I sometimes work with clients who have become so concerned and frustrated about the performance of one of their staff that they have reluctantly called me in to see if I can help. As helping people improve their capability is why I went into learning & development in the first place, I find this kind of work very rewarding. A successful outcome always feels like a triumph – the person improves their work performance, and it’s a relief to all concerned to resolve or avert a formal performance management situation.
The sorts of things which can help improve a performance problem include:
Identifying the Performance Gap
What are the manager’s expectations about performance for a competent person in this role?
Sometimes the manager’s expectations have not been properly communicated – the job description is woolly and out of date, the success measures have not been thought through, there has been inadequate communication about the priorities and inadequate feedback about the work.
How is the person actually performing?
There can be gaps between expected performance and actual performance in one or more parts of the work, and in how the job gets done as well as what gets done. The manager needs to work through the specifics of what needs to improve.
Identifying Why the Performance Gaps have Arisen
Once the gaps have been articulated then the manager needs to find out why the gaps have arisen. Performance gaps can arise for a number of reasons including:
Knowledge: The person does not know what needs to be done, or how to do it.
Skills: The person knows what to do and how to do it but needs practice to do it properly.
Attitude: The person is not motivated to do it, there are no positive consequences for good performance, no negative consequences for poor performance.
Capability: No matter what is done to help, the person will never be able to perform to the right standard. You've got a recruitment or a promotion problem.
Resources: The person is working flat out and doing the best as can be expected in the circumstances, however does not have the team or equipment or support needed.
Processes: A poor process or poor work organisation is getting in the way of the work being done efficiently.
Once the reasons have been identified then the solutions become a bit clearer: perhaps further training or coaching, further practice, arranging a consequence which matters, changing the role, changing the resources, changing the process.
Happy detective work!