Like every relationship, even the working ones experience positive and negative behaviours. Today we will focus on managing the negative aspects.
In work, as in life, not everything always goes well; it is essential not to be found unprepared in handling these situations.
Often the tendency is “not to disturb the social peace”, which unfortunately leads to a deterioration of the situation which can become irreparable.
At the same time is natural that you can be exhausted because when one of your direct reports fails to perform, you feel like you’ve done everything you can to help them improve, but you don’t notice significant progress.
When deciding how to proceed, it is important to start from a correct investigation: Is it better to go for the employee back? Terminate the contract? Move it? Is it the correct choice? Is it better to act quickly or wait? Who to confront? Who else should you consult? And what are the costs of delaying the decision? And can also happen that not all the answers are clear or drive a precise direction.
Deciding how to deal with these situations is for sure an emotionally difficult task. The decision is especially tricky when the person hasn’t broken any rules and isn’t underperforming clearly, but is missing targets on a continuous base and not meeting expectations. The most common mode of action is to think that perhaps this person will change and, therefore, you decide to wait. But delaying a decision is wrong. Your goal is to build a team that does great work and to do that you need productive and engaged employees: if one of them is not performing you need to face a difficult discussion. Here’s how to prepare it.
Take your time and analyse your perception
How do you go from having a negative perception to being sure of it? In all honesty, if you’re already thinking about bringing up the subject of non-performance with someone, that’s a sign to consider but needs a deep dive. In order to put rationality and “intuition”gut feeling” on the same frequency, think through a series of questions about how this person will contribute to your organisation’s future success: Is this person there? Would you like to hire that person?If the person told you they were leaving, how hard would you fight to retain?
Focus on the root cause
Does this person fully understand all of their responsibilities? Have they received enough training? Do you have a stake in the problem? Are expectations unclear? This process is not done in order to find a “guilty one” but understanding the reason for your employee’s underperformance is critical to determining how to address the problem. It may ultimately be nobody’s fault and simply relates to the impossibility to develop further.
Do some benchmarking
Solo introspection on these issues is a good start, but it can often lead to what is called a “confirmation bias” where you see everything this person does in a certain light. To verify your analysis, look for others advise but without directing them towards your ideas. Ask for their comments and see if they lighten the individual’s position. If they do, ask for specific, concrete examples of what the individual has or hasn’t done.
Involve the employee when you are ready
Before making a decision, you should, of course, have several conversations with the employee in question. Always allow the employee to maintain his dignity.
Once decided, don’t wait
Having made the decision and set the path, bring it to the conclusion as quickly as possible with the necessary actions.
