Your Delivery Team Might Be Killing Your Recompete—And They Don’t Even Know It

Most small GovCon firms put everything they’ve got into winning the work. The proposal gets weeks of attention. Pink teams, red teams, ghosting strategies, SME reviews. All hands on deck.

But after the award? That’s where the cracks usually start. And no one notices them until the recompete is already in sight.

The truth is, delivery performance is the quiet killer in many recompetes. Not because the team isn’t working hard, but because they’re not being managed in a way that supports the next win.

What Goes Wrong

It usually starts with something small. A missed report. A COR who keeps asking for updates outside the contract’s structure. A new team lead who was promoted because they were reliable, not because they were trained to lead.

Over time, those issues add up.

The government stops viewing your team as proactive.

Small compliance slips become patterns.

You find yourself reacting to every email instead of managing performance on your terms.

None of this shows up in a BD pipeline slide, but it shows up where it matters — in the government’s memory. And when it’s time for them to justify keeping you on contract, that memory matters more than your past performance write-up.

Good Work Isn’t Always Enough

Most GovCon companies assume that as long as the team is doing solid work, they’re in a good position. But federal clients don’t always reward competence alone. They reward ease, responsiveness, and trust.

If your team makes things feel harder, even unintentionally, that weighs heavily when acquisition starts looking at options.

Sometimes it’s not the work product that’s the problem. It’s messy check-ins. Confusing spend plans. Team members who are technically sharp but hard to follow. Delivery leads who don’t understand what the COR actually wants from them.

When that happens, the government starts looking at competitors. Not because they’re cheaper, but because they seem easier to work with.

The Leadership Gap No One Talks About

This is the uncomfortable part. A lot of delivery leads in federal contracting were promoted because they were dependable. They knew the work. They didn’t cause problems.

But no one really trained them to run meetings, prepare burn reports, or manage performance metrics that align with the contract.

They’re not bad people. They’re just unsupported.

And when that happens, performance drifts. Not enough to trigger a stop-work. Just enough to be remembered when the recompete comes up.

Recompete Starts on Day One

Most folks think about recompete as a 90-day sprint. But if you ask the people who’ve won and lost them, they’ll tell you it was locked in far earlier.

The government starts forming their opinion long before they release a draft RFP. They notice how well your team communicates. How quickly you fix things. How aligned you are with contract expectations.

That perception builds over time. Mostly from the delivery team. Not your BD lead.

So if your delivery folks are scrambling, silent, or just getting by, your recompete odds are already slipping.

It’s Not About Blame. It’s About Visibility.

This isn’t about throwing your delivery team under the bus. It’s about recognizing that good people still need real guidance. Especially in environments where the rules are written one way, but the day-to-day expectations shift constantly.

If you don’t give your team visibility into how their work affects long-term positioning, they’ll focus on what’s in front of them. And that’s usually task orders, deadlines, and inboxes. Not strategic delivery.

But the government is watching more than that. They’re watching how the team carries the work. Not just what gets turned in.

And when it’s time for them to decide if they want you back, those details will carry more weight than you think.