A happy, productive and high performing team is the goal of every business, but…
… there’ll be times when someone’s performance dips. What’s your approach? Does this scenario sound familiar?
Person fails to deliver.
Manager assumes incompetence, laziness or lack of will.
Manager gives some feedback to say things aren’t good enough and need to improve.
Manager sees little to no change in behaviour/ performance, so invests time into creating a performance improvement plan with ever more specific and time-bound goals and micro-goals decreeing how the person should do their job.
Manager and team member meet more and more regularly to monitor and review the plan, each slowly losing the will to live and any hope of a positive outcome.
Individual either jumps or is pushed into leaving, or manager is pacified by a slight improvement in performance, so individual sticks around for a further six months — ultimately becoming more disengaged before moving on.
Manager and company sigh with relief.
There’s lots of variations on this theme, including the ‘ignore the problem and hope it goes away’ technique. Or, ‘we don’t have time for this’ approach, where the individual with the performance problem is suddenly fired. None of these scenarios are ideal. Very often performance interventions can be too little, too late.
Here’s a few tips to help get on the front foot so that you’re managing great performance proactively, not reacting when things go south.
Set expectations
This starts from the very first interaction you have with someone, even as early as the job advert. This is where you detail what the role will be like on a day-to-day basis, so it’s super important that you define the role properly so candidates can opt-in or opt-out based on accurate information you provide.
If there are some gaps because you’ve never hired this role before, be explicit and say there’s an expectation for the person to come in and shape it to the business’ needs. Continue this expectation setting throughout the interview process and make sure you give the candidate plenty of opportunity to ask questions so they can get the information they need.
Then, when they join, work together to:
Create a 30/60/90 day plan in their first week,
Talk about your values (if these are defined) and behavioural expectations (don’t forget you need to be a role model), and
Discuss how you like to work, what your areas of strength and development are; and invite them to do the same.
When it comes to recruitment, don’t just look for previous performance. Performance doesn’t transfer from one business to another if the culture and working practices aren’t the same!
Open up
When you create an environment of trust, you’ll find that people in your team feel comfortable coming to you when they need support or when they have something going on in their life that means their focus isn’t at work right now.
If you’re going to create that environment, you have to open up — about the times you’ve failed, when you’re struggling with your own motivation or mental health, or about areas you’re actively working on developing. If you don’t, no-one else in your team will. And yes, that can be hard, but don’t expect something of others if you won’t do the same.
Make time to talk
Regular 1:1’s are crucial to maintaining open lines of communication and knowing where all of your team members are at. They shouldn’t be skipped or squeezed. They’re important for checking in on performance but also just for checking in with a fellow human. Start with open questions and consciously invite your team member to share anything that’s worrying or distracting them. Think of 1:1s as an opportunity for learning. Their performance should increase after each 1:1 because they’ve learnt something!
If you’re planning a performance conversation then…
Don’t go in on the offensive
Your demeanour will directly impact how easily and quickly you get to the bottom of the problem. If you go into the all guns blazing, don’t expect your team member to open up to you. Bear in mind that 60% of our communication is non-verbal; so don’t just focus on the words that come out of your mouth. Avoid things like folding your arms and physically over-distancing yourself from the individual.
Listen first
Instead of launching into a laundry list of your concerns, start with observational language, for e.g. ‘I’ve noticed that you haven’t quite been yourself recently’ or an open question. Otherwise, you’re likely to provoke a defensive response rather than getting your team member to open up. If you attack, they will defend. That is human nature. It’s not a productive way to achieve a positive outcome.
Once you feel confident you’ve understood the issue, make sure you identify the positive impact addressing the performance issue will have and ask what you can do to help the team member achieve their goals. Take the time to reset expectations and make sure the ‘why’ behind those expectations is understood.
Identify what you can do better
Put yourself out there and ask point-blank if there’s anything you are or aren’t doing that’s hampering their performance. If they don’t offer something up, then they probably don’t feel 100% safe to do so. In that case, kindly force an answer by saying, “imagine that you have scored me a 6 out of 10 for my performance as your manager, what would you need me to do so that score goes up to a 9 or 10?”
Act on what you’re told
By now you should be armed with accurate information into what’s causing the employee’s underperformance, but that intel’s only any good if you act on it.
If it’s down to a problem outside of work — like relationship or financial worries, signpost them in the direction of support (if you don’t know what options are out there, do your research), then, make a point of regularly checking in with them and let them know they’re not alone.
And if it’s due to something to do with you, try not to take it to heart and focus on using it as an opportunity for self-improvement. If your management style is the cause, reflect, seek further advice and mentorship. Not only that, remember if you improve, then so will they. That means the general performance will get better too! Wins everywhere!
Keep the conversation going
Last but by no means least, remember to regularly check-in.
This will enable you to both keep an open dialogue, continue to build trust and ensure a) you’re happy with your team member’s progress, and b) they’re happy with the measures you’ve put in place to support them.
Good luck!
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