How to Deal With a Low Performing Employee
Time and time again I’ve seen great leaders expend countless hours stressing about keeping an unproductive team member on board just because the person is “so nice.” They don’t want to fire this person because they think, if given just one more or three more or many more chances, the person will turn things around and start producing the results he or she was hired to do.
WRONG!
When you have the right person in the right job, and that person has a clear job description that outlines his roles and responsibilities, and he has the freedom to do his job, he will naturally produce results! Ongoing coaching and accountability meetings will ensure that you are both in alignment with the tasks at hand and the results being generated, but it shouldn’t take that much energy to get the job done!
Sure, things come up that get the entire team off track at times, but if your people are in the right place and there are systems to support them, it should be easy to regain focus and carry on with ease when the bump in the road has passed.
What does the business need from the team?
If you haven’t taken time to assess the business’ needs, it will continue to be a struggle for you to develop team talent.
Pull out your business plan. Take a look at the size of your business, where it is, and where you want to take it. From this place, get whatever help you can to assess your organization’s needs from a talent perspective.
If top-notch customer service is one of your goals, then determine how many people you need in place to tend to your client’s needs.
If business growth is a top priority, fine-tune your sales team’s job descriptions to determine whether you have the right people in those sales jobs. If you don’t, and you need to hire new, or more, talent – market the job for that position!
Don’t make this mistake…
The biggest mistake I have seen my clients make is trying to make the person fit the job. Popeye said it best when he proclaimed, “I Yam What I Yam!” If you continue trying to make people do things they are not naturally suited to do, you are sure to fail. And keeping your head buried in the sand month after month, holding your breath, and “hoping” for change in results is just postponing the inevitable fact that your employee will, indeed, have to eventually leave. And what a terrible feeling for that employee to be in a job he knows he is not suited for. Have the courage to put everyone out of his or her misery by honoring the person and honoring the business. Being “nice” isn’t useful. Being kind is. And sometimes the kind thing to do is to help someone to move on to what is next in life, while simultaneously honoring your business’ needs.
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