This week let’s talk about how you can boost the performance of somebody in your team.   

This week let’s tackle the tough message – when you have to tell an employee that you are not happy with their performance, about what they are doing wrong and how you would like it improved.

Work place surveys around New Zealand that I’ve seen consistently show that managers in New Zealand are not good at dealing with poor performance.  In fact, they avoid it.  I’m not sure why, it could be because of the employment law, people are scared that they’ll get a personal grievance.  It could be just because we’re reluctant to tell people that they’re not going well.  But it’s not only about losing the investment you’re making in that individual it is also a de-motivator for good workers to see someone performing poorly and getting away with it.

So let’s look at some principals that might help you to deal with poor performance.

1.     The first principal is P= SC²  or Performance = Skill x confidence ²

That is confidence has more to do with improving performance than skills.  Thus, in giving feedback about improving performance we need to make sure that we maintain or boost that individual’s confidence and do not undermine them.

2.     The second principal to remember is to maintain the confidence we need to focus on giving feedback and talking about the event or the performance and its impact on the business not their traits or the individual.

Depersonalise the language you use.  Say “When our monthly reporting figures are incorrect, we provide poor information to management and that leads to …” and so on.  Rather than “You made a mistake on the reports again.  It was so embarrassing.  You are really not paying attention to your work, are you?”

We need to be aware of blame culture.  Blame culture can stem from when leaders start giving feedback which is personalised and makes the person feel guilty about their performance or work.  This is actually going to undermine their confidence and lead to worse performance.

3.     The third principal is to make sure that we focus on the employee owning the solution not the problem.  What this means is that they’ll take responsibility for the change in behaviour that you require rather than feeling bad about what went wrong.

4.     The fourth and final principal is 2 to 24.  What I mean by that is give the feedback at least 2 hours after the poor performance and within 24 hours.  Two hours allows you to cool down and 24 hours means it’s still relevant.

Let’s not forget that the most import part of success in our role as a manager or leader is the people that we work with and how they perform.  It’s the most difficult part of our work and I hope these tips will be useful this week in boosting someone’s performance in your team.

Don’t forget to let me know how you get on.

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