Hi everybody, this is Mondays with Mike, a weekly video series where I answer questions from people just like you.
The question is simple, the circumstances are not, here is my question: When is it time to let low performers go? I am a fan of the way you break people into three categories: A-performers, B-performers, and C-performers. There are C-performers working here and have been for years. My company is in the South and there is much “family tradition” in our company.
Ok, so the specifics of your questions are when is it time to let low performers go. Today! Today’s a good day. Any other questions?
Alright, here’s the thing about A-performers, B-performers, and C-performers. You need to celebrate your A-performers, call out your A-performers, make your A-performers superheroes, give them capes, make them the center of attention. “Oh, well people will think that they’re my favorites…” No, they won’t, and here’s how.
You’ve gotta have clear performance expectations of your folks. People have to know how to keep score. If they don’t know how to keep score you cannot call them A-performers, B-performers, and C-performers. There has to be specific scorecard data that I can look at if I work for you, and I will know based on the scorecard and based on the performance expectations whether or not I am a good performer. If I know the criteria for each level of performer, and I meet those criteria, I can put myself in the right category. So that’s the first thing, clarity about expectations.
The second thing is do they have opportunities to develop themselves into higher performers? So, do your C-performers know the path to becoming an A-performer? It’s one thing to say “Well, there it is Mike, it’s on the scorecard. If they do this they’re a C-performer.” There are people who work for you who want to be an A-performer, maybe they’re a B-performer or even a C-performer, that don’t know how. Take a brand new person who just started to work for you or an apprentice at a particular skill. They really want to be (sometimes) A-performers and if we just cut them loose and say be an A-performer… that’s not their problem that’s your problem because they did not have a clear path.
Then the final thing you want to keep in mind is that you want to have regular conversations with low performers to coach them up into the new role. And if they are not doing that, they are not on that path after repeated coaching and repeated clarity about how to keep score and what high performance looks like, that’s the time to let them go. But you do not do that before you do the first things that I shared with you. That would be unfair, arbitrary, and it tends to make the company look like they’re just churning and burning people. Which, by the way, is extremely expensive.
I hope that was helpful, take care.
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