Episode Summary
In this episode of Mondays with Mike, Mike Staver addresses a common challenge: what should you do when an employee is clearly capable, but continues to underperform?
Mike explains that persistent underperformance often stems from a lack of clarity about what high performance looks like. He walks through a step-by-step process leaders can use to diagnose and address performance issues, emphasizing clear standards, proper resourcing, and explicit communication of authority and responsibility before moving to formal performance conversations.
Key Takeaways
- Clarity Around Expectations: Ensure the employee understands what high performance means in your organization. Standards may differ from previous environments.
- Resource Assessment: After clarifying expectations, verify the employee has the tools and resources they need to succeed.
- Authority and Responsibility: Confirm the employee has clear responsibility and enough authority to meet performance standards.
- Performance Conversations: If underperformance continues after providing clarity, resources, and authority, initiate a direct performance conversation.
- Front-end Solutions: Most performance issues can be resolved proactively through precise communication and effective resource management.
Notable Quotes
- “Remember that what is high performance to you might not be high performance to me… So that’s first—evaluate whether they’re clear about what high performance looks like.”
- “Once they’re clear about high performance, and once you’ve adequately resourced them, and once you’ve given them the authority to do it and they’re not doing it, then you have to have a performance conversation.”
- “Most of the time performance issues can be dealt with on the front end through clarity and adequate resource management.”
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