Yesterday, we talked about a new Team Lead who chose to wipe the slate clean. They’d inherited a performance issue.
The evidence was clear. The patterns were familiar.
But instead of carrying that history forward, they offered a fresh start.
They made space for the team member to prove themselves in the present, not the past. But there’s one final lesson in all this, maybe the most important one. The bar can’t live in the Team Lead. It has to live in the team. Because the strongest teams don’t just wait for their manager to speak up.
They notice. They care. They say something. And they say it before the missed expectation becomes a pattern.
Before frustration turns into resentment.
Before people start quietly working around someone instead of working with them. That’s what this new Team Lead is learning now:
Their job isn’t to enforce accountability from above.
It’s to create a culture where accountability lives between peers. And they’re in a unique position to do it.
They’ve seen what happens when concerns go unspoken—because they once stayed silent themselves.
Now, with the benefit of hindsight, they understand how important it is for teammates to speak up early.
Handled with care, a raised concern isn’t criticism—it’s a lifeline.
Often, the person already knows they’re struggling. Naming it, gently, can be a relief. Not a culture of blame.
Not a culture of “calling people out.”
But one where people speak the truth with care—because they believe in each other’s potential. You can feel it when you join a team like that.
There’s an energy to meet the goal.
A shared expectation of quality.
A sense that we do the work well, not just for ourselves, but for each other. That’s not hierarchy. That’s culture.
And once it’s there, it holds. When accountability lives in the team, the bar holds itself. You don’t need top-down pressure.
You just need people who believe in each other enough to say:
"I’ve noticed some obvious things are getting missed in development—what’s making it hard to catch them earlier?" It’s not blame.
It’s a door opening.
A conversation that says: I care about the work. And I care about you. Until next time,
Dermot
The Messy Middle ✉️ Enjoying The Messy Middle?
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