1. Performance Problems

2. New article on Complainers

Fearless Communication, the ezine dedicated to reducing leaders' dread about problem people at work from Dreaded Conversations and Suzanne Kryder, Ph.D.

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Word count for this issue: 640
Approximate time to read: 3 minutes

Last week we looked at a case study of Brett, your employee with a good excuse. You asked him to conduct telephone interviews with 50 clients for feedback on a new service. When he completed the project, he said that he did not have time to do 50 phone interviews, so he emailed the questions to the last 20 clients.

When an employee, colleague or even your boss has what seems like a good excuse, it is a good idea to assume s/he is innocent and to ask alot of questions. It is also a good idea to try to prevent the same kind of problem from reoccurring.

That is really what drives us nuts at work. It is not a huge surprise when things go wrong once. But when the same problem keeps happening over and over, and nobody does anything about it, that is maddening!

Often, we are waiting for someone else to fix the problem. We want people to read our minds or at least pick up from our body language that something is not working just right for us and that somebody better fix it...soon.

Unfortunately, there are not many good mind readers out there, so it is our responsibility to tell people what we want and to be very clear about our expectations.

We also need to uncover the real root of the problem. For example, with Brett, one could assume that he is not focused enough, and he simply needs to concentrate on his work more.

Or, you could decide that he is a perfectionist, and he could have completed 50 phone interviews if he lowered his standards and did not spend so much time asking the clients for details.

But maybe those are not the real causes of this performance problem.

When I was a manager, I wanted to know two things about my employees: what they were ABLE to do and what they were WILLING to do.

People are able to do a certain amount and quality of work based on their current physical, mental, and emotional skills and capacities.

Willingness describes an employee’s enthusiasm for a task or job. Do not expect people to be wildly eager to do their job all the time. Some days, willingness is measured as a lack of resistance or the absence of complaining. Particularly on routine or unpleasant tasks, that amount of willingness is enough.

Once you get a read on these two factors, you can help an employee succeed in his current position as well as possibly grow in his career.

For example, perhaps you have seen situations when an employee is both willing and able, but still not performing. In these cases, he either lacks adequate resources or a supportive environment.

If an employee is highly motivated, but not performing, he needs training.

An employee with adequate skills and a bad attitude needs a leader who first knows how to motivate him and second, knows how to teach him to motivate himself. Some leaders believe they are responsible for the lifelong motivation of their team. Nope, that is too much work! Teach them to motivate themselves.

When you have an employee who over time is both unwilling and unable to do a job regardless of how much training, resources and encouragement he receives, please transfer that person to a more suitable job. Hopefully, you have documented this person’s performance history. Because if you still can not find a good fit, the employee should be let go.

By asking questions and determining if an employee is willing and/or able, we can determine how best to help his performance. If you would like a graphic of this willing/able model, email me and ask for the Performance Problem Analysis grid.

Speaking of willingness, I wrote an article last week on “Seven Ways to Quiet the Complainers in Your Workplace.” Click here if you’re interested in reading it.

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Give me a call. I would enjoy talking with you!

Best wishes,
Suzanne

Suzanne Kryder, Ph.D.
P.O. Box 35429
Albuquerque, NM 87176 USA
505/232-8433

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© 2006 Suzanne Kryder, Ph.D. All rights reserved. You are free to use material from the Fearless Communication eZine in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link. Please also notify me where the material will appear. The attribution should read: