My favourite sport is basketball.
When I was younger, I mostly paid attention to the best players. I followed their stats, their highlights, and their careers.
As I got older and became a “professional office employee”, what I paid attention to during the games slightly changed. The players were still interesting, but the coaches became much more fascinating.
How they managed egos. How they built systems. How they made teams actually work.
One of my favourite coaches is Phil Jackson. In his book Eleven Rings he talks about a pattern that shows up in sports all the time. A player can be a star on one team, but then struggle badly after joining another.
On paper it makes no sense. The talent and the experience is all the same. Yet the results are completely different.
This happens in the corporate world too.
The Star Who Suddenly Struggles
In my corporate life I’ve seen plenty of reorganizations.
Teams merged together. Well functioning teams broken apart. New hires brought in. Internal transfers between departments.
And too often the outcome looks something like this:
- A top performer transfers to another team and suddenly looks average.
- A company hires a highly praised “industry star” who never quite delivers.
- A brilliant individual contributor becomes a mediocre manager.
The explanations I usually hear focus on the person.
“They weren’t as good as we thought.”
“They lost motivation.”
“They couldn’t handle the pressure.”
And sometimes that’s true. But often the real reason is much simpler. The change of environment.
Why This Happens
When someone moves to a new team, the environment changes in ways that aren’t always obvious.
The role might look the same on paper, but expectations are often different. What the person owns, how much they are expected to lead, and how much they need to coordinate with others can all shift.
The system changes too. Every team develops its own way of working. Things like decision processes, communication habits, and plenty of unwritten rules. Someone who was highly effective in one system suddenly has to relearn how things actually get done.
And then there is team chemistry. Teams are social systems with their own histories and personalities. Newcomers need time to understand who influences decisions, where tensions exist, and how collaboration really works.
Until they figure that out, even strong performers are operating partly blind.
What Managers Can Do
The worst you can do is assume that because someone succeeded elsewhere, they should immediately succeed here.
So don’t just step back and let the person “run”.
Instead start by resetting the expectations. Success in the previous role is irrelevant. What matters is what success looks like here.
Be explicit about priorities, responsibilities, and boundaries.
Also, give people time to understand the system. New hires and newly promoted employees are not fully productive on day one.
They need time to understand how decisions get made, how work flows, and where the real constraints are.
And make sure to introduce the team dynamics. Who owns what. Who needs to be consulted. Where collaboration tends to break down.
The faster someone understands the human side of the team, the faster they become effective.
Bottom Line
In sports, when a star player struggles after a transfer, commentators usually talk about “fit”.
In companies, we too often assume that talent should work everywhere.
But roles are different. Teams are different. Systems are different.
Sometimes the person didn’t change.
The environment did.
The best teams I’ve managed (and the best teams I’ve worked in) weren’t built by collecting the most impressive people.
They worked because the pieces actually fit together.
See you next week.
- - Good Enough