Pole lacking in energy to make side (4)
I believe the answer is:
team
'side' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'pole lacking in energy' is the wordplay.
'pole' becomes 's'.
'lacking in' indicates named letters should be taken away.
'energy' becomes 'steam' (I've seen this before).
'steam' with 's' taken away is 'TEAM'.
'to make' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for team that I've seen before include "Company" , "People working together" , "Mate for a group of players" , "Group pulling together" , "(Football) side" .)