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>> Dealing with poor performers is one of the quintessential challenges that all leaders face.
And when I was a leader, it was no different for me.
I remember one year I had an extremely bright, capable, motivated intern working for me.
Part of our job was to send out weekly communications to our employees
about the leadership development offerings that they could take advantage of.
I asked him to proofread this every week.
And I noticed over time that he was missing huge errors,
and it was reflecting poorly on our department.
So I figured that I should ask him what was happening
and understand this poor performance a little more effectively.
So when we sat down I said, help me understand what's happening.
And he said, I am so glad you asked.
I cannot proofread anything on a computer.
I've been working with IT.
Our printer is broken.
I can't get anything to print.
And if I could just get something on paper, I could read it perfectly.
And lo and behold, we put the request through to IT.
They fixed the printer.
And from that point on, everything was 100 percent perfect.
What I learned from that personally as a leader was that there are often many other reasons
that employees are performing poorly than the fact that they can't do their jobs.
So we're going to talk about four questions that you can answer here in just a moment
to help you diagnose or understand the root of poor performance.
On average, managers spend 34 days a year dealing with performance problems.
The first question to ask yourself when you've got a poor performer on your hands is,
does this employee really understand my expectations?
I hate to break this to you, but employees can't read your minds.
And in 50 percent of cases at least, when I work with a leader who has a poor performer,
it's because the person doesn't understand what the manager wants from them.
So ask yourself this question and make sure that you've clarified.
The second question to ask is does my employee have something outside
of their control that's preventing them from performing?
The same was the case for my intern that I told you about a moment ago.
The printer was getting in the way of his ability to be successful.
So if you take a questioning or curious approach and say, what's in your way?
How can I remove this obstacle?
A lot of times that performance issue will fix itself.
The third question to ask is, does my employee know they're not performing
up to my expectations?
If questions 1 or 2 haven't surfaced a solution, it's time to start getting specific
with your employee and probably having a tough feedback conversation.
You can refer to my 2D feedback model to learn some tips and tools for how
to deliver that feedback effectively.
But for this video, suffice it to say, that you have to have that honest conversation.
The final question to ask yourself is something you should be constantly putting in the back
of your head when you have a poor performer on your hands.
And that question is, am I in some way contributing to this performance problem?
There was a famous study done by Joseph Folkman and his colleagues that was reported
in Harvard Business Review, and what they found was that when they looked at the thousands
and thousands of the worst performing employees, the manager, him or herself,
was one of the direct causes of that poor performance.
What's more interesting, the researchers found that when the managers started treating
that poor performer just like everyone else, gave them coaching, gave them some support,
most of the performance problems went away.
I'm not dampening the seriousness or detracting from the responsibility the employee has,
but I think that it's important that you recognize the role that you play
in helping them to be successful.
So if you've gone through all four of these questions,
and the performance issue is still there, it may be time to face reality.
I have a very good friend who's also a leader, who once told me,
I never regret firing someone too soon.
But I always regret keeping them on my team for far too long.
Now I'm not trying to dampen the seriousness of letting an employee go
or coaching him or her into a new role.
What I will say is that is if a performer is poor enough, if they're doing a bad enough job,
they feel just as bad about it as you do.
And if you can help them find something that allows them to use their gifts
in the best way possible, you'll be better off.
And more importantly, they'll be better off.