Leadership is very rewarding. Leadership is also very daunting because many times leaders must complete responsibilities that are not desirable nor exciting. One of the most difficult challenges, especially for a new leader or new business owner, is managing employee performance. It becomes even more overwhelming when the performance to manage is below minimum expectations. Managing poor performance is never a welcomed task but a very necessary one. The encouraging new is with the right knowledge and practice, it’s a skill that can be effectively mastered. It’s also a skill that will benefit you well along your journey as a leader.
Here are a few performance management tips for our Novice Leaders.
Hire Well
One of the best ways to solve a problem is to prevent it from happening in the first place. Hiring employees with the right talents, skills, and attitude for the job and that fit well into the company culture can help reduce the number of times you will need to address poor performance. Granted, even the best of the best stumble at times and you will never be able to avoid managing subpar performance. Having Qualified and motivate team members is a great foundation to leading excellent team and individual performance.
Train and Develop
An employee’s ability to effectively execute the tasks required of them has the greatest impact on the outcome they can produce. Performance will never be acceptable if they are unable to do the work. New Leader and business owners will benefit themselves greatly by adopting the mindset of teacher. Furthermore, leaders should maintain the thought they can never stop teaching, developing, and coaching.
Set Expectations
One objective of a leader is to communicate the vision for the team and clarify the overall purpose. Setting expectations is a continuation of that work meaning it helps to define the employee’s place in the strategic plan. Unfortunately, many teams experience poor performance because expectations are not always explained. According to a Gallup study, “Only about half of all workers strongly indicate that they know what is expected of them at work.” The study continues with “but with clear expectations, employees thrive.”
Expectations take the guess work out of performance and gives the employee and employer the baseline needed to determine progress and define success. Expectations need to be clear, concise, and easily understood. Likewise, leaders should cover both role expectations and behavioral expectations. To manage poor performance, or even better to help minimize or prevent it, be sure to set and continuously communicate clear expectations.
Provide Consistent and Appropriate Feedback
Have you ever taken a road trip where you had to drive a long way to a place you have never been before? What did you use to make sure you knew how to get there and took the right route? Those of us that were around before cellphones might say a map. Most however are probably thinking about your navigation app. Well, how would you feel if you took a wrong turn and your navigation app said nothing to you? If you are like me, you would get mad, delete the app, and download another one. Why? Because we expect the app to lead us to our destination and make us aware if we are on the wrong path.
How can we as leaders expect our team members to deliver on expectations if we are not constantly providing feedback on the direction of their performance? When an employee is doing well and on track, feedback and encouragement can help reenforce the positive behavior. It can also lift their morale and help sustain their motivation.
Just as important, when you have someone who is not performing up to standard, quick and constant feedback can be instrumental in influencing an adjustment in behavior. Resulting in improving the chance performance will return to meeting standards. Nothing is more demoralizing for an employee than to thinking the are doing a great job and they are not. Or just as bad, to think they are not doing good enough then come to learn they are doing well.
Side Note: When providing feedback be sure to critique the employee’s behavior and NOT the person. More to come on that in a future Novice Leader post.
Address the Root Cause
A very common mistake some leaders make is addressing the incorrect root cause in their efforts to correct performance. One of the most common and useful phrases I’ve heard in my leadership career regarding managing performance is “will versus skill.” The assumption behind this phrase is that performance issues can be summarized into two general root causes:
- the employee lacks the ability or skill to effectively perform their duties or
- the employee lacks the desire or motivation to effectively perform their job duties.
Understanding the true reason of a problem saves time and helps to build the appropriate improvement plan that can be effective with influencing the desired behaviors for acceptable performance.
Build Improvement Plans
An improvement plan is a very important part of managing declining performance. These plans are the blueprints for the employee and manager to follow in the effort to drive satisfactory performance.
“A performance plan or performance improvement plan (PIP) is a formal business document that explains goals set for a particular employee. It also outlines potential performance issues hindering the employee’s progress in reaching those goals. Performance plans have a generally poor reputation as they’re often a sign of impending termination. However, they’re meant to encourage employees to do better.” The Indeed Editorial Team
Many things are only as good as the quality in which they are built, and performance plans are no different. Some common components that make up the structure of a good plan are:
- Specific definition of the results or outcomes not being accomplished. When possible, this should be quantifiable results.
- Define the root cause(s) of the poor performance
- Detail description of the current behaviors and routines observed
- Specific behaviors, practices, and activities that need to be done by the employee
- The expected outcome from the employee executing the previous point
- Recorded acknowledgement by the leader and the employee
- Regular follow up meetings and progress notes
Follow Up
I mentioned earlier about providing consistent and regular feedback but here I’m referencing when a performance improvement plan is in place. This is very important. I have coached many leaders who came to me because they had struggles managing an employee’s performance just to learn they built a plan and did nothing afterwards. Follow up shows the person being developed that you are vested in them, and you are holding them accountable to delivering the expected outcomes.
Furthermore, documented follow up can be an essential resource in showing the effort provided to support the employee’s improvement in behavior should further disciplinarily action or termination need to be considered. Performance plans are not set it and forget it. They must be brought to life with consistent engagement and interaction by both the leader and the employee.
Leverage Your Support Team
Getting a different perspective is always a good choice in managing poor or declining performance. Each of you reading this will have different and unique situations. Some may have more resources than others. No matter your situation, look for support internally and externally if necessary to help provide advice, coaching, and input around your efforts to influence poor performance.
This could be leaders in the Human Resources (HR) department or this could be your supervisor or a peer supervisor in another department or on another team.
Accept the Reality
Having a conversation to terminate someone’s employment is tough. Most leaders that act in this capacity for a significant amount of time will eventually come to the point in managing someone’s poor performance where the only option left is separation from the organization. It’s the inevitable reality of imperfect leaders leading imperfect people.
“…no matter how things turn out, you’ll end up knowing that you’ve done your best in a tough situation. And that may be the best stress reducer of all.” Erika Andersen, contributor to Forbes,
Be Sincere
The last significant tip I want to share on the topic of managing poor performance is this: Always approach performance management with the intent to put the employee’s improvement at the center of your efforts. It should not be with the intent to drive them to quit or to the point where you are able to terminate them. People know when you care. I always remind myself that I cannot make everyone like me, but I can certainly earn everyone’s respect.
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Don’t Forget- You ARE the Leader You Choose To Be!
REFERENCES:
- Mindtools – Dealing with Poor Performance: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_80.htm
- Harvard Business Review – How to Manage a Toxic Employee by Amy Gallo: https://hbr.org/2016/10/how-to-manage-a-toxic-employee
- Indeed – 6 Ways To Manage Poor Performance Within Your Team: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/manage-poor-performance
- Business Daily New, Skye Schooley – Setting Clear Expectations for Employees: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/9451-clear-employee-expectations.html
- Gallup: https://news.gallup.com/businessjournal/195803/employees-really-know-expected.aspx?g_source=WWWV7HP&g_medium=topic&g_campaign=tiles
- Indeed – Indeed Editorial Team: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/performance-plan
- com, Erika Andersen – 9 Ways To Deal With Difficult Employees: https://www.forbes.com/sites/erikaandersen/2013/11/21/9-ways-to-deal-with-difficult-employees/?sh=3c941f0e40c4
