A: Because they’re costing your organisation the most money.
One way to “deal” with underperformers is to “manage them out”.
But what if there was an alternative, that was much kinder and fostered a much more positive experience and outcome for the employee and the organisation?
I recently did some work for an organisation that saw the value in providing coaching for what they considered to be their lowest performers. The aim was to help them to work out whether there was a possibility for them to be happier/more productive in their work and thus become a more valuable contributor to their team/organisation, or whether it was in fact time for them to move on, saving the organisation a very significant amount of time and money.
One could argue that that should be part the line manager or HR’s remit. However that assumes that there is a good degree of trust between everyone concerned, and that emotions are easily put aside.
This is not always the case, and therefore makes it tricky for the employee to have an open and honest conversation about what might be hindering them from bringing their A-game.
That’s why it’s often useful to have an impartial person, who can ask all the right questions for the coachee to come to their own conclusion.
As a result of working with me, coachees fall into one of four categories: Remainer, Tweaker, Toe-dipper or Leaper ™.
Remainer: The employee will experience a mindset shift during our coaching and start to show up to work with newfound enthusiasm. They’ll start to enjoy their work much more and contribute in a much more positive way.
Tweaker: They will realise that they need to make small adjustments to their role in order to feel more engaged and be more productive. They may take on more (or less) responsibility, work on new projects within the organisation or tweak their working hours etc.
Toe-dipper: They may start exploring alternative work options for the future. They may seek further education in a new subject matter or start a side hustle (something companies like Google very much encourage). Interestingly, toe-dippers often become more engaged in their current work when the start toe-dipping, partly due to the fact that they’re feeling overall increased levels of happiness and satisfaction as a result of discovering new interests and strengths.
Leaper: They come to the realisation that they need to leave the organisation in pursuit of work that’s much more aligned with their strengths, values and interests.
Whatever the outcome, the employee feels valued and listened to, and can start implementing changes that will benefit everyone in the long run.
Commentaires