An underperforming employee can stir up emotions that can have you feeling frustrated, disappointed and even angry.
Before addressing your underperformer, do both of you a favor, and neutralize your negative emotions.
Then use this checklist to ensure you are prepared before having a conversation:
Do:
- Get off the fence. If you're on it, you likely have an underperformer but hesitant to address the issues
- Consider the negative impact an underperformer has on the entire team/department
- Begin to collect hard evidence to support your conversation
- Set a timeline for improvement
- Acknowledge your underperformer may not even know there's a problem
- Act quickly
- Avoid letting your discomfort with conflict stop you from possibly saving a good employee and your reputation
DON'T:
- Make excuses for your underperformer
- Make excuses for your own lack of action
- Ignore red flags (that's why they are red, you can't miss them and everyone else is seeing them)
- Discount others complaints about your underperformer
- Justify underperformers behavior when they are an occasional top performer
- Blame your workload for not taking action, that's lame and won't hold up.
You've got this!
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