What steps can you take to address underperformance in your team?

It is imperative that underperformance CANNOT be an opinion! Managers must establish clear expectation in advance. If you 'feel' someone is underperforming first you need to check yourself. 1. Have you set clear expectations, identified deliverables or measurable performance metrics? If not, there is no underperformance. 2. Have you communicated promptly after an event where your expectations were not met? You can't wait for end-of-year reviews to drop a bomb of underperformance. That just illustrates that you're underperforming as a manager! 3. Have you asked, "Why?" There could be a number of environmental factors both internally to the workspace and externally in their personal life that could be easily mitigated by intrusive leadership.

Encourage leaders use Gilbert's behavior engineering model to assess if the right performance factors (environment & individual) are in place to achieve desired outcomes. Research indicates envt. factors account for 75% of performance gaps. Envt. Factor #1 Data, Info & Feedback: Effective leadership - set clear expectations, define what good looks like + provide consistent, relevant performance feedback & coaching. Envt. Factor #2 Work Envt. Support, Resources & Tools: Is there ample time, organized processes, tools, systems, and support for performance success? Envt. Factor #3 Consequences, Incentives, Rewards: Are monetary/non-monetary incentives, oppts. for career advancement, & consequences for poor performance adequate? Start with #1!

1. Identify Root Causes: Pinpoint specific issues causing underperformance. 2. Set Clear Expectations: Ensure team members understand their roles, responsibilities, & performance expectations. 3. Provide Feedback: Regularly communicate feedback, highlighting areas of improvement and acknowledging achievements. 4. Offer Support and Resources: 5. Goal Setting: Collaboratively set realistic and achievable performance goals. 6. Regular Check-ins: Schedule frequent one-on-one meetings. 7. Training and Development: 8. Performance Improvement Plan (PIP): 9. Encourage Open Communication: 10. Recognition and Rewards: 11. Reassignment or Restructuring: 12. Document Everything: 13. Seek HR Involvement:

Clarify Expectations: Ensure that team members understand their roles and responsibilities clearly. Clearly outline performance expectations and standards. Provide Feedback: Offer constructive feedback in a private setting, focusing on specific behaviors or tasks that need improvement rather than making it personal. Set Goals: Collaboratively set achievable goals with the team member to improve performance. Make sure the goals are measurable and realistic. Offer Support: Provide resources, training, or mentorship to help the team member improve their skills or address any obstacles they may be facing. Monitor Progress: Regularly check in with the team member to track progress toward goals.

Absolutely agree with many of the thoughts and expressions here . There has to be specific goals with timelines , detailed process steps , and consistent follow up with coaching on progress and pitfalls . Critical to know the cause and effects of why underperformance is occurring. Validating that it’s not a breakdown in training or understanding is vital to coaching and improving underperformance .

Under performance in most cases is due to lack of involvement, an effective manager should try and understand the reasons behind it. In general, lack of involvement can be due to; - Not being satisfied with the tasks assigned, i.e. feeling under-utilized, frequently engaging with resources can avoid this. - Feeling under paid, incentivizing few tasks can help here. - One way communication, i.e., not listening to the opinion of resources. - A feel of exploitation, this can be avoided by creating a feedback mechanism. - Health or personal issues. Continuously communicating with the team will help in improving underperformance, most importantly listening to their views and acknowledging them will improve the situation.

No person comes 100% qualified for all aspects of a job. Everyone must grow to fill in the requirements. Everyone has their good and bad parts, the key, in my opinion, is to identify them and build a team that can cover the whole spectrum. Then help in every way you can to take a good point and make it great! There is no way that a team can underperform if the right person is doing the best job he can. Then, after having a winning team, you can concentrate on leveling up their shortcomings.

In my experience, honest feedback is the most helpful and then establishing steps together to achieve goals. Often, under performance of front line employees may also be due to managers ill equipped to handle training; feedback and overall support. Helping managers to achieve their best will trickle down to those who report up through the organization.

After an adjustment period, for a new starter, when they can understand the nature of the work required, you need to present them with your requirements road map and the end goals and start a negotiation about the timeframe needed. I found that the best way is to set measurable short-term goals, usually 1 important and 2 medium, but related to the main one, and work out from there.

The greatest asset you can build is trust. The people need to know there is someone who will take care of them, support and defend them, and above all else, trust that when they are told they are wrong, the arguments are real and objective. When you manage that, they will let go of their egos, will come to a negotiation with an open mind, and you can then achieve a win-win solution. For this, practicing active listening and empathy are paramount, and you, as a manager, need to be the first to let go of your own ego.

The most important skill for leaders in this area is listening to employees, colleagues and those in upper leadership roles. It's listening for those areas where people don't feel empowered and then finding those areas where change is possible. Don't overpromise but deliver on what you obligated yourself to do.

Best path is to provide what Kim Scott calls, Radical Candor. In the spirit of caring personally and challenging directly, a leader, or frankly any colleague, can offer up constructive feedback that can help others grow and develop.

This is the most important step in addressing underperformance on your team. As a program manager, you need to make sure you are providing the team with the resources and support they need to be successful and achieve the SMART goals you set up with them. This will also be easier to do after assessing the situation and addressing conflicts or barriers.

Resource access and distribution must be transparent. This will allow everyone to manage their time and access in a fluid way, without conflicts. All team members should be at least on the same level of understanding of how the resources function, receive training if needed, and should be empowered to share them by themselves, only needing oversight in an urgent situation, when you will need to decide what has priority.

Trust, but verify! You should trust your team to perform at their best but should verify they have all the support to do that. Depending on the project's complexity, there should be intermediary milestones, clearly defined due dates, and points of no return. As you are the buffer between the team and stakeholders, it's your duty to create a transparent environment, with just enough meetings.

Improving performance is a journey and no one tactic will get the job done. I've had the pleasure of up-skilling an employee from being on an unofficial performance plan to one of my top performers earning a promotion. It was a culmination of all the things mentioned in this article, plus a few more: - They have to want to improve and that needs to be mutually understood between the two of you - You have to believe in them and see them in your team's future Some realistic advice shared with me early on in my management career was "don't over invest in your worst employees, put that energy into your top performers". Ensuring you, and your under performer both want and believe in the same future is the mutual foundation to start from.