Kris's Articles


Dealing with the tough stuff

Most managers agree they underestimated the challenge of managing people when they took on the job. Whether it’s a discipline interview, dealing with an employee with a personal crisis, or helping a wayward employee get back on the rails, handling the ‘tough stuff’ well takes thought and skill.

Here’s the first mistake many managers make: letting a poor performance issue drift, hoping it will sort itself out and the employee will magically turn him or herself around. Perhaps that’s happened somewhere, once upon a time, but don’t bank on it happening to you.

If someone’s performance isn’t reaching expectations, don’t wait until appraisal time rolls around before addressing the problem. Worse still, don’t wait until their performance deteriorates even further and becomes a hard-to-break habit. If you do, your temper will eventually fray and you’ll be in danger of giving them a good ‘telling off’ motivated more by anger than helpfulness. This won’t help anyone improve.

Instead, sit down and ask yourself these five questions:

  1. Is the employee completely clear about what I expect?
    If the answer is No, get clear in your own mind precisely what you want the employee to do, how you will know it has been done well, and why doing it well is important. Make sure your measures of success are clear and achievable and that both you and the employee can track them easily.

    Then explain this to the employee. Make especially sure he understands why the task is important and how it fits into the ‘bigger picture’ so he knows putting in the effort to achieve them will be worthwhile.

    Here’s how … to explain the ‘big picture’:

    • This is how this task fits into the workflow in the office/the organisation:
    • This job is important because …
    • It’s worth doing this well because …
    • Pay attention when you do this because …
    • It’s important you do this right, because …
    • After you’ve done this, it goes to … for … so that …
    • Before this job comes to you, …

  2. Have I put the right person in the right job?
    We all have natural bents, talents and skills, and smart managers place people in jobs that make good use of them. This means employees will enjoy their work and find doing it well satisfying, so you won’t need to worry much about ‘motivating’ them (that other perennial management headache).

    If the answer to this question is No, you may be trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. It’s probably time to re-arrange the job holder’s duties, or move her out of your department. If you don’t, you’ll find yourself beating your head against a brick wall.

  3. Have I trained this employee sufficiently and given them enough time to build up their experience bank?
    In a busy office, it can be tempting to assume someone knows how to do something because you explained it quickly to them last month, but let’s face it – that’s just not fair on either the employee in question or their team mates.

    If the answer is No, it’s time to arrange for some on- or off-the-job training or give the employee time to build their skills under guidance.

  4. Is anything preventing the employee from doing the job well?
    For example, out-moded work methods, systems or procedures, a noisy, distracting workspace, or hopeless and futile tasks that make people feel like they’re pushing sand uphill? Is your department running so ‘lean and mean’ that people just don’t have the time to do jobs properly or to gather or pass on information they or their workmates need? Does everyone in the team understand what everyone else is trying to achieve? Do they share common goals and purposes and support and value each others efforts?

    If you don’t know the answer to this question, sit down with the employee and use this list thought starters. You’re looking for:

    • poor, faulty, badly designed and maintained, or inadequate tools and equipment that could be preventing her from doing her job as well as she would like;
    • cumbersome work systems and procedures that hold her back and ultimately, sap motivation;
    • any work systems and procedures that could be streamlined or simplified so that each step flows smoothly, logically and easily into the next;
    • hiccups and hassles, unnecessary steps or backtracking, out-of-sequence steps, repetitive steps, and wasted materials, time, effort or other resources.

    These are the sorts of things that interfere with people doing their jobs as well as they could do them and no doubt would like to do them.

  5. Can I put my hand over my heart and say that I’m setting a good example and showing appropriate appreciation for the employee’s best efforts?
    Do I walk my talk and does he know he is making a valuable, and appreciated, contribution to the team?

    If the answer is No, perhaps you’d better start reading up on how to be a better leader! Sorry, but the stark reality is that many employees fail to deliver because their boss fails to manage them properly.

    If you can honestly answer Yes to Questions 1, 2, 3 and 5 and No to Question 4, you may have to accept that it’s time to bring out the ‘big guns’ and work through your organisation’s official warning and employment termination procedure. The good new is, if you get into the habit of building performance by regularly thinking through each of these questions for each employee on your team, you’ll seldom need to resort to this.

    A word of comfort if you do need to bring out the ‘big guns’: at the end of the day, the choice between improved work performance and continued unsatisfactory work performance (and ultimately, loss of employment) is the employee’s. You can influence his decision by holding a constructive discussion or series of discussions that you have thought through before hand, based on these five questions and following the six steps outlined in the box below.

SIX SIMPLE STEPS TO SURVIVING ‘THE PERFORMANCE DISCUSSION’

When it comes time to sitting down with the employee to plan how to improve his or her performance, follow these six steps:

  1. Agree the exact performance gap. Fuzzy performance gaps won’t get you anywhere. Talk about what you can see or hear or the precise target that is not being met.
  2. Explain things as you see them. Use the Describe—Explain—Describe approach to outline the performance gap and illustrate why it is important. Describe the behaviour, action or target not met; Explain it’s effect (on service, output, customers, colleagues, efficiency, etc.); Describe the change you need, and the time frame you need it in.
  3. Hear how the employee sees things. You don’t need to agree, just see it from his or her perspective. Don’t interrupt; keep calm and hear the employee out.
  4. Work together to solve the problem. Focus on the first four questions listed above to find out what is preventing the employee from reaching the standard you need. Stay focussed on finding a solution and as much as you can, allow the employee to suggest them.
  5. Agree what you will each do. What steps will the employee take meet your required standards and what will you do to assist? How will you monitor performance to make sure this strategy is working? Agree specific measures of success and a review schedule, and end on a positive note.
  6. Monitor performance and meet again to discuss progress. If the employee’s performance is improving, say something to encourage her to keep up the good work. If it isn’t sit down and discuss the problem again. Don’t wait for perfection before offering encouragement and don’t always expect an overnight improvement, especially if the performance gap is a large one.

Source: The Supervisor’s Survival Guide by Kris Cole

Here’s how … to keep discussions on track:

  • Present constructive information.
  • If the employee denies there is a performance problem (and you’re really sure there is one), keep repeating your main point (the performance gap and that it must be rectified).
  • If the employee tries to change the subject, repeat your main point.
  • If the employee pulls one excuse after another out of his hat to justify the performance gap, and you’re sure it’s an excuse not an explanation, keep asking: What can we do to (get the performance we need)?
  • Don’t be drawn into accusations of favouritism or nit picking. Keep to the point at hand. (Ask yourself whether the employee could be right.)
  • Turn it around: state the performance problem as a performance goal.
    Source: The Supervisor’s Survival Guide by Kris Cole

One final thought: If you’re still tempted to blame the employee for her poor performance, heed the words of Andrew Carnegie, the penniless 19th Century Scottish migrant who became one of the wealthiest men in the United States:

Men are developed the same way gold is mined. Several tons of dirt must be moved to get one ounce of gold, but one doesn’t go into the mine looking for the dirt, one goes in looking for the gold.

Are you polishing anyone’s gold?

If you'd like Kris to contribute to your publication, she will be happy to explore the opportunity.

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