Dealing With Poor Performance

Whether you are a peer or a manager of someone who isn’t doing their job (or parts of their job), we have all experienced a poor performer. I’ve worked with clients struggling with addressing poor performance because the employee has been with the organization a long time, or they are a family member of the owner, or they are a high producer. They are reluctant to confront the poor performing employee because they don’t want to upset the apple cart. Or, more specifically, they don’t want the conflict.

It’s Not Okay

The big message here is that “you get what you tolerate”. When avoiding a performance issue in your organization it tells everyone else that you are not willing to address the issue and that you will tolerate poor performance. Other employees know when there is a performance issue and they are waiting for you to address it.

You get what you tolerate.

“Can’t I Just Wait It Out?”

The longer you wait the more the problem grows and your influence as a leader suffers. You must address the situation as soon as you become aware. Time never makes the conversation easier. The only way to make the conversation as easy as possible is to address the performance immediately.

In each case, my clients did not like confrontation (who does?) and waited to talk with the employee. They thought that maybe the situation will correct itself. It rarely does.

Ask Questions

If you address a performance issue on your team, accept that waiting does not make the conversation easier. Ask your employee questions about their performance. Ask how do they think they are doing? Be specific asking how they think they are doing with the performance of a task or a part of their role.

Help

Hopefully, they know they could do better and acknowledge they are not performing as well as they could be. If so, ask them what they need from you to improve and provide them what they need. As their supervisor, that is your job (remove obstacles to your employee’s performance).

What Do You Expect?

If they don’t acknowledge that they are not performing as well as they could, let them know that you feel that they could do better and give specific examples. It is important that you are clear about your expectations. Part of your expectation is the description of performance that you just described.

People Are Good

You are addressing the performance and not the person. The person is good. It is the performance that needs improving.

Most people want to do a good job.

Share Your Experience

When have you had to address a performance issue?
What did you do to correct or improve performance?