How Consulting Leaders Turn Around Underperformance on Client Engagements
Underperformance on client engagements can derail even the most promising consulting projects. When team members struggle to deliver results, leaders need practical strategies to course-correct quickly without damaging morale or client relationships. Drawing on proven methods from experienced consulting executives, this article outlines six specific interventions that help managers identify root causes, rebuild confidence, and restore strong performance on active engagements.
Narrow Scope and Pair With Mentor
From the perspective of leadership in corporate training and consulting, underperformance during a live client engagement is rarely addressed through public correction or escalation. The most effective approach often begins with identifying whether the issue stems from capability gaps, burnout, unclear expectations, or role mismatch. According to a Gallup study, employees who receive meaningful feedback and coaching are nearly four times more likely to stay engaged and improve performance. In one enterprise engagement, a consultant struggled with stakeholder communication and delivery timelines, creating visible friction within the project team. Instead of replacing the consultant immediately, responsibilities were temporarily narrowed to areas of technical strength while pairing the individual with a senior mentor for structured daily feedback and client-facing rehearsal sessions. Transparent internal alignment helped stabilize the team, while the client continued receiving consistent updates and deliverables without disruption. Within a few weeks, confidence and delivery quality improved significantly, and trust remained intact because the focus stayed on accountability, support, and continuity rather than blame. As CEO of Edstellar, one recurring observation across enterprise teams is that performance recovery happens faster when leaders respond with clarity and coaching instead of reactive decisions that create uncertainty for both clients and employees.
Rehearse Updates Ahead of Calls
I started coaching our consultant in private before any client calls. It took a bit to figure out, but we'd run through their updates together. For one plastic surgery client, we practiced the CRM campaign results, making sure to highlight the big wins. This kind of rehearsal made their updates sharper and stopped the client from worrying. It just built everyone's confidence from the inside out.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
Redesign Workflow Together Then Empower
One of my consultants was stuck on a client project. Instead of a one-on-one feedback talk, I sat down with him and we just rethought the entire workflow. Then I had him present the new way to the team. He was a different person after that. The client saw the improvement, and he started leading the work. It works so much better to make it a challenge you solve together, not a critique.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
Add Weekly Risk Checks
I fired someone mid-client-engagement once and the client never knew until months later. That's not the move I'm proud of - what I learned from that disaster is what actually matters.
We had a fulfillment operations consultant who kept missing SLA reports for a major beauty brand. The client was already nervous because they'd switched from another 3PL that had screwed them over. My instinct was to pull him immediately, but that would've meant introducing someone new right when trust was fragile.
Instead, I did something that felt counterintuitive. I moved him to a shadow role and put our best person as the new lead, but I kept him visible on calls for two weeks during the transition. The client thought it was a natural handoff to "bring in our senior strategist for the growth phase." Meanwhile, I was having daily one-on-ones with the underperformer to figure out what broke. Turns out he was drowning in three other projects I didn't know about because he was afraid to say no.
The step that actually turned it around wasn't about him though. I implemented a rule I still use: every client engagement has a weekly fifteen-minute internal sync where the team lead answers two questions. What's working? What's about to break? No agenda, no presentation, just talking. That beauty brand ended up staying with us for three years and growing their volume 4x.
The underperformer? He became one of our best people once we got him focused on two accounts instead of five. He just needed permission to be honest about capacity before things went sideways.
Most performance issues aren't about talent. They're about a leader not creating space for someone to say "I'm underwater" before the client notices. The fix isn't always removing someone - it's usually removing the conditions that made them fail in the first place. But you've got to move fast and never let the client feel the turbulence.
Join Sessions and Debrief Privately
At Sunny Glen Children's Home, we don't run typical consulting engagements, but we do bring in outside specialists, trauma therapists, educational consultants, behavioral health contractors, who work directly with our kids and staff. When one underperforms, the stakes aren't a missed deliverable; it's a child's progress. So I've learned to move fast but quietly.
The step that consistently turns things around is what I call a "shadow reset." Instead of pulling the underperformer aside with a list of complaints, I schedule myself into their next session or meeting as a co-facilitator, framed to the client and team as added support, not oversight. This lets me see exactly where the gap is, skill, confidence, fit, or communication, without anyone feeling ambushed. Nine times out of ten, the consultant knows they're struggling and is relieved someone stepped in shoulder-to-shoulder rather than over their head.
After the session, I debrief privately. I lead with what I observed working, then ask them to self-assess. That conversation is almost always more honest than any formal review, because they don't feel cornered. We agree on one or two concrete adjustments for the next interaction, and I stay close enough to reinforce them in real time.
For the client, I never frame it as a problem being fixed. I frame it as our team deepening engagement on their case. That preserves trust because, from their seat, they're getting more attention, not less competence.
The biggest lesson from years in residential care is that performance issues are rarely about laziness, they're about overwhelm, unclear expectations, or mismatched strengths. Treating the consultant the way we'd treat one of our own staff members, with directness wrapped in dignity, almost always restores both performance and the relationship. Public correction breaks people; private partnership rebuilds them, and the client only sees a stronger team.
Quietly Upgrade Point Person
When a member of my team needs to get over the hump with a client project, I quietly make a switch. Put our senior strategist on the calls and bump the other person to invisible work. Then I just motion to the client that a little additional authority has been added to the account.
It keeps things low-key and the team member gets to recalibrate. Key is to always say it's an upgrade, never a patch.
If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to my personal email
