Few businesses can afford to carry non-performing staff, so a conversation about performance should happen sooner rather than later. A director and principal coach at Success Strategies, Domonique Bertolucci, advises her clients to set a time limit for the problem to resolve itself naturally; for example, make a note to take the matter further in four weeks if the situation has not changed. The benefit of leaving it for four weeks rather than three months is that the conversation is not as serious and disciplinary action does not tend to come into the picture. "You can treat it as blip rather than a crisis," Bertolucci says. The first encounter should be a mixture of offering support and a gentle kick in the behind.
Bertolucci stresses the need to keep the initial discussion non-threatening, along the lines of "you don't appear to be as sparky as you were and what can we do to change that". "It might be something as simple as they are exhausted and need a break," she says. Alternatively, it may turn out that their job has stopped being challenging and they are too bogged down in the day-to-day. They may need a new more challenging role to keep their fires burning. "Remember, you are dealing with high performers and they are driven by their sense of success."
Emily Ross
BRW Magazine, Leadership, July 2005
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment