I recently read this article about how to manage low performers and it made me think of something I consider to be wrong that I saw many times while working as an EM in different companies.

The situation

I’ve had my share of dealing with underperformance: as EM I had to manage people underperforming in my team, whom I had known for a while, and also people on PiP who I didn’t really know who moved to my team so I could work with them during that phase.

I remember noticing something when I was talking about other managers about these cases or when they talked about themselves dealing with people underperforming that I couldn’t put my finger on but it feel strange, as if something was wrong but I couldn’t tell what.

What was going on

Eventually, I identified what it was. What I found wrong, almost to the point of being uncomfortable, was that almost every manager around me was focusing completely on measuring the low performance and having proof of it rather than focusing on actually helping the person underperforming improve.

I understand that dealing with someone underperforming can get ugly if the person refuses to acknowledge the low performance or feedback and they can get defensive or completely irrational but in my experience, it takes a long time until the situation gets to that point. Most underperforming people that I worked with were smart and acknowledged the problem right away and were willing to work with me in improving the situation. The secret is that I was very honest about the situation and I made it very clear that my goal was to help them.

What you can do

First and foremost, what you can, and should, do is to set clear expectations and have empathy.

Clear expectations are needed to have the same understanding regarding what’s not working well and what needs to change, and how much, to rectify the course. You won’t be able to make a plan and stick to it without them.

Empathy will enable you to actually help them.

They are people with problems and goals and motivation just like you who may be going through a difficult time, or maybe they were badly managed before or they are just feeling tired or unmotivated. If you keep that in front of what you say and do, you will be able to focus on actually helping them instead of focusing on measuring how bad they are doing and they will recognize that and trust you.

If you think you’re job as a manager when it comes to low performers is to get proof that they are low performers then you are a terrible manager.

I have a pretty good success ratio when it comes to dealing with people underperforming, helping all of them to improve and eventually get back to a level of good performance. I don’t think it’s because I have a special talent for it, because I don’t have it, but rather because from day one I set out to help them and made that very clear. Of course, they could still not trust me and assume I wanted to PiP them and get rid of them but that never happened. Instead, we were able to make a reasonable plan, find ways to reasonably measure it, and act on it.