Why Great People Still Struggle After an Award, And What to Do About It

In a lot of small and mid-sized GovCon firms, promotions happen out of necessity. A strong analyst steps up. A dependable consultant takes on more responsibility. Before long, they’re managing a task order or leading a team.

These are smart, capable people. They’re the ones who always delivered. The ones who never missed a deadline. The ones you could rely on to get the work done without handholding.

But once the contract is awarded and the work shifts from execution to leadership, even the best people start to struggle.

It’s not because they’re failing. It’s because they were never shown what success actually looks like once you’re responsible for more than your own tasks.

Post-Award Is a Different Game

The minute a contract is awarded, expectations change. The client is watching. The COR starts showing up in inboxes. Burn reports and performance metrics suddenly matter more than the quality of individual work.

That’s when people who were rock solid as individual contributors begin to wobble.

They don’t always know how to lead check-ins.
They’re not sure what the COR expects from them.
They don’t feel comfortable managing peers.
They aren’t tracking hours the way they should be.

None of this is about intelligence or work ethic. It’s about context. The game changed, but no one taught them the new rules.

The Risk Isn’t Just Internal

When a delivery lead struggles quietly, it affects more than just their team. It impacts the client’s perception of your company. It changes how the government views your reliability. And in federal contracting, perception often carries more weight than reality.

If the COR feels uncertain, it doesn’t matter how technically strong your deliverables are. If the spend plan gets behind or updates are confusing, the government starts seeing risk. Even if nothing is technically wrong, you’re no longer the easy choice when recompete season comes around.

This is how good companies lose follow-on work. Not because of poor performance, but because of inconsistent delivery leadership that no one noticed in time.

You Can’t Coach What You’ve Never Taught

A lot of senior leaders assume people will figure it out. That they’ll pick it up by doing. That may work in commercial consulting or tech startups. It doesn’t hold up in GovCon.

Federal clients expect clarity, structure, and predictability. And those expectations are aimed directly at your delivery team.

But if the people in those roles never learned how to manage government expectations, they’ll keep reacting instead of leading. They’ll keep guessing instead of owning it.

That’s not fair to them. And it’s not sustainable for your business.

What’s Actually Missing

It’s not technical skill. They already have that.

What’s missing is guidance around:

• How to prepare for COR check-ins

• What a clean burn report should look like

• How to escalate without sounding defensive

• How to lead people they used to work beside

• What the client sees as a red flag, even if it’s unintentional

These are all learnable. But not by accident. Not through trial and error. Not when every misstep reflects back on the company.

No One Wants to Admit It

Most managers won’t say they’re in over their head. They’ll nod on calls, take notes, and try to piece it together later. By the time you realize they’re underwater, the damage is already showing up in performance meetings or client feedback.

It’s easy to assume everything’s fine because nothing exploded. But in GovCon, the small signals matter. And when a manager doesn’t feel confident, those signals add up quickly.