"A team will perform well
only if peak performance is elicited from the individuals in
it."23
Andrew Grove
Co-founder and former CEO, Intel
At some point, employee
performance will falter. An employee may start coming in to
work late every day. Or the monthly reports will be completed
one or two days late. Or a rift occurs between two employees
who used to get along. These types of things are going to
happen with employees. When they do, your job is to help fix
the problem.
Confronting unproductive behavior is like stopping the
spreading of a disease. Once there is a problem, it is
unlikely that it will solve itself. Usually, what ends up
happening is that the problem gets worse. Most big problems
start as little ones. Therefore, you have the choice of
dealing with the problem as it exists now or dealing with a
worse problem later.
CONFRONTING PROBLEMS
IS NOT FUN, BUT NECESSARY
Dealing with underperforming
employees is typically one of the most unpleasant parts of
your job as a manager. Even though it is uncomfortable for
most managers to confront employees, you should not feel
guilty about bringing poor performers up to an acceptable
standard. After all, it's nothing personal. You are just doing
your job.
However, it is very easy to put off dealing with a people
problem. But agonizing over confronting the problem with the
employee is often worse than the confrontation itself. And the
longer you wait to address a problem, the more built up
frustration and anger you will have inside you.
Managers do not confront unproductive behavior for many
reasons. These include: not wanting to look like the bad guy;
being afraid of making the employee upset; knowing it will be
very uncomfortable for both parties; being worried about
ruining a friendship; not wanting the employee to quit and
have to go through the hiring process again; being scared the
employee might turn the table and bring up a list of the
manager's downfalls; not wanting to hurt the employee's
feelings; fearing that the employee may try to undermine their
authority, etc.
Even though you may not want to hurt employees by pointing out
things that need to be corrected, you will hurt them more by
not addressing the problem. An employee who performs poorly is
hurt because deep down they usually know they are not doing a
good job. By not confronting unproductive behavior, you are
allowing them to be mediocre. This does employees a great
disservice by robbing them of the pride they would have by
doing a good job. By dealing with the problem, you are
eliminating a roadblock in the employee's progression.
In addition, you owe it to yourself to not have to put up with
unproductive behavior. If you are constantly stressed out
about an employee, your own work is going to suffer. Though
confronting problems can initially be a little uncomfortable,
you will be rewarded with the relief of no longer having that
monkey on your back. Also, if you correct unproductive
behavior early on, you will be more likely to have employees
who act right in the future, because they know you will hold
them accountable for their behavior.
ADDRESSING THE
EMPLOYEE ABOUT THE PROBLEM
When confronting problems,
you have to pick your battles. You don't want to major in
minor things. With some minor infractions, you are better off
letting them slide. Morale will sink and trust will weaken if
employees think you are always trying to find them doing
something wrong. Also, if you punish employees for making a
mistake when they were genuinely trying to do their best, they
will really begin to doubt themselves which will end up making
them less productive. Making mistakes every once in a while
should be expected from all employees. But constantly making
mistakes is a whole different matter and this is where you
must step in and do something.
Once you have decided to address the problem, you should
choose a time and location to meet with the employee so you
will not be interrupted. If you allow yourself to be
distracted, you are minimizing the importance of the meeting.
Also, be sure to meet with the employee when you are at least
in a reasonably good mood. If you are in a bad mood, you will
be more likely to lash out at the employee and the meeting
will not be productive. You should also try to make sure that
the employee is not upset when you meet to confront their
behavior.
In addition, you should not confront an employee about
unproductive behavior in front of other employees. If you do
this, you are blatantly disrespecting the employee. This will
destroy employee morale because you are creating an
environment where employees fear you. Other employees will
then wonder if that will happen to them next and productivity
will suffer as a result.
For example, if an employee is constantly late for meetings,
don't give him a tongue lashing in front of everybody else
when he arrives. Even though the behavior needs to be
confronted, you need to do it without having a negative effect
on the other employees. The best case scenario is for you to
correct the behavior without rocking the boat. Therefore, you
should do your best to make sure that none of your other
employees even knows that you are confronting the employee.
Employees will really appreciate it if you allow them to
retain their dignity when you are correcting their
behavior.
Also, just because an employee needs their behavior corrected
does not mean that you can say anything to them. Managers
should not meet with the employee to vent at them. This may
make you feel better, but it will only worsen the problem. You
should keep in mind that your goal is to improve the behavior
of the employee. At this point, the more positive
communication you have with the employee, the more likely you
are to get the employee to change their behavior in the way
that you want.
In addition, managers should know that just because
unproductive behavior is confronted does not mean that the
overall situation will improve. Consider this example:
A regional manager of an office supply distributor was very
upset over employees taking more than an hour for their lunch
breaks. The office policy was that employees could take an
hour break anywhere between 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. The
problem was that few employees would ever be in the office
during that two hour period. For example, employees would
leave at 11:30 a.m. and come back at 1:00 p.m. Then, another
day they might leave at noon and come back at 1:20 p.m.
The regional manager was often out of the office so for a long
time he did not have any idea this was going on. But when he
figured it out, he was furious. As a result, one day after
that he went out to the parking lot right before 11:30 a.m.
with a box of 3" by 5" cards. On each one, he had written "You
must be back from lunch by." Then, when each employee left for
lunch, he wrote down the time they needed to be back by and
handed it to them. For example, if an employee left at 11:45
a.m., he would write down 12:45 p.m. on the card.
Needless to say, the move was quite a shock to all of the
employees. Every one of them got back well within an hour that
day and every day after that. On the surface, the regional
manager accomplished his objective of eliminating the abuse of
lunch breaks by employees. But within two weeks, five out of
twenty one employees in the regional office quit without
turning in any notice. In addition, morale immediately went
from being a little below average to nonexistent. The regional
manager ended up getting fired three months later because of
the horrendous performance in his region. Even though he was
totally right to take action, the regional manager clearly did
not fix the problem in the correct manner. He won the battle
but lost the war.
When confronting a problem, you should communicate how you see
the problem from your point of view and explain why the
behavior must change. This includes discussing the negative
impact that it is having on other employees. Also, be sure to
focus on the behavior and don't attack the employee. You want
to communicate that you care about and respect the employee as
a person, but their behavior needs to change. In addition,
focus on what the employee needs to do in the future to fix
the problem by clearly explaining what you want done
differently. You should not dwell too much on all of the
instances in the past where the employee acted
incorrectly.
You should also do your best to only correct behavior you have
seen. If you don't have hard facts, you risk splitting hairs
over your and their perceptions of the situation. In addition,
specific examples of the unproductive behavior should be
provided. Instead of saying "You are late to work all of the
time", you should say "You were at least thirty minutes late
this past Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday."
When meeting with the employee, you will be most effective if
you focus on one problem at a time. You don't want to dump too
much on an employee at once. Can you imagine saying "You are
constantly taking two hour lunches, impolite to some of the
other employees, and charging too much to the company credit
card. Where should we start?" This will overload the employee
and they will probably get defensive which won't solve
anything. Also, it is best to confront unproductive behavior
as soon as you can after it has happened. Employees will tend
to tune out if it has been a long time since the behavior has
occurred.
Managers should know that some employees who are
underperforming genuinely have no clue that they aren't doing
a good job. You might be ready to pull your hair out, because
they are constantly doing things wrong. But you have to tell
them so you are sure they know, because giving out subtle
hints is not good enough. A lot of times employees are fired
and when they are told the reasons they claim that they had no
idea that their manager felt that way.
When you talk to employees, you should first give them a
chance to explain the reason for their behavior. They may come
straight out and admit that they have not done a good job and
need to improve. Or, they may reveal a hidden frustration that
has been eating them up inside. It is also possible that there
could be a valid reason why an employee's performance level is
not where it should be. One legitimate reason might be that
the employee has not received enough training. That is why it
is best to let employees try to explain themselves before you
jump to conclusions. Employees will often blame their
co-workers for problems and you will have to decide whether or
not what they are saying is true. However, keep in mind that
some employees can be very innovative in coming up with
excuses. At some point, you have to say enough is enough.
Once you have determined that the employee's behavior needs to
change, you must decide how the problem will be fixed.
Although you probably have some ideas, you should also solicit
suggestions from the employee. When they are involved in
deciding what to do, employees will usually be more open to
fixing the problem. Once an employee gives some ideas about
solving the problem, you should weigh the benefits of each one
and determine which ones are feasible. Then, you and the
employee should come to an agreement about what specific
course of action the employee is going to take. At that point,
the employee is responsible for correcting the behavior.
Once you have addressed the problem with the employee, it is
important that you monitor the situation to make sure the
problem is fixed. If the problem persists and you have another
meeting with the employee, you will have to work with them to
figure out a new strategy since the original one did not work.
At this point, you can't accept the same answer as the first
time because the problem did not get solved. You should also
let the employee know that if things don't change soon they
run the risk of being terminated. Employees should know
exactly what the consequences will be if their behavior does
not change.
SUMMARY
Unproductive behavior must be
tactfully confronted. If not, the problem will only get
worse.
