Ever hear yourself say: ‘they do a good job, but…’ about a team member?

This is about the ‘not quite good enough’ performer.  You know you don’t really have a good performer if your assessment of some-one in the team is qualified or you have reservations about specific aspects of their work.  The reservations may be expressed like this, ‘they do a good job, but…’

Often the qualification or concern about a team member’s performance (expressed in whatever comes after the word ‘but..’ in the statement above) relates to real concerns such as lack of team skills and ability to work co-operatively with colleagues or customers, not meeting deadlines consistently, or failing to wrap up and finalise work or projects by agreed deadlines.  If there is a qualified assessment of their performance which might sound like:  ‘they do a good job, but they could work better with other team members’; they are not a good performer.

Work out what is going on

This realisation is an opportunity for development.  It is useful and important to discuss the current performance with the staff member and to be clear about what is expected.  Often job expectations have been defined and communicated too narrowly and managers need to talk about expectations of conduct and behaviour towards others as well as the specific aspects of the job.

Put in place a support plan

A support plan identifies the areas where performance improvement is needed, the standards expected and the resources and support to achieve the expected standard.  Fortnightly reviews are usually needed during the 6-8 week period of the support plan.  At the end of that period most people, having been provided with relevant support, will be performing well.  For those that aren’t meeting the standard, it is now time to take stock.  And that is the topic of another blog.