At some point, if you employ or manage people you’ll need to address poor performance.
Like many people, you probably aren’t champing at the bit to talk to staff about their failure to perform.
But the sooner you have that difficult conversation, the sooner you can address the issue and move on. Let it fester, and not only will performance continue to decline, but your credibility and ability to negotiate new, agreed terms will be seriously undermined.
Here’s how to get things back on track without throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
Be timely
The sooner you can have the conversation the better — preferably immediately after an incident has occurred, or as soon as you notice performance isn’t up to scratch.
Be direct
Beating around the bush won’t make anyone feel better. If you make it perfectly clear why you’re there, no-one will be left guessing about the weird conversation they just had with their boss.
Be respectful
People perform better if they’re allowed to maintain their dignity. See my post on Speaking the Brutal Truth (but gently). Always, always, have performance conversations in private. Praise in public and criticise privately.
Use the sandwich technique
This is basic but effective — sandwich your criticism between two slices of praise. You should start positively, to establish good will, and end positively, so that the experience is remembered more favourably. This isn’t sugar coating, it’s just effective communication that makes the most of our emotional nature.
Focus on opportunity, not issues
Point out exactly what needs to change — but discuss it in terms of the opportunity to improve, rather than simply criticising the person, their work or their behaviour.
Set clear expectations and boundaries
Leave no doubt about what must happen. Set targets and goals with your employee. Whenever possible, make sure there is a due date and you’ve set expectations that you can measure. Write it down so there can be no argument down the track. And if things go pear shaped, you’ll have documented evidence of a performance agreement. You don’t want to deal with Industrial Relations issues without documentation.
Discuss next steps
Now that you’ve built a positive environment for exploring the performance issue and clearly and respectfully set new expectations, you need to follow through. By no means is the performance conversation all sunshine and rainbows. You need to make it clear to your employee what will happen if expectations aren’t met, or boundaries are crossed. This needs to be written down and agreed to by all parties too.
Remember that the whole purpose is to improve someone’s performance — and they have to do it themselves. If they won’t, or can’t change things, eventually they will have to go — you can’t afford to have the wrong people in your business.
Let me know your favourite tips for having successful performance conversations.
Hi James,
From an observational perspective, I would like to drop some feedback about your presentation last week to the group about this topic. It was very well received and I congratulate you for gaining positive group interaction. You projected your information well to the audience and the participants were interested and pleased to hear what you had to say. You are a natural communicator, as I like to think that I am too. As you grow more into public speaking, your style and technique will evolve until you find out what works REALLY well.
The presentation “8 Conversations That Engage” by Karen Schmidt was also interesting where it concentrated on Human Resources and how you can conduct these conversations that gets results during the employment life cycle. Your presentation links into the inner circle of this topic in more depth.
Please keep it up and I look forward to seeing more verbal presentations from you at AIM or any other conference gathering. I encourage you to promote your upcoming presentations to the wider forum to gain exposure across the board.
Cheers,
Tui