When Performance Problems Are Organizational Problems
The success of high-performance sport organizations depends on the people and systems within them.
When a team is losing, or an athlete struggles, technical skill is often the first place people look for a problem. But performance problems can also stem from how the organization functions.
Communication can break down between departments, and leaders may have different priorities. Roles may be unclear. Even a talented staff can struggle when people aren’t working from the same expectations.
When problems like these persist, organizational consulting can help leaders understand what is happening within the organization and what may be contributing to performance challenges.
Why Do Organizational Problems Affect Performance?
Athletic organizations are complex environments. Athletes, coaches, support staff, administrators, and senior leaders all play different roles while working toward shared goals. So how they all work together matters.
How people lead, communicate, support one another, and give feedback can affect how a team functions and performs. These areas can also provide useful starting points when leaders are trying to understand what may be affecting a team or support environment (Salcinovic et al., 2022).
Organizational culture also takes time and attention to change. Research involving Olympic and professional sport teams found that culture change requires ongoing evaluation, planning, leadership, and attention to the relationships among stakeholders (Cruickshank et al., 2014; Cruickshank et al., 2015).
For athletic organizations, recurring problems may be worth examining at the organizational level.
What Can Organizational Consulting Help Address?
Organizational consulting in sports can help leaders examine issues such as:
- Leadership alignment
- Communication
- Role clarity
- Team effectiveness
- Organizational culture
- Decision-making
- Succession planning
- Organizational change
The issue may affect one department or the organization as a whole. Understanding the scope of the problem can help leaders determine what may be contributing to it.
A problem that appears in one area may have causes elsewhere in the organization. What looks like unclear decision-making could point to a breakdown in communication. A conflict between departments could reflect competing priorities or unclear roles.
Looking beyond the visible problem helps leaders understand whether they are dealing with an isolated issue or something affecting how the organization functions more broadly.
How Can Organizations Identify What Is Really Causing the Problem?
Before deciding how to respond, leaders need to understand what is happening and where the problem is occurring.
Start by looking for patterns. Are the same problems showing up across teams or departments? Are decisions being delayed or revisited? Do people understand who is responsible for what? Are leaders communicating the same priorities?
These patterns can help reveal whether the issue is isolated to one person or team or reflects a broader organizational challenge.
From there, leaders can begin to identify what may be contributing to the problem and determine what type of response is appropriate.
When Does Development Need to Expand?
Once leaders understand the scope of the challenge, they can determine what type of support makes sense.
Some leadership challenges may center on one person. An athletic coach or leader working through a difficult leadership challenge may benefit from leadership coaching. Coaching provides focused support around their role and development.
Other challenges may involve a coaching staff or leadership group. Leadership development for coaches and athletic leaders can help groups build shared skills and strengthen how they work together.
Organizational problems require a wider lens.
When the same issues appear across departments or leadership teams, the problem may extend beyond one person or group. Organizational consulting examines the conditions contributing to the challenge and helps leaders determine what needs to be addressed.
The CMA Global Approach: Understanding, Alignment, and Application
At CMA Global, we help organizations better understand the people and systems that shape how they function. For over 50 years, our team of Ph.D.-level organizational psychologists has applied psychological science to leadership, team, and organizational challenges, including high-performance sport.
This means:
Understanding: We examine the people, relationships, and conditions contributing to the challenge.
Alignment: We help leaders build shared clarity around priorities, expectations, and decisions.
Application: We translate insight into practical actions that fit the organization’s environment.
CMA partners with organizations to address challenges involving leadership, team effectiveness, culture, succession, and organizational change. Our work is grounded in established science and informed by the latest research.
The Bottom Line
Performance problems can have organizational causes.
When issues continue across teams or departments, looking at individual performance alone may not explain what is happening.
Organizational consulting helps leaders examine the conditions affecting how people work together and how the organization functions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is organizational development in sports?
Organizational development in sports focuses on improving how people, teams, and systems function within a sports organization or athletic department. The work may address leadership, communication, culture, team effectiveness, role clarity, or organizational change.
What can organizational consulting help athletic departments address?
Organizational consulting can help athletic departments examine challenges involving leadership alignment, communication, culture, team dynamics, succession planning, organizational structure, and change.
How do you know if a performance problem is an organizational problem?
A broader organizational issue may be present when the same challenges continue across teams or departments, involve multiple leaders or groups, or persist after individual development efforts. Examining the organization’s relationships, systems, and conditions can help identify contributing factors.
What is the difference between organizational consulting, leadership coaching, and leadership development?
Leadership coaching focuses on an individual. Leadership development helps groups build shared skills and capabilities. Organizational consulting examines broader challenges involving the systems, relationships, structures, and conditions in which people work.
