It is easy to turn a blind eye to poor performance until it becomes critical. Postponing action is common. Finding excuses is not unusual. Seeking rationalizations is far from rare. Not infrequently, leaders fail to face up to uncomfortable truths about the poor performance of those who are not pulling their weight. The best leaders have the courage and determination to tackle performance problems before they become very serious and impact adversely on the firm and on team colleagues. They make it clear that they want underperformance to be resolved and they offer their help. However, sometimes when they grasp the nettle they make the mistake of trying to change someone’s behaviour either by appealing to reason or by issuing an ultimatum. Too often the result is failure. The mistake is to try to get people to change by using a persuasive or threatening pep talk. The reality is that change comes from within. The challenge, therefore, is to create the circumstances in which underperformers can motivate themselves. The more common reasons for poor performance appear.
The more common causes of poor performance
Competence
Motivation
Lack of knowledge or skills for particular tasks.
Failure to keep up to date.
Clumsy relationship behaviour.
No longer finding the work interesting or challenging.
Growing preference for non-work activities.
Fear of failure in trying something new.
Insecurity due to merger discussions or other major changes.
Personal
Organizational/business
Loss of confidence.
Major health problem.
Family or relationship problem.
Alcoholism or drug addiction.
Financial worries.
Exhaustion.
Poorly led.
Inadequate resources.
Unsupportive culture.
Loss of a major client.
Business sector downturn.
It is important not to jump to conclusions about the causes of poor performance. They come in many guises. Rather like medicine, the key to arriving at the right remedy is to begin with a good diagnosis. Beware of treating symptoms rather than causes. Sometimes you will have a pretty good idea especially if you make a regular habit of chatting with your colleagues. Some of the more common causes listed in Table 9.1 are easier to identify than others. Lack of knowledge or skill for particular tasks or a failure to keep up to date is not too difficult to discern. Most business influences are apparent. If the cause is personal or motivational, however, it might not be too obvious. If it turns out that you are the cause of the poor performance because you are not providing good leadership then it will probably come as an unpleasant surprise. The remedy is clearly in your own hands!
Assuming that you are not the cause of the performance problem, a good approach is to help the underperformer to come up with the right answers and then to encourage that person to take responsibility for putting things right. Here are some useful questions to help you and the individual concerned to identify the root causes of performance difficulties:
- What is the difference between what is being done and what should be done?
- What is happening that causes us to say that things are not right?
- Is there a knowledge or skill deficiency?
- Were the tasks undertaken effectively in the past?
- Is it punishing, psychologically, to perform as expected?
- Does performing appropriately get in the way of achieving other job, career or personal objectives?
- Are there psychological rewards for not performing in the way required? For example, is the person concerned in a comfortable rut?
- Does performing in the right way really matter to the person concerned?
- Is there a fear of change or of trying something new?
- Are there organizational or business obstacles to performing in the desired way?
- Are there conflicting demands on the time available?
- Are the resources, information and authority required to do the job available?
- Does the organizational environment or the firm’s culture inhibit effective performance?
- Are there personal problems that may be adversely affecting performance?
When serious underperformance occurs, after a track record of success, it is unlikely to be due to a lack of knowledge or skill unless there has been a failure to keep up to date. The more likely reasons are personal, such as health or relationship problems, or motivational, such as no longer finding the work sufficiently interesting or challenging. If the cause is an organizational obstacle or a business downturn then it is quite likely that several members of the team will be affected. Whatever you suspect the reason is, the first step is to talk to the person concerned to try to find out exactly what is happening. Good leadership means not putting the problem off. It also means approaching the person and the problem, in the first instance, in a spirit of concerned enquiry. Here are some useful steps:
- Set up a meeting to discuss the matter. Tell your colleague that you have some concerns about how things are going but that you would like the opportunity to chat about some possible improvements. Give some notice, a day or so, for the meeting so that the person involved can give thought to the issues involved. But don’t make the notice so long that it causes unnecessary anxiety.
- Be positive, indicate confidence in your colleague and offer help. Many performance problems can be resolved more easily when the person concerned knows that there is support rather than opposition.
- Get agreement that serious underperformance exists and try to identify the cause. Some people are very ready to admit that there is a difficulty and are relieved, in a way, to find that it is being addressed. Others may be defensive or may even deny that a problem exists. Sympathetic questioning, careful listening and a calm and understanding response help. It is a good idea to raise awareness by exploring the gap between what is happening and the performance expectations.
- Ascertain whether the poor performance is due to genuine obstacles outside the individual’s control or is something that can be remedied by the person concerned. If there are organizational constraints such as inadequate resources or an unsupportive culture then it is your job as team leader to help to remove those impediments. If the problem is personal then it may be necessary to provide a breathing space for it to be remedied.
- For those problems that can be resolved by the individual concerned, ask questions and offer suggestions to raise awareness and generate responsibility for action. Identify a goal for improvement and explore options for achieving it. Agree on ways to make progress.
- Have periodic discussions to review progress. At these meetings acknowledge all improvements and achievements to build confidence and reinforce progress towards the acceptable levels of performance.
Investing time in helping people to improve is both a human and an economic answer to underperformance. Firing people and hiring replacements is a very expensive option. Those who adopt this alternative too readily seldom count the many hidden costs involved. Only consider the disciplinary route as a last resort. If all else fails then it is in the interests of the firm generally and your team specifically to warn and, if that fails to produce results, to terminate employment. Protracted serious underperformance when there is no likelihood of a remedy cannot be tolerated.