6 Reasons Why an Employee Might Be Underperforming

In a perfect world, every workday would be sunshine and rainbows. But, news flash: The world’s not perfect. And neither is any business or the people running it. Those real-life struggles and glitches create problems like the ones below that can lead to team member underperformance. But here’s the good news: They all come with solutions you can easily put into action.

1.???? Lack of Proper Onboarding and Training

Without realizing it, you could throw a new team member into the job with no idea of standard operating procedures or who to go to with questions. That’s a surefire way to block their success and keep them from doing things the way you want them done.

Solution: Retool your onboarding and training process to make sure new hires have the equipment, supplies and training they need to do their jobs well.

2.???? Lack of Role Clarity and Clear Expectations

The priorities that make total sense to you might be clear as mud to someone else. Or maybe you’ve tagged 25 functions within their role as urgent and important. Then they can’t focus well on anything.

Solution: Help team members create Key Results Areas as a clear road map for what winning looks like in their role.

3.???? Lack of Consistent Communication

What’s the only way you and your team members can really know what’s going on in everyone’s minds? By telling each other. Yet, most of us fail to prioritize regular, meaningful times to share, listen, instruct, give feedback and solve problems.

Solution: Set up regular one-on-one meetings and a weekly team member report. (Hint: Then you can address a team member’s underperformance issues when they’re still small.)

4.???? Temporary Personal Issues

Scary doctor’s reports, bad breakups, and other hard life events happen. And they can throw off productivity.

Solution: Use one-on-one meetings and team member weekly reports to stay on top of what’s happening with your team. The sooner you know about a personal issue, the better you can support your team member and help them manage their work while they deal with it.

5.???? Wrong Seat, Right Bus

Ever put an introvert in a people-heavy role or a creative in a numbers-heavy role? You might have a talented, excellent team member who’s simply not working in their sweet spot (aka they’re trying to fill a role that drains them).

Solution: Learn where their strengths lie, and then move the team member to a new position on your team that fires them up.

6. Wrong Seat and Wrong Bus

Sometimes you simply hire the wrong person. Then what? As psychologist and bestselling author Henry Cloud put it, “You have to bring an ending to something when you’ve lost hope.”

Solution: Get clear on how to fire someone the right way to ensure you handle it with dignity and respect. But before you lose all hope, make sure you’ve done everything in your power to manage your underperforming employee well.

Read more about How to Deal With an Underperforming Employee.