Managing Poor Performance and Bad Attitudes

As a manager, you know getting all of your employees to perform at the top of their game isn’t easy to do at the best of times. When you’re faced with bad attitudes and poor performance, your job just gets tougher. Trouble is, one disengaged employee can do more than just annoy those around them; they can cause friction, frustration, resentment and low morale, which pulls down overall team performance.

Left untackled, managing employee performance can take up masses of your time and energy, leaving you struggling to juggle all the other important aspects of your role. I’ve coached a number of managers in recent years who risk losing their own sense of enthusiasm, and are neglecting the forward thinking which is a must for successful teams and in organizational performance management, because they get bogged down dealing with tricky situations and resolving problems.

So, how can you turn things around so everyone is pulling their weight and focused on generating results for shared goals?

It takes two to tango! Before you tackle your staff – take a look in the mirror!
How do you currently deal with your poor performers or those with difficult attitudes?

Managing Poor Performance – Whose Fault is It?

In all my experience working with the human side of performance, poor performance or “bad” attitude issues are rarely the fault of one individual. In fact – any concept of “fault” or “blame” is generally very unhelpful when you want to resolve a situation like this. Before even starting to consider how you might deal with the situation, you need to take an objective look at yourself, at how you manage, and the way you respond to issues of organizational performance management, underperformance or difficult behaviour in your staff.

There are five common responses managers display when managing employee performance, which can either help create a poor attitude, or exacerbate an existing one. The trick is to recognise when we are falling into these traps, so we can take steps to avoid them.

Do you recognise yourself in any of these?

Managing Poor Performance – Five Traps to Avoid

TRAP ONE: Turning a blind eye

You’re picking up the signs that all is not well, but you hope the problem will go away. You tell yourself this is a “one-off”, and that this team/employee is normally very hardworking and enthusiastic, so it must be a temporary “blip”. You decide to “leave well alone”; you’re really busy right now anyway, and feel uncomfortable and reluctant to spend time dealing with this.

Result?
Performance problems tend to build up. If it’s an individual, there’s a strong possibility others in the team will have noticed, which might affect morale or your own credibility as a manager. If it’s a number of people in a team, it’s less likely to be a unique issue and more likely to be related to something going on in the workplace which is affecting motivation. In which case – you need to know, don’t you?

Solution:
Get into the habit of recognising signs of disengagement or problem performance early on.
Ask yourself, “How often do I touch base with this individual or team? What essential management skills should I develop? How can I foster an environment where people feel they can be open about their work?”
Nip things in the bud! If it is a temporary blip, isn’t it better that you know? And approached appropriately, you will leave the individual feeling you cared enough to notice, to ask and to offer support!

The moment you notice employee performance slipping – take the bull by the horns, express your concern as specifically as you can (vague comments are totally unhelpful!), and once you’ve said what behaviour or attitudes are concerning you – shut up and listen! The more you show you are willing to listen and understand, the easier it will be to work towards a solution which leaves everyone feeling positive.

TRAP TWO: Shifting the problem!

Have you ever been guilty of seeing if you can pass the problem on to someone else? Perhaps you find a way of transferring the individual to another team, or giving them “special projects” where the concerning poor performance issue is less likely to arise.

Result:
Whilst this can resolve the situation temporarily, you’re storing up a whole host of problems for later on! The team you’ve transferred the individual to, for example, may not thank you! And what sort of hidden message are you sending the rest of your team if they feel someone is being given special treatment despite poor performance, or displaying a poor attitude? Most importantly, the individual will blithely continue unchanged, and unaware there is even an issue!

Solution:
Remember how it felt when this either happened to you, or you saw it happen to others in the past.
Tackle the issue, by taking time out to talk to the individual. As with the first solution, be clear about what you see is the issue, then listen. And ensure you both agree on what steps can be taken to improve the situation before you end the conversation.

TRAP THREE: Playing Mr. Nice Guy

Are you good at listening – and pride yourself on being a real “people person”. Do you spend time and effort trying various solutions and offering support and development to staff? Does conflict make you feel a little uneasy and uncomfortable?

Result:
Whilst a key role of any manager is to support, encourage and develop his team, sometimes this just isn’t enough, and more may be needed. Adults can sometimes be a little like children! If you don’t set clear expectations and boundaries and stick to them, there will always be some who will use this to manipulate or take advantage.

Solution:
You don’t have to ditch your Mr Nice Guy approach entirely – just combine it with a challenging development plan which will facilitate change and improvement! This is where your coaching skills can really come into their own – and where time spent cultivating a good relationship with your people can really pay dividends.

TRAP FOUR: Delegating the problem

Are you tempted to hand this over to HR or someone higher up? Sometimes this may be necessary – but almost always as a last resort, when other tactics have failed. And handing it to a colleague who you feel might be sympathetic or who is a good friend, isn’t a good idea either.

Result:
How do you think this will be perceived:
By the individual?
By the rest of the team?
By the colleague you asked for help?
By HR or your line manager?
Do I need to say more?

Solution:
Consider what tactics, if any, you have used so far in order to deal with this problem. Is this a persistent issue you’ve already tried to deal with, or a relatively recent issue? Come up with a performance management plan and clear idea of your desired outcome and timeline for seeing improvement.

Who do you know who might help you think this through? Has anyone else ever dealt with strategic management issues successfully? What can you do differently to help this individual address the issue?

Once you’ve thought this through and come up with a plan – take the necessary action!

If you’re really at the stage where you have genuinely tried a number of strategic performance management methods addressing this issue, and it simply won’t go away, then yes – it may be appropriate to delegate to someone else. But make sure you provide sufficient support, coaching and guidance through the next stages as you can.

TRAP FIVE: Taking the part of judge and jury.

We all do it – making snap judgements about people, or jumping to conclusions. Sometimes we are guilty of labelling others in a way which places them into almost extreme stereotypes. If you’ve already mentally labelled someone as a “good” or “bad” performer, this can be really unhelpful and block the opportunity for you to really get to the bottom of the performance issue.

Are your own judgements (or even worse, those of others) about this individual, or team, colouring your ability to take an objective view of the situation?

Result:
The biggest problem with this trap is it focuses on the individual’s perceived personality, rather than their actual behavior. And when you start getting personal, you’re on a back foot straight away!

Has anyone ever accused you of being “lazy”, “silly”, “arrogant”, “weak”, “bad” ……..you get the picture!
How did you respond?

In my experience, the minute anything feels like a personal attack, your barriers go up, and you start to defend yourself. Any hope of constructive discussion is blocked.

Solution:
I know it’s hard! As a coach, putting aside my own preconceptions and beliefs when I’m working with an individual, is one of the most difficult things to do – but it must be done!

One technique which helps here is a technique from Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) which is called “perceptual positions”. This offers a framework for seeing the issue from three different perspectives, and helps alleviate a knee-jerk reaction on your part. How do you do this?

First perspective: State the problem as you see it. Get clear – get specific. What exactly is the individual or team behaviour which is of concern to you, and, more importantly, what are the consequences of that? What is your desired outcome in terms of behaviour?

Second perspective: How do you think the individual/team members concerned might see it? What’s going on in their heads? Imagine them in front of you, and you’ve asked them if there’s a problem. What do you think they might say? (And the more of a blank you are at this stage, the clearer it becomes you need to find out!)

Third perspective: How would an outsider see it? Who do you know, who is not involved or doesn’t know the individuals concerned, who might give you their take on the situation? Sometimes, that “fly on the wall” view can bring a whole new perspective to the situation, which can at least ensure you don’t go wading in to a situation half cock, and encourage a willingness to listen first!

So now you know the traps to avoid when managing poor employee performance, do you recognise yourself in any of these? If your honest answer is “no”, then you’re ready to move to the next stage of dealing with the problem. Sometimes we “default” to a particular “type”. Taking time out to understand our own reactions and ways of managing poor performance can be the first step in sorting out the problem, and is certainly time well spent.