5 Warning Signs Your Team Is Just Going Through the Motions (And What To Do About It)
By Rahul Khaare | Growth & Leadership Performance Consultant
The Silent Epidemic of Workplace Disengagement
Last year, I was brought into a mid-sized financial services firm to assess why their once-high-performing team was missing targets. On paper, everything looked fine—projects were delivered on time, KPIs were met, and attrition was low.
But something was off.
During a strategy session, I asked a simple question: "What’s one thing we could do differently to improve results?" The room fell silent. Then came the rehearsed answers—polished, safe, and utterly uninspired.
That’s when I realized: This wasn’t a team. This was a group of highly skilled professionals on autopilot.
They weren’t failing. But they weren’t excelling either. And in today’s competitive landscape, that’s a dangerous place to be.
Why "Good Enough" Isn’t Good Enough Anymore
Research from Gallup shows that 85% of employees worldwide are disengaged at work. Even more alarming? Many leaders don’t recognize the problem because disguised disengagement often looks like steady performance.
Teams in this state complete tasks, hit baseline targets, and avoid drama—but they’ve lost the spark that drives real growth. The cost?
Missed revenue opportunities (Bain & Company found engaged teams grow revenue 2.5x faster)
Erosion of innovation (A Stanford study links autopilot work to 37% slower decision-making)
Quiet attrition (Top performers leave first; LinkedIn data shows lack of growth is the #1 reason)
So how do you spot this before it’s too late?
5 Signs Your Team Is Just Going Through the Motions
1. Meetings Have Become Echo Chambers
You know the drill: the same people speak. The same objections are raised. The same "solutions" are recycled.
I recently observed a leadership team spend 45 minutes debating a pricing strategy—only to default to last year’s model. When I asked why, one VP admitted: "It’s easier than rocking the boat."
What’s really happening:
Fear of conflict has replaced critical thinking
Psychological safety is lacking (Google’s Project Aristotle found this is the #1 trait of high-performing teams)
People are conserving energy instead of investing it
2. No One Brings New Ideas to the Table
In a healthy team, 10-20% of discussions should revolve around "What if we tried…?"
But when I audited one company’s innovation pipeline, I discovered a startling pattern: 87% of "new" initiatives were minor iterations of old ones.
What’s really happening:
Reward systems favor execution over creativity (MIT Sloan research shows this stifles innovation)
Employees don’t believe leadership will act on suggestions (A Harvard study found 70% of ideas die in middle management)
Cognitive laziness sets in after 18 months in the same role (NeuroLeadership Institute data)
3. Problems Get Solved—But (Almost) Never Prevented
Autopilot teams are reaction machines. They fix issues as they arise but rarely ask: "How do we stop this from happening again?"
At a manufacturing client, quality defects were running at 12%—triple the industry average. The team had become expert at rework but had never analyzed root causes.
What’s really happening:
Short-term thinking dominates (A Gartner study links this to 44% lower profitability)
Continuous improvement muscles atrophy
Band-Aid solutions create compounding inefficiencies
4. Feedback Loops Have Dried Up
When was the last time someone on your team:
Asked for developmental feedback?
Challenged a long-held assumption?
Admitted they didn’t know something?
In a recent leadership assessment, I found that 62% of managers couldn’t recall the last time a direct report genuinely sought growth feedback.
What’s really happening:
Learning has become optional rather than imperative
Fixed mindsets replace growth mindsets (Stanford’s Carol Dweck shows this cuts potential by 40%)
People equate experience with expertise
5. Your Top Performers Are Getting Bored
High achievers don’t disengage abruptly. They first try to make the work more challenging—taking on side projects, mentoring colleagues, or proposing improvements.
When these efforts get ignored (as they do in 68% of cases, per McKinsey), they eventually stop trying.
I’ll never forget when a star software engineer told me: "I used to fix problems before they were assigned. Now I wait to be told."
What’s really happening:
Leadership fails to recognize and harness intrinsic motivation
Growth trajectories flatten
The most valuable employees become flight risks
Breaking the Cycle: From Motion to Momentum
The path from disengagement to high performance isn’t about working harder—it’s about working differently. Small, intentional shifts in how we lead and collaborate can reignite energy and purpose across teams.
1. Replace "How" Questions with "Why" Questions
Shifting from execution-focused to purpose-driven dialogue surfaces outdated assumptions and unlocks creative solutions. When a sales team I coached started asking "Why are these our targets?" instead of just "How do we hit them?", they uncovered misaligned incentives and redesigned their approach—leading to a 22% productivity increase.
2. Institutionalize Dissent
Great ideas often emerge from constructive conflict. By making it safe to challenge the status quo—through structured debate formats or rewarding well-reasoned objections—you create a culture where the best ideas win. One tech company saw a 30% improvement in decision quality after implementing "devil’s advocate" rotations in leadership meetings.
3. Create "Permissionless Innovation" Zones
When people have space to experiment without bureaucratic hurdles, engagement and innovation flourish. A financial services client allocated 10% time for employees to solve cross-functional problems, resulting in two process improvements that saved 1,200 hours annually.
4. Measure What Matters
What gets measured gets managed. By tracking leading indicators of engagement—like initiative taken, problems prevented, and skills developed—you reinforce the behaviors that drive real impact. A logistics team that added "preventive solutions implemented" to their KPIs reduced errors by 31% in six months.
5. Rekindle the Hunger
Connecting daily work to meaningful outcomes transforms tasks into missions. When a marketing team started framing campaigns as "helping X customers achieve Y" rather than just "hitting metrics," their creativity and results improved dramatically.
The Opportunity Ahead
What I’ve learned from working with dozens of organizations is this: the difference between a team that’s going through the motions and one that’s firing on all cylinders isn’t talent or resources—it’s awakening the potential that’s already there.
The most forward-thinking leaders are proving every day that it’s possible to:
Transform meeting rooms into idea factories
Turn high-potential employees into true innovators
Replace complacency with continuous growth
This isn’t about fixing a broken team—it’s about unleashing the extraordinary team that’s been hidden beneath layers of routine and outdated systems.
The organizations that will thrive in the coming decade aren’t those with the most sophisticated AI or the most efficient processes—they’re the ones that figure out how to keep their people brilliantly, passionately human.
And that transformation starts with a simple realization: Your team isn’t disengaged. They’re waiting to be re-engaged.
Rahul Khaare helps leaders transform disengaged teams into high-growth cultures. His workshops combine behavioral science with practical strategy to reignite performance.
