WHAT TO DO WHEN ONE OF THE TEAM ISN’T PERFORMING WELL

Let’s look at what to do when one of your team isn’t performing in a way that will achieve your outcomes. There are three things a manager could do.

1. Ignore them

Sadly, this is what happens too often when a manager sees or hears something he or she is not happy about. For example, a manager overhears one of her team speaking to a customer. The team member is using words and a tone of voice that are causing the customer to react badly. The manager thinks, ‘That really isn’t good enough. I’ll let it go this time, but if I hear him speaking that way again to a customer I’ll speak to him.’ A few days later the manager overhears the team member speak to a customer in a similar way. The manager thinks, ‘One more chance, but if I hear that again then I really will speak to him.’ Eventually the manager comes down on the team member like a ton of bricks and all hell breaks loose.

Why does the manager do this? You’ll know why you ignored behaviour you’ve been unhappy with; I’ve done it as a manager and I know why I did!

Time

Managers will often cite lack of time as a reason for not addressing poor behaviour. You don’t need me to tell you about the pressures put on your time. However, as I said in Chapter 4, managers often don’t see the value in spending time with their people. You need to find the time to deal with poor behaviour as soon as you observe it. Look at it this way: if you can nip it in the bud now, then you could save a great deal of time at a later date. Remember – ‘Procrastination is the thief of time.’

It’s not that important

There is sometimes a case for ignoring poor behaviour. We might genuinely believe that it is a one-off and it probably won’t happen again. You sometimes run the risk of being ‘picky’ and that can demotivate the team member. If someone turns up late and you know that they’re always very prompt, then you may decide to ignore it. However, it is a judgement call and you really have to be honest with yourself. Are you ignoring it for the right reason or are you avoiding the confrontation?

Maybe it’ll just go away

It’s easy to tell ourselves that it probably won’t happen again and dismiss it from our minds. Remember the Five Factors of Success. Number five is Courage and that’s what the Motivational Manager needs. These issues won’t go away, if you deal with them as they happen, you’ll make your life so much easier in the long run. You know it makes sense.

I don’t want the hassle

We often perceive that if we speak to a team member about poor performance then they’ll react badly. Well they might, and then again they might not. It all comes down to what I said earlier about your perception of whether you’re comfortable giving or receiving feedback. It’s not about how you feel it’s how your team member feels about it. They might feel okay about having poor performance pointed out. Perhaps they won’t. However, a lot of it comes down to how you speak to them. Keep reading and I’ll show you how.

I don’t want to demotivate them

This is so true and as I said earlier, there is sometimes a case for ignoring. However, you are also in danger of demotivating your team by not doing something about poor behaviour. Your people will know when they’re not doing their best – and they know that you know. If you decide to ignore it then the team member feels you don’t care and that’s when they become demotivated.

I don’t know what to do

Sometimes when a manager sees or hears poor behaviour they don’t know how best to handle it. I made the point in Chapter 1 that many managers just aren’t trained to deal with situations that arise with their team members; I know that I wasn’t when I started as a manager. If we haven’t been trained to do something then it’s often much easier to ignore it and hope it goes away.

What happens if you ignore?

As you’ll see from the above, there are several reasons for ignoring poor behaviour, and this is what happens if you do.

The team member continues to behave poorly

If you don’t say anything then it’s pretty obvious that the team member will continue with the poor behaviour and make no effort to improve. They’re not necessarily doing whatever it is deliberately (although they might be and we’ll come back to this), they may be doing it because they don’t know any other way. It may be a lack of training or a misunderstanding of what’s required.

They think you don’t care

As I said above, your team members will often know when they’re not doing well. If you don’t do anything about it then they’ll think that you’re not interested and they have no incentive to improve. The majority of people don’t like to be in this situation and it gives them a reason to look for another job.

The rest of the team notice

Don’t think for one minute that you’re the only person who notices the poor behaviour – the other team members do also. If you aren’t seen to be doing something about poor behaviour then you’ll lose credibility in the eyes of your team. Of course that doesn’t mean you need to speak to the person who isn’t performing in front of their colleagues. However, they’ll know if you’re taking action or not.

The customer is affected

Another obvious one, but if there is a member of your team who is performing poorly then there’s a good chance that the customer will suffer. And as a result your business will suffer and you won’t achieve your outcomes.

You’ll get stressed

As you know, this book is about achieving outcomes and avoiding stress. Ignoring poor behaviour will cause you to get stressed. You know you’ve ignored it, it preys on your mind and it’ll probably give you more hassle at the end of the day.

The team member leaves

They either leave for another job or you end up having to get rid of them. This gives you more hassle in terms of being short of staff and having to recruit and train new people.

So there are a lot of good reasons not to ignore poor behaviour. What are the other choices?

2. Shoot them

Only joking. However, some managers aren’t too far off this. They come down hard on team members who aren’t performing. They let them know right there and then how they feel and that the performance isn’t good enough.

Let me ask you to think of a time when somebody reprimanded you. It might have been a teacher at school, a parent or a boss; how did you feel at the time? I do this exercise on some of my seminars and people come up with a whole range of feelings:

Annoyed – embarrassed – stupid – angry – victimised – unfairly treated – resentful – low self-esteem – lack of respect – dislike of the person doing the reprimand.

So what happens if you reprimand?

Some of the above

I’m sure you can remember experiencing some of the above feelings when you were reprimanded. I know I certainly did. Do you want your people to feel that way? Is it conducive to a happy and motivated team and is it going to help you achieve your outcomes? Somehow, I don’t think so.

The team member gets stressed

All of the above feelings can lead to stress. And what will stress lead to? More days off work, poor service to customers, more hassle for you.

I have seen so many managers who come down hard on their people and then wonder why their team members always seem to have so many colds and flu and so many days off work. And of course, some of these people are spending their ‘sick days’ being interviewed for new jobs.

You get stressed

As a Motivational Manager, that is what you are trying to avoid. Having to reprimand someone is stressful for you; if they also take days of work then that adds to your stress.

They might just comply

If you reprimand one of your team for behaviour you’re unhappy about then they’re likely to respond by complying and improve temporarily. I’m sure you’ve seen the situation where the person being reprimanded says, ‘Sorry about that boss, I won’t do it again.’ They comply for a short while and then they do it again. Many people being reprimanded see it as the boss ‘having a go’ and believe that it will all blow over.

They become demotivated

If you reprimand someone then it’s very likely that they’ll totally switch off. They then just go through the motions and do just enough to get by. This is sometimes known as ‘Quit and stay’ or as ‘RIP’ (resign in place).

I told the story in Chapter 1 about my time as a salesman for a welding company. My supervisor there was continually telling me what I was doing wrong. I was reprimanded for not doing enough demonstrations, not getting enough orders and having dust on the dashboard of my car. I became totally demoralised and found it even harder to get orders. Naturally, I spent a lot of my time looking for a new job. The day I resigned my supervisor’s boss told me what a great guy I was and how I was showing so much promise. Of course it was too late by then.

They spread discontent

A team member who has been reprimanded is likely to spread discontent in your team. They’ll tell the rest of the guys their side of the story and naturally they’ll bad-mouth you. It’s then possible that team morale will drop. The team think it’s a shame that their poor colleague has been ‘picked on’ and that you’ll probably pick on them next.

They give poor service

Just imagine a situation where you’ve just reprimanded one of your team and the next person they speak to is a customer. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that the customer might receive less than excellent service. The team member doesn’t necessarily set out to give the customer bad service, but their approach and tone of voice with the customer is hardly going to be enthusiastic.

A seminar participant once told me that she had been reprimanded by her manager for not smiling enough at customers. She worked in a retail department store and her manager had been watching her on one of the security cameras. Can you imagine the sort of smiles given to the customer after that reprimand? I don’t think they’d be too genuine.

You have to do more interviewing

If you take the reprimand route to deal with poor behaviour then you could spend a great deal of your time interviewing for new people. Some people take reprimands as part of their job. Many more are unwilling to accept them, particularly in areas where there are other jobs to be had. However, those who accept reprimands as part of the job are unlikely to be happy, motivated and productive workers.

They never do it again

One result of a reprimand is that the team member may not repeat the poor behaviour again. I can remember reprimands that I’ve had for poor behaviour – not that I had too many of them. I vowed to myself that I would never do it again. However, I can also remember thinking, ‘And I’m not going to work for someone who treats me like that.’

You don’t want your team members to repeat poor behaviour but you also don’t want any of the other horrors described above. However, there is something you can do to deal effectively with poor behaviour and that’s coaching.

3. Coach them

Coaching is about finding out the cause of poor performance or behaviour and discussing with the team member about how to put it right. The team member might respond immediately to coaching and improve the situation. However, the improvement may not always be permanent and you may have to do further coaching.

When I suggest coaching to some managers, they see it as some kind of touchy-feely, softly-softly approach. Let me assure you right now – it’s not! It’s about telling the team member what you’re not happy with, listening to what they have to say and agreeing a way forward.

The goal is to achieve a change in behaviour that the team member is committed to and helps you achieve your outcomes. So let’s look at the benefits of coaching.

The team member feels good

I asked you earlier to think of a time when you were reprimanded and how you felt. Now think of a time when somebody – a teacher, parent, boss – coached, taught or encouraged you to get better at something. When I ask this question at seminars I get responses such as, ‘I felt good – inspired – motivated – pleased – confident – wanted to do better.’ This is what you’re aiming for in your team.

More productive behaviour

The first objective of coaching is to resolve the poor behaviour. If it’s done properly then that’s what you’ll achieve. However, there are other benefits.

The team member knows what’s expected

Coaching allows you to make it very clear to your team members what is expected of them. Many managers fall into the trap of assuming that the team member knows what is expected. This is the reason for many examples of poor behaviour, such as:

• The team member didn’t know reports had to be submitted by the 15th of the month.
• They didn’t know they could give the customer their money back.
• They didn’t know they had to be on time for the meeting.

I mentioned in Chapter 2 about, ‘seeing it how they see it’. You might believe that you should always be dead on time for a meeting, but your team member may think that five or ten minutes either way makes no difference. Coaching allows you to calmly make clear what’s expected.

The team member is motivated to change

As we’ve discussed before, the only real motivation is internal motivation. Coaching allows you to create the environment in which team members make the decision to change for themselves. This means that they’re more committed to the change and it’s more likely to happen. It’s also easier on you because you don’t have to ‘drive’ the team members to make the changes.

They know you care

If you coach in the way we’re coming on to look at, your people will see you as supportive and understanding. They’ll know that you’re not just picking on them and they’ll understand that you’re looking for a win-win situation.

It ensures a happy and motivated team

That means better results, you achieving your outcomes and much less stress all round.

Fewer warning interviews

If you coach poor behaviour as and when it occurs then you’re likely to have far fewer warning interviews. As we discussed earlier, the manager who ignores poor behaviour lets the situation build up and then finds himself in the ‘warning’ situation.

Coaching v reprimand

Let me give some further thoughts on what I mean by coaching. Imagine for a moment that you are coaching an athlete who’s going for Olympic Gold. A reprimand would be, ‘That was a totally useless performance, you’re never going to make the Olympics with a time like that and you’d better shape up your ideas.’

Alternatively, you could say, ‘That was a good performance, I liked the way you came out of the blocks. All we need to do is find a way to shave another two seconds off your time and you’re going to win an Olympic Gold Medal. I’ve got some ideas on how we can do that. What do you think we can do?’

Which style is going to get the results you require? I know which one I’ve found to work.

THE WAY TO COACH

Whether it’s Confirming or Productive feedback, it needs to be done in a particular way and the same rules apply for both.

Confirming feedback

Have you ever heard yourself say to a team member, ‘You’re really great’ – ‘You’re a star’ – ‘I think you’re brilliant’ – ‘You’re doing a great job?’

It’s got to be a plus point that you’re giving Confirming feedback and there’s nothing intrinsically wrong with any of the statements above; however, they could be better. There is a danger that these statements could come across as a bit patronising. Managers who find it a bit difficult to give Confirming feedback might also feel uncomfortable with these types of statements.

One of the other reasons for giving Confirming feedback is to get more of the same behaviour; the statements above may not guarantee that. Let me give you an example of what I mean.

Fred has just submitted a report that you’re pleased with and you decide to tell him so: ‘That’s a great report Fred; you’re brilliant at writing reports!’ But what made the report great and why is Fred so brilliant at writing them?

It would have been better to say, ‘I liked the way you structured that report Fred. The words you used and the use of diagrams made it easy for me to understand. Thank you for the time you have obviously put into it.’ Fred now knows what it is you like about his report and is more likely to write in a similar way in the future.

This is what we call being Descriptive. You are describing to the team member what you saw or heard that you liked. This carries much more weight than a ‘Well done!’ Managers who are uncomfortable with Confirming feedback find this easier to do because it takes the ‘emotion’ out of the statement. There is also less risk of sounding patronising.

Productive feedback

It’s even more important to use descriptive statements when you see or hear something you’re not happy with.

We talked at great length in Chapter 2 about thinking instead of reacting; this is where you need to do a lot of thinking.

It’s so easy to react when a team member does or says something we don’t like. We say things like, ‘You’ve got the wrong attitude!’– ‘You’re hopeless!’ – ‘That was a stupid way to deal with that situation!’ – ‘You’ll need to shape up!’ – ‘You’re not very responsible!’ Statements like these will only get the team member’s back up and won’t get the change in behaviour you want.

Let’s say that one of your team turns up late for the third time in a week. You decided to ignore the first two late situations but this third time has made you angry. You might say, ‘You’ve got the wrong attitude to this job, you’re always late and I’m not having it. If you’re late again you’ll receive an official warning.’

That statement is not descriptive, it’s reactive. It stresses you, it demotivates the team member and it’s unlikely to resolve the situation. A descriptive statement would be, ‘I’m unhappy with the fact that you’ve been late for work three times this week. I’m willing to hear your reasons for being late and agree with you how we can prevent this happening in the future.’ You’re letting the team member know that you’re not prepared to accept their lateness but you’re willing to hear their side of the story.

When you describe performance, you are focusing on specific behaviour. You describe what you see and what you hear in clear terms that the team member can also see, hear and understand.

I’ve been in a situation like this where a team member is turning up late. After some discussion it turns out that there’s some domestic problem, with children or some other family situation that’s causing them to be late. Of course, you also get the person who’s just cutting it too fine in timing their journey to work.

We’ve looked at the fact that members of your team see the world in a different way from you and from each other. Some people are very particular about being on time and others take a much more relaxed view. They think it’s okay to arrive for work ten or fifteen minutes late because they often work through their lunch hour or stay late in the evening. If you’re not prepared to accept that then you need to tell them so. However, you may wish to make a judgement call and accept their timekeeping. At the end of the day it comes back to outcomes – are they producing the results? You may have to consider how their timekeeping affects the other members of the team.

I’ve only talked about lateness. However, there are many other situations where you will be required to give some Productive feedback and coach people. It could be the way the team member speaks to a customer or a colleague. It could be for failing to produce the required results. Whatever it is, using descriptive statements and coaching the individual will resolve the situation in terms of your interests and those of the team members.

Let’s look at the detail of giving feedback. Whether you want to reinforce behaviour (Confirming feedback) or change unacceptable behaviour (Productive feedback), there are certain steps you need to follow to make it work.