Stop Tolerating Poor Performers

Many managers tolerate poor performers because they either don’t want to rock the boat, don’t feel they have the time or interest to devote to coaching the employee, or don’t know how to coach for performance.

Don’t Rock the Boat

The manager may worry that taking action to correct poor performance will possibly make things worse.

Perhaps staffing is low, and the manager doesn’t want to risk losing a filled position.

Perhaps the manager feels that the employee’s performance, although subpar, is not so bad that it is worth roiling the waters.

Perhaps the manager is afraid of the employee’s potential response and just wants to pretend the matter will resolve itself.

The manager may also worry that having a poorly performing employee will reflect badly on the manager’s capabilities.

Don’t Have the Time

If coaching is required to improve performance, that requires time to prepare and conduct the coaching, schedule and take monitoring action, and hold the employee accountable.

If the employee’s performance is so bad that taking disciplinary action seems likely, the manager may not want to go through all the disciplinary steps involved.

It can be time-consuming to counsel the employee, document performance, and involve Human Resources personnel.

Don’t Know How

The manager may simply not know how to coach for performance improvement.

So, the manager does nothing, and the poor performance continues.

Consequences

When an employee is allowed to continue performing below established standards and expectations, the other employees’ morale and productivity are often negatively affected.

If the employee isn’t doing their fair share, the other employees have to pick up the slack.

This can lead to resentment if not burnout on the part of the other employees.

In addition, if the other employees see that subpar work is acceptable, they may decide that doing their best work isn’t necessary, either.

In all three cases, productivity suffers, deadlines aren’t met, customer needs are unfulfilled, and the organization looks bad.

What the manager may not realize is that, if they take no action to correct an employee’s poor performance, this will also cause the other employees to lose respect for the manager.

It’s very difficult to manage when you lack credibility.

When managers are uncomfortable or unwilling to coach for improved performance, it is to everyone’s benefit for them to learn: (1) that it needs to be done and (2) how to do it.

Luckily, coaching is a skill that can be learned and developed.