The Wellness Perspective — Employees who say they will do something… and then don’t

When directions are given, deadlines set, or objectives laid out, you’d expect that work will be done on time, and correctly, right?

But when employees promise action and then don’t follow through, it is deeply frustrating.

From supervisors, managers, and HR, the complaint often is: “I thought I was clear. We agreed on how and when it was going to get done. And then nothing. They keep making excuses."

Meanwhile, the deadline’s come and gone.

Some of the things you might have observed are:

🔴 Employees missing deadlines or delivering only partial work; sometimes of poor quality too.
🔴 Employees don’t ask questions or give you any updates, even though they don’t seem to be working on the project/task.
🔴 Employees avoiding the topic, or the workplace altogether.

While these behaviours can be discouraging, they often stem from deeper reasons.

On the surface, it might seem like the employee is lazy, disrespectful, unmotivated, or simply not committed to the role. That they just don’t care.

However, there are often deeper issues contributing to their struggle:

🌿 Low self-worth: Lack of clarity & fear of looking dumb
Sometimes instructions are given in a way that seems clear to the leader, but to the employee the expectations are vague, or crucial information is missing. Rather than ask for clarification (which might feel like admitting weakness), they go ahead half-prepared or they procrastinate. And if they do some of the work and things go wrong, they feel embarrassed or guilty, they pretend they know how to fix things, still hiding the fact they didn’t understand. They keep delivering poor results. It’s a nasty cycle where nobody wins.

🌿 Cognitive load, stress or personal issues
If someone is under significant stress, whether from work (tight deadlines, overload, unclear priorities) or from personal life (health, family, financial pressures), their nervous system is in “fight or fight” mode. Their capacity to think through tasks, plan, follow-through, to be creative and to remember instructions becomes compromised. They might intend to do something but get overwhelmed and stop, or deliver poor results.

🌿 Neurodivergence / Learning & processing differences
Neurodivergent employees (whether diagnosed or not) may process instructions differently, need more time, or need things to be broken into smaller steps. They may struggle with executive functions like planning, organising, working memory. If leaders don’t recognise or accommodate that, employees can feel like they’re failing, leading to more avoidance or procrastination.

🌿 Values misalignment & disengagement
If an employee doesn’t feel their work aligns with what matters to them (purpose, values, growth, meaning) they may not feel motivated to follow through - especially when tasks seem trivial, or the connection to bigger goals is unclear. They may also be mentally checked out, or even looking for another job, so self-leadership and performance suffer.

All of these deeper reasons can trigger what you see in the workplace: frustration, missed deadlines or sub-par work, broken trust, and growing disengagement. It can look like the employee is just inadequate for the role, but often they are stuck and they can get better if they get the support they need.

Coaching can address the root causes of these challenges by helping individuals surface what’s going on internally: unspoken doubts, overwhelm, misaligned values. It will also give them tools to navigate those barriers and start to perform better.

By providing clarity and strategies, coaching can help employees:

• Develop a way to understand expectations, to ask for clarification confidently, and to own the process from start to finish. To let go of their ego and focus on the objective of the task instead – the common goal.

• Manage stress, find tools and methods to prioritise, break tasks into manageable steps for them, and build momentum rather than getting stuck and procrastinate.

• Understand their own working / thinking style and develop personalised strategies to work effectively with it. Learn how to communicate their unique needs.

• Reconnect with purpose: see how their work contributes to something meaningful, align with organisational values, feel more engaged.

Here is how we do this in real life:

🎯 Boosting self-awareness with coaching and a range of assessments and build a personalised toolbox for growth and success.

🎯 Building a tailored stress prevention and management plan to build resilience. Support them in managing the workload and overwhelm, improve focus, and therefore reduce procrastination or avoidance and improve efficiency.

🎯 Understanding their unique personal working styles and values, so that people can ask for support in real time, change the way they work to accommodate their brain, and essentially feel more engaged, and own their commitments.

When employees follow through, when deadlines are met, when trust is intact, the whole team moves faster, more reliably, and with greater confidence. And of course, the business results are better.

Being proactive about understanding why people don’t do what they say they will is about building a culture of respect and communication.

It creates an environment where issues are surfaced early, support is given, and the potential of every team member is realised.

That leads to higher performance, more innovation, and less burnout and turnover.

As a starting point, organisations can:

1️. Train managers and leaders in communication clarity: encourage them to check for understanding (“Can you repeat back what you’ll be doing?”), set clear deadlines, define what “done” looks like.

2️. Provide access to coaching (and mental health support) so employees have a safe place to explore stressors, working style, and values.

3️. Increase awareness and understanding of neurodivergence and different learning or working styles.

Have you noticed employees saying “I’ll do it” but then falling short?

Remember it’s rarely out of disrespect, but rather out of overwhelm, lack of clarity, misalignment, or something deeper.

Coaching can bridge the gap between the surface problem and its root cause, unlocking solutions that create lasting change.

Let us help your people understand themselves better so they can work better.

👉 Learn more about how Cairns Coaching can support your workplace with The Wellness Blueprint Program, personal coaching packages and speaking.