INSIGHTS (on leadership/self-leadership)
Few things wear out our patience, energy, or morale at work more than when an underperforming employee goes unaddressed. People get tired of carrying other people’s weight. To address chronic under-performers, you must first pinpoint WHY they’re underperforming.
To do so, use the Checklist for Underperforming Employees, or, the CUE. It’s a research-backed list of the top reasons poor performers don’t do what they’re supposed to. So why don’t they?
• They think they’re already doing it. They might not understand what’s expected of them or
what good looks like.
• They don’t know why they should do it. Maybe no one ever explained to the employee
why the thing they’re struggling with is important, so they don’t put much effort into it.
• They don’t know how to do it. Perhaps the employee never got proper training on how to do
their job.
• They don’t know when to do it. Plenty of employees work without a sense of urgency or
understanding of exactly what needs to be delivered, by when.
• They don’t know what they’re supposed to do. Many employees are working with unclear
job descriptions or without clear direction on what’s most important to focus on.
• They think something else is more important. The under-performer might simply have their
priorities wrong, perhaps through no fault of their own.
• There’s no positive outcome for doing it. Would you work hard at something if you
thought there was no reward for doing so? Probably not. It could be that the employee gets
little to no recognition or reward for their work, or only gets criticism.
• They’re rewarded for not doing it. It might be that they feel more rewarded when they spend
their time doing something else besides the thing they’re struggling with.
• They don’t like the type of work. Sometimes, employees just don’t like their job. Find out why,
and be compassionate. It could be that the job description they signed up for turned out to be
very different than reality. Or they might simply be better suited for a different role.
• There are circumstances beyond their control. You never know what people have going on
in their lives outside of work, or what uncontrollable factors might be weighing them
down. You won’t know until you make the effort to find out.
For certain, sometimes underperforming employees just aren’t talented enough to perform their job well, and no longer belong in it. But often, there’s something deeper, and quite possibly fixable, at work. One of these checklist items may very well serve as a CUE for where to turn your effort in turning around the employee’s performance.
IMPERFECTIONS (a mistake many make)
In last week’s issue of LEAD ON!, I wrote about how to know when it’s time to move on from a project, idea, or goal. Now I want to look at the other side of the coin, ensuring that you’re not giving up too soon on any of these.
Depending on which study you believe, it’s been estimated that between 50-65% of the time, we bail on a project, goal, or endeavor a tad too soon; when sticking with it for one last surge of focused effort would have dramatically increased the likelihood of getting over the goal line to victory.
Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street himself, made it clear where he stands on this, (by posting on LinkedIn no less), saying:
97% of people who quit too soon are employed by the 3% who didn’t.
Furthermore, I ask you to consider this realization I, myself, had (inspired by author Marvin Phillips)
The difference between TRY and TRIUMPH is UMPH at the end.
The point is this. For whatever you’re working on, or striving for, ask yourself, “Before I throw in the towel, could one last push (no matter how exhausting it feels) do it?”
Or are you truly pushing water uphill at this point?
All I ask is that you ask and carefully consider, setting aside the understandable exhaustion you likely feel. Bailing just before success is a tragedy worth preventing.
IMPLEMENTATION (one research-backed strategy, tip, or tool)
A reader asked me to re-share this popular tip I give about overcoming a fear of failure (she heard it at a keynote I recently gave).
If you want to overcome a fear of failure, burn the boats.
When sea-bound Greek armies landed on the shores of their enemies, the first thing they did before entering battle was to burn their boats. Suddenly, there was no turning back. You could either press forward to victory or retreat back and drown in the seas of your fear.
If you want to get past a fear of failure, you have to just commit to the thing you’re afraid of failing at. It’s all about taking that first step without overthinking it (burn the boats). We’re often more afraid of the anticipation that leads up to that first step than the first step itself. It quickly leads to more steps and your fear of failure begins to dissipate as you’re focused on what you now need to do to succeed. The bottom line here is that making a commitment puts your fear to work for you. Fear of failure disappears when you realize you can’t hide behind it anymore.
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