Local Government and Organisations
Unlock Team Performance by Understanding Domino Derailers
Ever noticed how one person’s behaviour can change the mood of an entire team? That’s the Domino Effect in action.
When people are under pressure, even well-intentioned behaviours can shift – disrupting communication, draining energy, and lowering productivity. These aren’t quirks. They’re predictable reactions to stress – and they’re manageable, with the right insight.
What Are Domino Derailers?
Domino Derailers are stress-driven behaviours that can trigger a chain reaction across a team. A single moment of reactivity can create ripples that affect trust, morale, and decision-making.
These hidden behaviours often go unnoticed until they’ve already taken a toll. Recognising them early helps leaders intervene before the entire sequence unfolds—preserving cohesion and performance.
Why Domino Derailers Matter
✔ Disrupted communication
✔ Lost productivity
✔ Unspoken tension
✔ Stalled decisions
✔ Higher turnover
Strong teams aren’t left to chance. They’re built through behavioural insight, structured support, and honest conversations.
What Do Domino Derailers Look Like?
Domino Derailers show up in different ways depending on the person and context. Here are four common patterns:
The Confident Expert
Strength: Confident, assertive, self-assured
Under stress: Becomes dismissive, inflexible, resistant to feedback
Confidence helps leaders make decisions and project certainty. But under pressure, it can tip into overconfidence—where input from others is ignored and adaptability takes a back seat.
The Considerate Colleague
Strength: Supportive, diplomatic, people-focused
Under stress: Becomes hesitant, conflict-avoidant, indecisive
Keeping the peace can be valuable – until it means avoiding tough conversations altogether. Over time, that avoidance undermines clarity and momentum.
The High Performer
Strength: Ambitious, driven, committed
Under stress: Becomes overcommitted, reactive, unable to delegate
Drive is valuable—but when pressure mounts, it can lead to burnout and bottlenecks. Tasks pile up, trust breaks down, and performance suffers.
The Detail Specialist
Strength: Precise, thorough, quality-focused
Under stress: Becomes perfectionistic, inflexible, focused on minutiae
High standards matter. But when perfectionism delays delivery and overwhelms teams, it becomes a barrier instead of a strength.
We help teams recognise when strengths begin to shift into derailers- using Hogan tools to understand patterns early and respond constructively.
The Hogan Difference
We use Hogan assessments to help leadership teams:
- Spot the early signs of derailment
- Intervene constructively with informed insight
- Build long-term team resilience
Our work reveals what’s going on beneath the surface – so teams can take deliberate action and respond more constructively under pressure.
Before Hogan:
After Hogan:
What to Expect
Every council is different, so we adapt our approach to suit your context and needs. That said, our process is always structured and clearly communicated.
Our Domino Derailers programme is led by Christine Georgiadis, People and Performance Consultant at LG Services Group. Christine brings deep expertise in leadership development, team dynamics, and behavioural assessment. She works closely with councils to turn insight into action—helping teams respond more constructively under pressure and build long-term capability.
Our Approach
Want to improve communication, trust and resilience in your team?
We’ll help you identify derailers early -and build practical strategies to manage them.
