How to Have a Performance Conversation with Your Employee

Caught up with a sales manager friend over lunch and our casual chat led to an exchange of thoughts on staff performance. One of the common concerns is getting an employee to perform more.

To put it bluntly, it's a common question I often hear from some team leaders: How to get someone "lazy" to do more?

It reminds me of my previous engagements where I had the privilege to lead and collaborate with global digital banking teams previously. We were racing against the clock to meet deadlines. Some worked non-stop while some worked over the weekends. Eventually, there was a performance decline in the team.

Thankfully, we practiced having team retrospectives and individual performance conversations. It helped us understand better about each other's struggles, circumstances and the help needed to recover and boost performance.

Before diving into driving performance, consider to firstly clarify these 3 things:

1. What is the "laziness" or performance measured against? Is it not meeting expectations or unaligned goals?
2. What might be the reasons for someone to be "lazy"? Could it be a burn out, unclear instructions or other circumstances?
3. What might be the driver to his/her performance? Perhaps he/she need a challenge, more attention or excitement?

These insights can help you gain more clarity about the person's situation and prevent labelling someone as "lazy" which sounds judgemental.

Onto the individual performance conversation, here's a structure that you can consider:

1. Set up the conversation – Do it as soon as you can, privately and in a comfortable manner between you and him/her.
2. State your observation – What behaviors/actions you noticed. Start with the positive ones before stating the unwanted ones.
3. Elaborate the impact – Recognize the positive and negative impact(s) to him/her and the team.
4. Explain the expectations and consequences – Re-communicate the standards to meet to avoid misunderstanding.
5. Find out the concerns and needs – Let them share openly their circumstances, what's important to them and help needed from you.
6. Ask what works best for him/her – When they tell you a fix, most likely they will do it. If he/she is unsure, you may suggest a solution that is a win-win situation for the both of you.
7. Offer help or support – To provide resource or guidance where needed to help him/her get the work done well. Setting up touch-points to follow up and discuss progress helps to boost performance.

I used this structure to assist teams to perform at their best. It has helped the shyest member to successfully lead client meetings, the "drifters" to find passion and pride in their works, and managers to get recognition and praises by their team members and superiors.

Some reminders to keep close:

• Conversation means two-ways interaction. Both sides must have the equal opportunity to share their OIC (opinions, ideas or concerns).
• The conversation is not to penalize, punish or shame someone. It is to engage, elevate and empower the other person.
• Making or getting someone to do something they do not want, may yield some results temporarily, but it is a sure recipe to crumbling team relationship and productivity in the long term.
• If someone no longer want to stay or be part of the team, constructive dismissal may be the best resolution for him/her, you and the team.

I hope this helps. Share your thoughts on this structure in the comments.

I'd love to hear your views on it.

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