Managing Employee Performance

Sometimes you inherit employees and sometimes you hire them directly. Whatever the case, there will come a time when you have an employee that just doesn't cut it.

If you're like most people, the prospect of a confrontation with someone that works for you makes you uncomfortable. Your stomach is in knots and you make up in your mind a dramatic story about how the interaction will occur. The more you think about it, the more difficult and unpleasant you anticipate it will be. Then, at the time the conversation does occur, you're already agitated, irritable and uncomfortable. The emotions emanate from you like stink rising from garbage and the outcome is usually unpleasant and unproductive. How do you cut past the emotion and work with someone that has a performance problem to create a win/win situation?

Performance problems range from the simple to the complex and are sometimes a combination of several factors. The key to managing a performance problem is to first understand it.

Ask a lot of questions and get both sides of the story. If you're going to manage an actual or perceived performance problem, you need to first understand it. So many times, managers get reports that lead them to believe there's a performance issue; too many times, though, they fail to uncover the actual facts of situations or circumstances that lead to allegations of under or non-performance. It's important to find out what *really* happened in order to make a judgment call about someone's performance.

Coach effectively. Never accuse an employee of undesirable behavior. Ask for their side of the story and then talk to them about your direct observations as well as the perceptions of others that have been shared about them. Ask them what they could have done differently and decide together what they'll do next time they're faced with a similar situation.

Give timely feedback when issues are escalated to you or you see your employee demonstrate undesirable behaviors or performance. You owe it to your employee to have an immediate discussion. Telling your employee they responded inappropriately in a meeting a week ago does not have the same impact as it would if you were to take them aside right after the meeting.

Assign accountability. Change will only ensue if you make your employee accountable to it. Determine together what changes need to occur. Assign an action and a date and make sure your employee delivers. Make sure the employee understands that if they do not deliver, there will be consequences and outline them. Make your employee tell you what the consequence will be - that way, they have absolute ownership for delivering results.

Document performance. To effectively track performance, you must first document it. In addition to one on one notes, keep a 1X1 log. I keep a spreadsheet that has a tab with the name of each one of my direct reports. Any time I have a conversation with or about one of my employees, I make a quick note in my log. If you're busy like I am, it's difficult to remember every conversation you have. Keeping a log is like keeping a journal and it is critical to ensuring you can identify patterns if they're occurring.

Look for patterns. You cannot deem one mistake or a "concern" a performance problem. Your role is to track the behaviors and skills of your employees and identify destructive or non-value add characteristics that are preventing your employee from moving forward and causing issues in your organization. Patterns of behavior need to be assessed and considered. Continual complaints about patterns of behavior coupled with observations of said behavior should raise a red flag - especially if you've coached the behavior and you're not seeing an improvement.

Get buy in from the employee that there is a problem. This is a critical step in performance management that many managers neglect to do. It's difficult for people to hear that their performance is not up to par and the reactions you will get to pointing out a problem range from acknowledgement and acceptance to flat out rejection. A very effective technique in getting buy in from an employee that is denying there is a problem is for the manager to describe the employee's performance issue to the employee and ask the employee what they would do if they were in the manager's shoes. When asked to deal with someone displaying their own behaviors, it is difficult for the employee to deny that if confronted with the same problem that they wouldn't take action. It is also important to get the employee to understand that perception is reality. While the employee may have the best intentions, there is something in the way they are acting and re-acting that is causing an undesirable result. They may feel they're doing a stellar job but if the consensus of the people around them is that they're barely cutting it, then the employee needs to understand that they are barely cutting it.

Know when to shift from performance coaching to performance management. If the luxury were afforded most of us, we would coach until we were blue in the face. The bottom line is we want our people to succeed. There is a point in time, however, when you have to objectively assess employee behavior and come to terms with the fact that your employee doesn't have the skills, motivation or personality to do the job. At that point, you have to shift from coaching their performance to managing their performance and move into corrective action.

Manage performance. Corrective action is defined as the delivery of a formal plan designed to manage a performance problem. It entails defining the specific performance issues through descriptions and examples and outlining the expectations the leader has of the employee to correct the problem(s). Performance problem examples are not subjective opinions of others; rather, they are concrete, specific and objective accounts of behavior the employee has displayed that are tied to the inability of that employee to perform aspects of their assigned job duties or tasks. "He's not doing his job" is not a concrete performance issue; but, specific and objective accounts showing how the individual is not doing his job are critical. For example, "I have received three complaints in the last week that John struggles to communicate effectively. This has been demonstrated by his inability to turn in a status report to key stakeholders for three weeks in a row, two public displays of anger in teams meetings that left his peers feeling uncomfortable and an escalation from the Finance Director - who is the executive sponsor - that John has missed their last two scheduled meetings." Only specific examples of undesirable behavior will give you and the employee a starting place when looking for what behaviors need to change to demonstrate success.

Work together to achieve success. If your employee is struggling, it is unfair to give him or her a corrective action and wish them the best. As their supervisor, it is your job to work with them to move past the problem. It will require a commitment on your part to more closely work with the person to quickly identify and discuss displays of undesirable performance. Make sure the employee knows where they stand at all times and aggressively document observations, discussions and escalations to share with the employee so as they demonstrate undesirable behaviors, they can begin to identify themselves those situations and self-correct their own behavior. Be sure also to give the employee positive feedback when you see them demonstrate desirable behaviors or when they receive compliments from others.

If success cannot be achieved, work with your employee on an alternative plan. Sometimes people are in the wrong role or the expectations of the role do not fit their skill-set and it's not something they can learn quickly enough to be effective. If that's the case, work with your employee and HR to decide on the best course of action. Rarely is letting someone go the only option. Explore other job opportunities within the company and engage your employee in conversations about their strengths to help them decide the next best step.

Managing employee performance does not have to be an unpleasant experience. It can be a growing, rewarding experience for both you and your employee. Understand the problem first and then work through a process with your employee so that the two of you together can achieve a successful resolution.