Coaching Resistant Performers

Coaching Resistant Performers

What do you do when a team member resists change?

You have held a corrective feedback conversation with the individual more than once, yet they haven't made an on-going behaviour change. They are resistant to improvement. We call such a person a 'resistant performer'.

Sometimes it is someone you perceive to be a poor fit for their job, and an on- going poor performer. In other cases the person involved does parts of their job well and they resist changing their behaviour in a specific area where improvement is required. Sometimes it is high performers who use KPI success as an excuse for not performing appropriately in other aspects of their role.

Too many managers allow the situation to continue on without confronting it. Others call in Human Resources and have someone else take over responsibility for the situation and move to the performance improvement process - effectively managing a resistant performer out of the organisation. We've found a 'coaching resistant performers' approach to be an effective next step before resorting to the formal HR performance management process.

This approach demonstrates that you are serious about change, and why. It mostly prompts people to make the change you are seeking. In a small number of cases, employees resign, a short time after the conversation (typically within two weeks) presumably because they don’t want to change and realise they won't be permitted to continue to behave in the way they have been.

Of course, if people don't make the change requested after the 'coaching resistant performers' conversation, the next step is to bring Human Resources into the conversation to start the performance management process.

Before You Begin

Two things need to be addressed before holding a 'coaching resistant performers' conversation.

One, you need to be sure what is influencing the unsatisfactory performance. Hopefully you became clear on that before you held the earlier corrective feedback conversation. You need to be clear before you go further.

It is easy to observe that someone's results have decreased or that they haven't met a project milestone. But, these are the results or outcomes of a person's behaviour. It is necessary to know what specific things a person is doing wrong, or failing to do right, before you can correct them.

If you aren't yet completely clear on what the problem behaviour is, you need to be before you go further.

Second, sometimes managers become upset about isolated incidents that are of little importance to the job or organisation.

One of the logical alternatives to unsatisfactory performance is termination of employment. If the behaviour or performance problem at hand has little or no real impact on the performance of your team, it makes no sense to potentially lose the valued performance of an employee, over a minor aspect of their work.

If the issue has no impact on the achievement of the key results you are seeking, you may be better off finding another way around it.

There is a Process for Coaching Resistant Performers

When anyone acts inappropriately, or fails to act appropriately, their behaviour has a negative impact on not only the outcome you are seeking, but also on other people. Consequently, this conversation is designed to probe more deeply into the negative impact of the person's behaviour- specifically in four areas:

1. The negative impact of their behaviour on their customers (external or internal).
2. The negative impact of their behaviour on their team members and/or the company.
3. The negative impact of their behaviour on you as their manager.
4. The negative impact on them should they continue acting in this manner in the future.

We've found that resistant performers are frequently unaware of the negative impacts of their inappropriate behaviour, or are willing to ignore them. Once they are forced to consider those negative impacts, they frequently change their behaviour.

So to enable you to hold the most effective 'coaching resistant performers' conversation possible, you need to be very clear on these negative consequences before you hold the conversation.

During the conversation you explore the negative consequences (or impacts) of the employee's action (or inaction) at each of the four levels, in sequence. There are two ways to do this - you can tell them, or you can ask them.

As you know, the most effective coaching technique is to 'get the words out of their mouth', so use a series of open-ended questions to identify the person’s 'perception of the negative consequences at each level. Of course, if there are negative consequences which you've identified that they can't, then you'll advise the person of them.

After you have completed the questioning at each level, attempt to seek their agreement that they recognise they need to make a change. If they do agree, and you believe they are genuine (congruent) in their agreement, move onto the corrective feedback process (ask how they could improve their future behaviour). If they do not agree, or do not appear genuine in their agreement, move onto the next level.

The Coaching Conversation Overview

Here is an overview resistant performers' conversation:

1. Describe the problem behaviour specifically. Provide examples.
2. Ask about the negative consequences to the customer (external or internal) - if relevant. Use open-ended ‘controlling’ questions to identify the person's perception of the negative consequences. Questions that define the frame and presuppose negative consequences e.g. “How does that negatively impact your customers?” Stay on track. If the person goes off on a tangent or tries justification, or if they attempt to change the conversation frame, repeat your question.
3. Once you've completed asking questions at each level, summarise all the identified negative consequences (for that level and any previously discussed levels).
4. Seek agreement that this is a problem that requires resolving. Use closed questions to seek agreement. e.g. “Knowing this, do you agree this is something you need to address?” 
5. If the person genuinely agrees, move to the corrective feedback process (see previous posts). If they do not appear genuine in their agreement, move onto the next level (see image).

Template for Conversation

Maintain eye contact when talking, avoid smiling, and keep your hands and feet still (i.e. avoid fidgeting).

Your voice tone should match the severity of the problem being discussed - slightly deeper than normal.

Prior to the Conversation

Step 1: Write down the behaviour that needs to be discussed as well as the data you have obtained.

Step 2: List possible negative consequences for each level.

The conversation

Step 1: Describe the current behaviour specifically to the team member.

Step 2: Ask team member for the negative consequences of their behaviour at each level (one level at a time and completing step 3 before moving to the next level). Progress in the sequence: Customer,Team and/or Company, You (their manager),Them. Ask the person to put themselves in the position of the affected party (i.e. the customer, team member or manager) when seeking their perception of the negative consequences. If they know the pattern of multiple perceptual positions, ask them to go ‘second position’ on the affected party.

Step 3: Once the negative consequences are exhausted for each level, use a closed question to seek agreement that their behaviour needs to change. e.g. Knowing this, do you agree this is something you need to resolve? If their answer is NO, proceed to next level.

Step 4: Once they agree to change their behaviour, move to corrective feedback, asking them how they can improve this behaviour moving forward.

Try it yourself; and if you want faster outcomes, contact me.

About the author: Geoff Wade is the founder of Onirik World Group, a consultancy that helps organisations duplicate the expertise of high performers to drive performance improvement. Among the elements of their solution are analytic tools to provide radical transparency of leadership and front-line on the job behaviour (with special attention upon the 5 to 7 habits that drive results).