Performance Management ~ Managing "Under-Performers"

Yesterday we talked about “Managing Superstars”, today we will focus our attention on “Managing Under-performers”.  What is the difference?  Aren’t we supposed to be consistent across the entire team? What caused the under-performance? Can it be remedied?  As I researched various papers on “Coaching” and “Managing” below average performance I came across a number of commonalities.  When I put everything together it basically came out to skill sets to do the job and the passion or enthusiasm that one has for their work.  If you as the manager did a good job in matching up the skill sets needed in the hiring process, the job at hand will be easier.  If it was a poor hire, lacking those abilities you have a uphill battle.  More on “Hiring” in a future blog, but let’s take a deeper dive into these two areas and come up with a plan to remedy the results.  

First of all, keep in mind that it is your job as manager to make sure that you are doing everything possible to help, assist and support your team.  Despite the fact that you may not have hired someone is not reason to “fail” that person.  As managers, we need to own up to the fact that “we” are responsible for our team’s results.  This is difficult but much needed to fully grasp the “good and bad” of management.  Nobody said that our job was easy or wasn’t at times stressful.  We need to be constantly examining what we could have done differently or better in our management skills to avoid similar failures in the future. 

I truly believe that with good coaching and leadership, setting achievable goals and using our resources wisely can change performance for the better.

Skill Sets to do the job

Re-define the skill sets that are needed to be successful.  The manner in which you do this is crucial to your outcomes.  Open discussions with the employee to gain better understanding of the “root cause” of the poor results.  Is it skill sets that need to be re-looked at and retrained?  Are valuable skills being ignored or underutilized? Assume nothing and seek to understand!

As it relates to key skill sets, always focus on the behavior and not the person.  Keep in mind that you are responsible to your team not for them.  The ultimate responsibility of management is to place people in a position where they can succeed.  Whether they choose to do so is a decision for them to bear responsibility for. It is our charge to make sure that people know that there are resources to help them if used appropriately.

Typical skill sets that will have impact on performance include: product knowledge, planning and organization, analysis, administration and individual skills required to do the job.  i.e. selling skills.  To avoid overwhelming an employee with a multitude of skill sets to improve upon, work sessions should be limited to only 1 – 2 areas.  On subsequent work sessions, follow-up on those previously discussed, if improvement is noted, document and move to another development area.  If no progress, document and remain on that skill set.

Enthusiasm, Motivation and Desire are more related to how the employee feels about himself and the environment that they work in.  Is it the environment? Has something changed at home? Why have they lost their desire? Look at yourself in the mirror – Are you the cause? Have you de-motivated them?

Ask yourself as manager if you are doing the following:

·         Are you being fair and consistent?

·         Do you focus on just the weakness and “forget” about the strengths?

·         Do you regularly recognize performance and contributions that your team is making?

·         Are you “walking your talk”?

·         Do you consistently interact with all of your people?  Work sessions with observations and discussion of goal-setting & skill development?

·         Are your expectations clear? 

·         Do your employees know what they need to do to improve?

·         Are you available to them for regular assessment?

·         Are you providing the necessary training and the resources needed for success?

·         Are you providing a supportive work environment?

As mentioned above in “skill set” section, it is important to remove opinions and emotions from any poor performance discussions, present facts and be respectful towards the employee at all times. Focus needs to remain on behavior and not be a personal attack.

Our ability as managers to uphold high standards and expectations is an essential management skill that often times can cause great anxiety and stress on both the employee and manager.  By utilizing some of these ideas, it is hopeful that we will be on our way to becoming better overall leaders.  The impact of poor performance is widespread and can quickly affect an entire team.  Top leaders master the essential skill of dealing with underperformance with the key being consistency and fairness at all times!  Always remember…Seek to Understand!