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Welcome to this month's edition of
The Quest for Workplace Excellence (on-line
edition.)
There’s always a fairly good reason to
procrastinate giving feedback to a challenging employee. What if
the employee pulls an attitude and holds you hostage? What if
the employee gets hurt feelings and quits? What if the employee
stops talking to you? Or, perhaps, there’s just no time. Be
honest, there’s no time because you’re typically spending way
too much time cleaning up the messes left by your challenging
employee!
In our fifteen years in the business, we’re heard hundreds of
great excuses for not dealing with performance issues. When
managers get down to the real reason for procrastinating giving
feedback, they often admit to either not knowing how to give
feedback, or lack confidence in their ability to provide
feedback that will motivate the employee to improve. While there
are many coaching models, perhaps the simplest approach is to
focus on helping the employee develop their skills to achieve
optimum performance. Read on to learn more about how to help
employees D.E.V.E.L.O.P.
Strive for excellence, not
perfection,
Peter B. Stark
and Jane S.
Flaherty
Describe the
performance problem in objective terms. As you begin a
performance dialogue with an employee, it is important to focus
on specific, observable behavior. People resent personal
attacks and are more open to hearing about aspects of their
behavior that need to change. Phrases like, “You’ve
really had a negative attitude lately,” or, “You just don’t seem
organized” will evoke defensiveness. It’s much more effective to
discuss specifics regarding the behavior that needs to be
addressed. For example, “I’m happy that you completed the report
on time and the layout looks good. Unfortunately, there are
several errors. Let’s talk about your approach to proofing your
work.” Or, “I’ve noticed that you don’t look up and greet our
customers when they enter. They talk to you before you talk to
them. Let’s talk about our service strategy.”
Express your opinion regarding the
performance. For example, “I’m concerned when you send reports
out to clients that have errors. I think it makes us look
unprofessional.” It is O.K. to express your concern,
frustration, confusion, worry, etc. regarding poor performance.
Value the employee. When giving
performance feedback, it is critical that you clearly describe
the behavior that is inappropriate, or needs to change. However,
we often find that even in the case of challenging employees,
much of what they do is right on. It is important to value
the employee’s other contributions when providing feedback that
addresses a particular concern. For example, “Although
I’m concerned that you have come in late three times in the last
week, I want to make sure you understand I am pleased with how
you handle your job once you’re here. You are pleasant to our
customers and helpful to coworkers. You meet your quotas. My
only concern is your tardiness.”
Encourage input. With the right
approach, employees should feel encouraged to talk about their
view of the problem and more importantly, ideas they have to
address the problem. In some cases, the manager will need to be
direct about how the employee should change his or her behavior.
In most cases we find that employees can generate their own
solutions to behavior that has been identified as inappropriate
or counter productive. Employees are always more motivated
to try their own suggestions for improved performance.
If you can live with their suggestion, give it a chance. You can
always regroup later, if needed. The whole goal is to have a
dialogue that motivates change. If the employee’s idea might
work, give it a try.
Listen. Leadership is based on a
relationship. You can’t build a solid relationship based on
trust and respect if you don’t listen. Listening says, “I
care.” Listening helps you identify, from the employee’s
perspective, why there might be a problem. Listening gives you
time to begin thinking about solutions that might work to fix
the problem. A great coach asks questions, listens to the
response, and acts accordingly. It’s no coincidence that the
best coaches are also the best listeners.
Outline future behaviors. After you
have clearly identified the problem and had a dialogue with the
employee about what will change, it is important to
clearly outline the behavior you expect to see in the future.
For example, “Great. It sounds like you’ve got a plan to have a
team member proof your reports before sending them to our
clients. Let’s meet in one week to review the reports you’ve
sent out during the week. Our goal is to have reports that are
100% accurate.”
Project outcomes, both positive and
negative, related to the performance you are discussing. In the
past, if coaching has not worked to change behavior, what were
the consequences? In some cases, coaching doesn’t work because
there are no consequences for the poor performance. In fact,
sometimes there are positive consequences for the poor
performance. For example, if a salaried employee
consistently comes in late, but leaves on time, the positive
consequence is less work. Make sure the employee understands the
outcome of continued poor performance. In the case of the late
employee, you could say, “It sounds like you have some excellent
ideas for getting to work on time. Now that you know how serious
we are, I know that you will make every effort to be here at
start time. However, since we’ve talked about this twice, I want
you to know that if you decide to come in late again, I will
take the first step in our disciplinary process and write you
up.”
Like every other skill you’ve acquired, coaching takes practice.
Work hard to help you employees D.E.V.E.L.O.P. The payoff is
improved performance, better morale, greater retention of team
members and less stress for you!
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