ATD Blog
Fri Jan 17 2014
\[From www.BizJournals.com\]-Sometimes managers avoid dealing with employee performance issues out of a concern that a direct conversation will become confrontational, complex or time consuming. Other managers worry about creating potential legal issues if they don’t have a company policy to stand behind.
To slice through the fear and complexity, I asked Alice Waagen, president and founder of Herndon, Va.-based Workforce Learning, to share her simple framework for dealing with underperforming employees. Her answers follow my questions, which are in bold.
What mistakes do managers often make in discussing performance problems?
Here’s a scenario I see all the time. Let’s say you manage a team of six hardworking employees. But one employee – let’s call him Fred – is loose with his time management and often late to work and meetings. One day his lateness screws up something important. What should you do as the manager?
Some managers actively avoid the confrontation that comes with providing direct feedback. Rather than discussing time-management expectations one-on-one with Fred, they instead lecture or send an email to the entire team, reminding them that everyone is expected to start work on time and be punctual to meetings.
Of the six team members, five did nothing wrong, but they still get their hands slapped for Fred’s behavior. Some managers will go even further and create an unnecessary policy or procedure to correct the isolated instance, because they can then hide behind “company policy,” rather than addressing the issue head on with Fred.
I call this, “managing by exception.” Unfortunately, this approach won’t correct the root cause of a problem. It actually generates more friction with your team, especially if you do it very often. Other employees will sit through your lectures and roll their eyes because they know you’re only talking about Fred. And even worse, Fred might lack the self-awareness to realize you’re talking about him, so because you did not single him out, he assumes you’re talking about someone else.
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