Karen had come to us with good recommendations as a collector. She caught on well and initially worked hard to reach her productivity numbers. Sally, her supervisor, worked with her like any new employee, to show her the various procedures, client protocols, and expectations for her performance. While Karen showed decent phone skills and reasonable production over the first six months, she also showed the tendency to want to do things her way. At first it was subtle. Some of her accounts were not documented completely. From time to time Karen was a little too aggressive on the phone. Increasingly, each time Sally corrected Karen, the more defensive Karen became. Sally attempted to give Karen good reasons for why we needed things done a certain way. Is this story familiar?
For those of you who know me, or have read what I’ve written over time, you know that I’m a huge proponent of using coaching as a style to encourage greater self-accountability and self-responsibility in our employees/leaders. This is not about that. I am assuming you have already done that. This is about understanding where to draw the line.
The line is drawn when the behavior after your coaching indicates that the person does not want to be more accountable or responsible. I could stop here and say if you see this then it is time for another conversation– the conversation about their next job. That may be the discussion, or the situation may be more of a ‘tweener’ – the person is not going to be a superstar, but you are not ready to get rid of them.
At that point, it is time to shift our attention to those who demonstrate an interest in being better, have a great attitude towards their jobs and others, and likely have the aptitude to get to another level of performance. It is instinct for us to work with those that need the most help. Often, however, this ends up going too far to the detriment of ourselves, the people with the most promise, and even those with less promise, or at least less motivation.
Continuing to invest in underperforming people takes energy from us, lowers our job satisfaction, and sends a message to our more skilled employees that they’re not as important. It’s not intentional, but our better people notice how much we’re investing in others. That’s why when I begin coaching an underperformer one of the first questions I will ask is what the person wants? What are their goals? What do they want to get out of this job, this experience? And, what is their motivation to achieve what they want? Understanding and monitoring the behavior and motivation over time helps me to more correctly invest my energy in them. When the behavior I see is inconsistent with achieving what they said they wanted I will ask them about that. If over time the inconsistency continues I may even tell them that I am not going to care more about their success then they are demonstrating. When I see greater interest (being specific about what that needs to look like) then I will invest more in their success.
We owe our very best effort as managers and leaders to develop the people who work with us. When their skill is sufficient to keep them in their job, but their motivation isn’t great enough to warrant more investment on your part, then invest in those that are motivated. It sends a powerful message to your better performers and insures you will have more energy and higher job satisfaction.