drag created when leadership systems, signals, and habits make it harder for people to do their best work — even when they’re capable, committed, and trying. If leadership friction were obvious, most organizations would have fixed it by now. But it’s not. Low performance becomes normalized when leaders emphasize values that crowd out quality. Priorities like speed, meeting deadlines, office politics, or surface-level agreement can quietly shift attention from excellence to compliance. The impacts become…

A tug-of-war as a symbol of leaders create resistance

Why Strong Leaders Create Resistance Without Realizing It

January 26, 2026

Trust and Building Teams

Inadvertently, leaders create resistance when they focus too much on the work and not enough on the people doing the work. When leaders create resistance, upper management gets worried. For example, a CFO I worked with was referred to me by her CEO because employee satisfaction on her team was low and the error rate was too high. In our first conversation, she explained that she had spent the last two years improving processes: creating documentation, better record keeping, clarifying…

manager giving effective feedback in the moment

Effective Feedback: How Great Managers Help Their Teams Grow

December 3, 2025

Motivation and a Culture of Performance

If you want to give your team effective feedback that actually helps them grow, focus on making it future-forward, specific, and frequent. Most of us have negative experiences with feedback—criticism that felt harsh, vague, or demotivating. No wonder so many managers hesitate to offer it. But here’s the good news: research shows that when people receive meaningful employee feedback, they learn faster, perform better, and stay more engaged. So, the question becomes: How can we make giving feedback a positive,…

aigned rowers as an image of team alignment at work

Team Alignment: How To Build Better Teams and Exceed Expectations

September 29, 2025

Alignment and Effective 1:1s

When leaders build trust, demonstrate confidence, and practice empathy, team alignment becomes possible. Team alignment is what happens when everyone is working to achieve common goals with the least possible amount of friction. The result: great teams that pull together to exceed expectations. There is no wasted energy protecting turf, fighting internal battles, or advancing personal agendas. Instead, everyone is working hard and enjoying group success. Key Takeaways Team alignment drives performance. Here’s what matters most: Alignment at Work is…