When you have an employee who consistently under delivers, how do you react?
If you are like most people, you probably default to judgment: “They are so lazy” or “Why are they so stupid?”
This sort of internal dialogue is not helpful. It also works against the safety, connection and sharing of a meaningful future we need to create in our team to build trust.
Being a trusted leader requires thinking the best of people and helping them be their best. It’s not easy.
Being a trusted leader requires thinking the best of people and helping them be their best.
Trust in an employee is built upon our confidence in someone’s ability to consistently deliver high-quality work, on time and within the allocated resources. But when they repeatedly let you down, it is understandable to not trust them.
So what can you do when you can’t trust an employee to deliver?
Using the following process to ascertain the possible reasoning behind their underperformance will help you provide the right support. Ideally, this process should stop you from jumping straight to judgment and is more fair to both parties.
1. Circumstance
Sometimes direct reports drop the ball because they have a personal issue getting in their way. Taking the time to emotionally check in with someone first, rather than jump to conclusions, is the hallmark of a trusted leader.
Ask the question, “Hey, I noticed something seems off. Is everything OK?” It is a much better first step than assuming that they are deliberately doing the wrong thing.
It’s also about ensuring that they are not overloaded. This is particularly important for younger or new employees who might say yes to every task because they have not learned to prioritize their workload.
Asking them if their workload is too heavy to manage helps you ascertain whether that’s causing them to miss the mark.
Trust gets broken when we don’t consider the person doing the work and take the time to understand their situation.
2. Context
Context is about evaluating whether you have provided them with the right information about their tasks. Without the right context (the why), you won’t get alignment.
The reality is that they might be completely clueless about what’s expected of them or what good looks like in their role.
It’s a common managerial practice to skip a contextual conversation in preference for speed. But it will cost you down the line, especially with an unreliable employee.
Taking the time to get alignment ensures you set the right framework to address poor performance, if it continues.
Taking the time to get alignment ensures you set the right framework to address poor performance, if it continues.
It’s about reflecting on whether you have clearly communicated:
- The purpose of the work
- Who benefits from the work
- What you are trying to accomplish
- How the work fits in with other tasks
- How their unique contribution supports business outcomes
- What good and bad looks like – to you and the end user
- Your expectations around timing, budget, safety and quality
- Consequences if they don’t complete the work to standard
If you are not sure as to whether you have been clear about expected work outcomes, then you have to ask them to tell you what they think the outcome might be. Whether that is the purpose, what good looks like or what needs to be done by when.
3. Competence
A common reason for poor performance is that an employee doesn’t have the requisite skills or knowledge to do what you ask.
Addressing competency breaches of trust is relatively easier since we can assist the employee in improving their skills or finding a better fit in a different role.
This requires assessing their level of capability to do the task. Inquire as to whether they have done the task before or received training. If not, then you need to take the time to share effective approaches and provide examples from previous projects.
Make sure to check in with them as to how they plan to approach the task so you can course correct with further questions that direct their attention, such as, “What steps will you take ensure the data is correct?”
When there is a mismatch between your expectations and an employee’s capabilities, it’s important to adapt your approach.
It also means being available for questions and encouraging them to come back with you with two or three ideas when they get stuck, so you can help them select the right approach.
Checking in to ensure they have the right level of competence reduces the likelihood of having unreasonable expectations. It also gives you the opportunity to provide more training to help them.
When there is a mismatch between your expectations and an employee’s capabilities, it’s important to adapt your approach. Take a moment to reflect and ask yourself, “Are my expectations realistic?”
This will help you align your expectations more appropriately with their skill level.
4. Commitment
The fourth possibility of poor performance is that they lack commitment. This is much trickier to turn around, and it involves considering, “Are they committed to following through on what they promised? Do they have the motivation to get the job done?”
As Christine Comaford says in her book Smart Tribes, when an employee repeatedly drops commitment we must find out the underlying cause. Asking them, “What do you want? What will having that do for you? When will you know when you have it?”
Helping employees get clear on how the work benefits themselves, and others around them, works toward shifting them to keep their commitments.
This often requires reiterating consequences of poor quality to work to boost motivation. This might be communicating how successful delivery is linked to positive outcomes such as new skills learned, happy clients, making them feel good about themselves and future opportunities.
Or it can be pointing out negative ramifications, such as unhappy clients or limited opportunities.
5. Character
Character is about how people demonstrate values such as integrity, respect, courage, fairness and inclusion. It is about their motive and intent when working with others.
Even if an employee excels at their job, a lack of honesty will undermine their trustworthiness.
If a direct report has been given the right understanding toward their personal circumstances, received compelling information about the context and been supported to improve their capabilities and commitment, then their character is in question.
Character issues are also the most difficult to turn around because their behaviors give away whether they really want to work at the company.
Character issues are also the most difficult to turn around because their behaviors give away whether they really want to work at the company. It makes us question whether they are a cultural fit, if they cannot be trusted to live the right behaviors.
Ask yourself, “Is their character suitable for the job?”
If the answer is negative, it is crucial to engage in an open and honest dialogue about their desire to continue their employment within the organization, in order to ensure the fulfillment of everyone’s needs.
If they want to continue in their role, it’s time to work with them to design a plan to meet performance standards by a clear end date.
Managing an underperforming employee
To avoid the compelling tendency to blame an employee for their poor performance, we need to step back and assess their personal circumstances, whether they know the context of their job, their level of capability and their commitment to the job.
Only then can we start to question their character with the positive intent to align them, not malign them.
When employee performance declines, stop defaulting to distrusting the person and move to trusting a process to support them with improving.
Trust takes time to build, but with patience, empathy and support, you can empower your underperforming employee to reach their full potential.
Remember, trust takes time to build, but with patience, empathy and support, you can empower your underperforming employee to reach their full potential.
This requires thinking the best of people and helping people be their best. Use these five steps to remind you to work with positive intent when working with an underperformer. Not only does it help them, but it demonstrates that you are an ally, not an enemy.
And that is the work of a trusted leader.
Marie-Claire Ross is a speaker, trainer and coach at Trustologie who helps leaders and organizations improve trust in teams. You can find out more about how to help people love their job in her book Trusted To Thrive: How Leaders Create Connected and Accountable Teams.
