All managers are one day confronted with a subordinate whose efforts or performance fail to meet expectations or whose behavior is inappropriate. However, constructively managing performance issues to inspire people to improve isn’t easy. What to do?
Address the issue openly
- Describe the issue clearly, by explaining how you perceive the situation. e.g. present the facts and their impact on objectives, the team, customers, etc.
- Use precise and factual language, avoiding personal attacks and value judgments.
- Invite the employee to share his or her perception of things with you, to build a common understanding of the situation.
Provide the means to improve
- Make sure to trigger a positive dynamic, e.g. encourage the employee to imagine potential initiatives and measure which could help improve his or her performance. Agree on a list of tangible initiatives and on the execution timeframe.
- Take the time to think about how best to support your employee. e.g. plan regular updates, adapt your management style, etc.
- Make an appointment to review progress a few weeks or months down the road.
Take action
Strive to ban value judgments (30 min)
Relying on concrete facts gives more impact to a sanction or a refocusing effort than if making a value judgment.
Choose a person of trust with whom you regularly exchange, and commit to one another to identify all the value judgments that emerge in your conversations. E.g.: Generalizing ‘”You are always late”), interpreting (“You don’t want to play alongside the team”), inferencing (“He does not agree with this measure, so he is opposed to the project”).
Try and reformulate these messages while remaining factual and discerning between what can be observed and what deductions you make. E.g.: “I have noticed you often arrive late at the project meetings. This gives me the impression, and the other team members, that you are not involved. I want to ask you to respect the meeting timings.”
Practice conducting disciplinary meetings (30 min)
A disciplinary meeting must be both firm and constructive.
To start with, choose a situation that is little prone to conflict in your opinion. E.g.: A staff member who does not meet expectations but seems to show good will; or who “slipped’ in an unusual manner.
Choose a moment when you have time to confer, and a place safe from prying eyes.
Start by describing objectively the situation you have observed, with fact-based and concrete elements. Then, recall your expectations, the rule to be respected, and demonstrate the importance of this rule. Then find a solution with the person.
Observe the manner in which you led this meeting. Were you heard? Did it have an impact? What would you do differently on a future occasion? You will thus be able to manage increasingly delicate situations.
Help a team member identify ways of improving (1h)
A refocusing session is all the more effective if the concerned persons suggest themselves the manner in which things can be fixed.
Identify an area for improvement in one of your staff members. During a face-to-face meeting, start by describing what you have observed while always remaining factual.
Try to help him find himself ways of improving through questioning. E.g.: if you could do it again, how would you go about it? What would you change in your approach? What do you need to succeed in this type of assignment? What are the difficulties you encounter?
Then share with him the different ideas you have had and agree on an action plan, which you will of course track!
Practical Tips
> Expressing criticism constructively
> Dare to penalize irresponsible behavior
> React concretely to harassment in the workplace
© Managéris