Why You're Training Your Team to Underperform (And How to Stop)

Most leaders think their team has a performance problem.

They don't. They have a reinforcement problem.

In this episode, Tom Foxley breaks down a real coaching case — a business owner whose team kept falling short of the standards he expected. Tasks not done. Gym floor not cleaned. Google reviews not chased. And every time, he stepped in and picked up the slack.

What looked like a team problem was actually a system problem. And he'd built the system.

Tom unpacks the Child Effects Model — the psychological loop that explains how leadership cultures form without anyone consciously choosing them — and makes the case for why the halftime team talk style of leadership actively suppresses the performance it's trying to produce.

He also shares two stories that reframe how most leaders think about recognition: one from a weightlifting gym, and one from a military  stalking exercise — both of which show why public praise is one of the most underused performance tools in business.

Topics covered:
- The Child Effects Model — how you accidentally trained your team to underperform
- Why criticism suppresses performance and praise compounds it
- The shaping principle — rewarding steps toward the standard, not just the standard
- Criticise privately. Praise publicly. What that actually looks like.
- One thing to hand back to your team this week — and not pick back up