Dealing with Performance Problems

Leaders can help their employees improve their performance by using a progressive discipline system.

To help an employee with a performance problem, you should:

• get to the heart of the problem
• respond to the problem by preparing an action plan
• use discipline to deal with the problem.

Get to the heart of the problem
When there is a problem with an employee's performance, you should get to the heart of the problem before you attempt to correct it. This is important because the cause of a performance problem is not always apparent.

To correct the problem, you need to address the cause. To determine what is causing a performance problem, you should ask the following questions:

• Does the employee understand the goals and standards of the job?
• Does the employee get timely feedback on his or her performance?
• Did the employee get adequate training for the job?
• Does the employee demonstrate competency in other tasks?
• Is the employee capable of doing the work?
• Does the employee have the resources to do a good job?

Respond to the problem by preparing an action plan
Once you have determined the cause of a performance problem, you should meet with the employee involved to discuss possible solutions.

When you do this, don't get personally involved in the problem or apologize for having to deal with it. You want to help the employee succeed. Find out what the employee would like to see as an outcome. Then set up a plan of action.

Begin with the assumption that any corrective action you take should first and foremost help improve an employee's performance.

The following gives more about preparing an action plan:

• Make sure that employees with performance problems have a clear understanding of their jobs.
• Present clear information about how the job should be done, clarify each step, and emphasize the major responsibilities.
• Provide training if necessary.
• Make your employees responsible for the outcome of this process. Ask them to check back with you frequently.
• Encourage your employees.

Use discipline to deal with the problem
When it becomes necessary to take disciplinary measures, you should use a four-step procedure. Because these steps sometimes lead to termination, you should ensure that you have all of the facts and use the same procedure for all employees.

It's also important that you do not allow your judgment to be clouded by prior, unrelated problems. There is more information on the steps below:

1. In step one, verbally remind the employee about the problem, and state that the problem is now in the formal disciplinary stage.
2. Go to step two if the problem continues. Give the employee formal written notification of the continuing problem.
3. If these steps fail, move to step three, in which the employee is given one day of paid leave to decide whether to stay and improve or leave. This demonstrates the organization's desire to give the employee control over whether to stay or leave.
4. Step four is termination. Having documented all the previous steps in the employee's file, set a specific time for an interview. Inform the employee of your decision. Keep the meeting simple and short. The employee had every opportunity to improve. There is no need for further discussion.

By following well-thought-out steps in correcting performance problems, a leader can keep employees motivated and effective. Do you have procedures in place that make discipline a progressive measure?

Identifying Performance Standards

Performance standards are target measurements for achieving quality in work. The guidelines for setting performance standards follow these three perspectives:

1. establishing criteria for quality-performance standards
2. clarifying quality-performance standard
3. providing positive reinforcement and recognition for quality-performance standards

Establishing criteria for quality-performance standards
Before you set performance standards, it's important to establish your criteria. You should consider quality, quantity, time, and customer requirements as criteria for establishing performance standards.

Clarifying quality-performance standard
You should clarify your performance standards once you have established your criteria for setting them. It's important to involve your employees in this process. The following provide more information on how to do this:

• Once you establish your criteria for setting performance standards, you should describe your criteria to your employees. You should work with your employees to prioritize the tasks according to the customer requirements, and the time, quantity and level of quality needed.
• You should meet with your employees to record all the tasks and standards that are required to meet your criteria. To make your standards meaningful, they should be measurable.
• You should develop a tracking system and hold regular one-on-one discussions with your employees about work in progress. Don't wait until you have problems to establish a tracking system.

Providing positive reinforcement and recognition for quality-performance standards
After you establish your criteria and clarify your performance standards, it's important to encourage your employees to follow them. You should:

• provide positive reinforcement for following standards
• recognize those who adhere to the standards.

Performance standards are target measurements for achieving quality in work. You can use them to help your organization.

Identifying Performance Problems

In most organizations, it's essential that employees maintain certain performance standards in order for the department to meet its quotas.

When quotas are not met, you must determine why. What are the reasons for poor performance that you must understand?

There are a number of reasons for poor performance. You'll approach these reasons from three different perspectives:

• the reasons for performance problems
• the elements of performance
• the attitude behind performance.

The reasons for performance problems
Most performance difficulties arise for four different reasons. These reasons are explained below:

• Employees' lack of knowledge prevents them from knowing what to do.
• Employees lack the aptitude to do what is required of them and therefore are not capable of completing tasks.
• Excessive interferences from processes, people, or technology can create a situation where employees are not allowed to do what is required of them.
• Finally, some performance problems are caused by employees refusing to do what's required of them. When there are no safety issues involved, this is usually a result of attitude problems.

The elements of performance
When you discover performance problems, what are you actually measuring these results against? There are seven elements of performance that help you target employees' achievements. These elements of performance are:

1. Goals: What do they need to achieve?
2. Standards: How are their achievements quantified?
3. Feedback: Do they have the guidance they need?
4. Competence: Have we properly trained them?
5. Opportunity: Do they have chances for advancement?
6. Means: Do they have the tools to do their job?
7. Motive: Do they have good reasons to want to do this?

A useful tool for analyzing performance is to chart the reasons for performance problems against the elements of performance. This can help you figure out how to specifically address each performance problem.

The attitude behind performance
Attitudes are often part of vicious cycles in which an attitude provides a mental excuse to behave in a certain way. Quite often, this behavior creates a result that reinforces the original attitude.

Attitudes are not always easy to change because they can come from so many different sources. Some are brought to work by employees, and some are formed as a result of things that happen in the work setting. The following provide more about the source of attitudes:

• personal background
• self-esteem
• prior experience
• unclear goals
• poor feedback
• lack of recognition
• nature of the work
• inadequate compensation.

Consider the principal causes for performance problems for addressing the problem areas in your workplace.

Understanding Communication Strategies

Many employees are expected to argue for themselves in order to promote the organization's interests through their own department.

But how do you monitor the strategies these people use to argue for their interests?

You can encourage people to use communicative strategies to resolve conflicts. You can also stress the importance of avoiding contentious strategies that result in division. To do this, considers these points:

• rules for open communications
• conflict-resolution methods
• avoiding contentious strategies.

Rules for open communications
When you hire someone for your department, or when meetings start to get out of hand, you could bring up a series of basic rules for open communication. These are communicative strategies. The following provide more about the elements of open communication:

• I statements: When discussing your feelings about an emotional situation, use statements such as, "I feel this way when this happens." It's non-accusatory and expresses what you feel.
• willingness: People on both sides of a disagreement need to indicate their willingness to resolve their differences.
• listening: Everyone needs to hear the speaker and acknowledge through verbal and nonverbal means that he or she is listening.
• restating: When it's your turn to speak in reply to what someone else has said, restate what you believe you heard him say. This helps eliminate misunderstandings.
• agreements: It's also important to point out what interests you have in common with those you disagree with. This sets an optimistic tone for possible agreements.
• requests: It's divisive to ask someone to stop doing something you don't like; however, it's OK to request a change of behavior, especially if you suggest alternatives.
• consistency: Be consistent with your verbal and nonverbal message.
• word choice: Be careful with the words you use when describing negative feelings. Try to choose noninflammatory language and tone down your emotions.

Conflict-resolution methods
There are other strategies you can use, but these strategies should be used as a last-resort tactic, when nothing else has worked. These strategies lie somewhere in between communicative and contentious.

The following provide more about these strategies:

• Giving in is an acceptable strategy when you won't suffer long-term harm. It can be an effective bargaining chip that lets you move on to a more important point.
• When it appears that a conflict is about to escalate, it's OK to break off or even give up on trying to resolve it.
• Avoiding a problem can be OK if time will take care of it. This is a difficult decision to make.
• In emergencies, when quick and decisive actions must be taken, when you must implement an unpopular decision, or when someone is playing games with you, it is OK to be abrupt.

Avoiding contentious strategies
It is very important to point out to the people in your group what you consider to be contentious strategies. The following provide more about these inappropriate tactics:

• Sometimes, when people try to become your new best friend, and flatter and compliment you, they may be trying to get you to make a decision against your interests.
• Inducing guilt is an inappropriate way to get someone to change her mind.
• Gamesmanship is the use of maneuvers that further your own position over others.
• Another contentious tactic is the use of threats.
• Side issue remarks are derogatory comments directed at your opponent.

To resolve a conflict with an employee, it's important to use appropriate communicative strategies and avoid contention. You should show willingness and consistency in resolving a conflict, use I statements and proper word choice, listen to and restate a message, find common ground and request a change of behavior.

If these strategies do not work, you should then use an appropriate last-resort strategy.

Understanding Cooperative Resolution

Conflict occurs in every organization.

Organizations that successfully manage conflict can do so by resolving it cooperatively.

There are two means that effective leaders use to reach cooperative conflict resolution. They:

• set preconditions to a cooperative resolution
• follow the steps to a cooperative resolution.

Set preconditions to a cooperative resolution
Whenever there is a conflict between your employees, it's important to set the preconditions for cooperative resolution before any attempt is made to resolve the conflict.

This will help both parties in a conflict to separate the problem from the people involved, and work together for a mutually beneficial solution. Begin by meeting separately with each side and establishing the following preconditions for cooperative resolution.

Make certain that both parties understand that they can meet their own interests by helping others meet theirs.

Encourage both parties to come up with an alternate plan. It's important that neither side enter negotiations with a rigid mindset.

Make sure that both parties separate the people involved in the dispute from the dispute itself. Work-related problems that become personal disputes are more difficult to resolve.

Follow the steps to a cooperative resolution
Once the preconditions for a cooperative resolution are set, a leader should get the parties in a conflict to sit down together and follow the steps for a cooperative resolution. These are the four steps that a leader should follow:

• Conflicts often arise over simple misunderstandings. Taking time to eliminate all misunderstandings between parties in a conflict can make it much easier to reach a cooperative resolution.
• The second step is identifying and analyzing all issues and interests. This is an important step because it is easy to overlook issues in a conflict, yet difficult to find solutions if all issues are not identified.
• In the third step of the cooperative resolution process, leaders should help employees find integrative solutions. This type of solution allows both parties to win. As you negotiate for a mutually beneficial solution, you should make sure that neither party dominates and that both remain flexible.
• If unable to find a successful integrative solution, a leader should proceed to the fourth step. This involves revisiting each of the steps in an attempt to find a solution. If still unsuccessful, the leader makes the final decision.

To resolve conflicts between employees, it is important to follow the steps for reaching a cooperative resolution. To do this, you should eliminate misunderstandings, analyze the issues and interests of both sides, and find solutions that benefit both parties.

If a cooperative resolution is not found after following these steps, you should revisit the previous steps. If a solution is still not reached after revisiting all the steps, you will have to make the decision yourself.

By applying a variety of methods, you can resolve the conflicts between your employees cooperatively. How could these skills contribute to your own leadership abilities and to the success of your organization?

Understanding Conflict

Conflicts among employees occur in every organization.

As an effective leader you need to know how to deal with conflict.

Understanding conflict means examining:

• the concept of conflict
• constructive conflict
• the escalation of conflict
• the psychological changes that accompany conflict
• the two primary reasons for conflict.

Constructive conflict
While we all know conflict when we feel it, most of us don't work with it well because we don't understand its dynamics. What are the inner workings of conflict?

Conflict is an everyday, naturally occurring fact of life. Without it, there is no progress, evolution, or art. Don't fear it; learn how to face it and work with it. It occurs when you believe that in order to get what you want, someone else won't be able to get what he or she wants.

The concept of conflict
The resolution of a problem can show the three ways conflict can be constructive. These are:

• when it leads to unity of purpose and collaboration
• when it leads to better decision making
• when it produces change.

The escalation of conflict
Many conflicts, however, turn destructive because they escalate out of control. Consider the following reasons that conflict escalates:

• Cooperation turns into accusations and threats.
• One issue becomes many.
• A specific issue gives way to general complaints.
• Consideration turns to getting even.
• More people begin to get involved.

The psychological changes that accompany conflict
There are a number of psychological changes that happen to people when they get involved in conflicts. These are explained in detail below:

• When you are in conflict, you develop selective perception, only seeing your own side of the story. You begin to look for evidence to prove you're right.
• Conflict can also cause you to create a self-fulfilling prophecy, where you create a worst-case scenario, and then get what you expect by acting as if it's going to happen.
• When conflict is played out, a complete communication breakdown occurs. Trust is rarely reestablished, and any polite conversation that follows is filled with tension and bitterness.

The two primary reasons for conflict
There are two primary reasons for conflict. One primary reason for conflict is that two people have different interests; they want different things. Another primary reason for conflict is two people have the same interests, which are in conflict; they believe only one of them can have what they want.

Exploring conflict resolution within your organization can improve the atmosphere in the workplace and lead to greater creativity and collaboration.

Understanding Listening Strategies

Listening is one of the most valuable skills a leader can have.

Many people assume that listening is a passive experience, but it actually requires active participation. There are a variety of methods for effective listening, including:

• using attentiveness, silence, and neutrality
• reflecting and summarizing
• sorting and patterning
• noting gaps and interruptions
• expressing feeling and testing for responsibility.

When people talk, they expect others to listen to them, but they generally give little thought to what this means. The following are some first steps to good listening:

• Focus your attention on the person who's talking. Maintain eye contact. If your body language says you're not interested, the person will sense it.
• Remain silent, except for recognition that you're following along, such as a semi-verbal "uh-huh" or a head nod. This says you're paying attention.
• Maintain a neutral frame of mind. This means not judging or attempting to control the conversation, not suggesting or correcting, and not praising or criticizing.

There are two other techniques for making people aware that you are paying attention. First, use reflective statements. These are words that echo important words or phrases that the patient uses. Second, summarize what you have just heard and repeat it back to the speaker.

You can also wait for a break in the narration, and then sort out and find patterns in their experiences. This can help to sort out the differences between symptoms and deeper problems.

Try to notice inconsistencies in narratives. What is left out of a conversation can be as helpful in analyzing a situation as what is included.

Toward the end of a conversation, you can encourage the speaker to step back from their story and summarize it for themselves.

Remember that effective listening requires active participation. You should use attentiveness, silence and neutrality when listening. It's important to use reflective statements and summarize the employee's message. You should also sort symptoms from deeper problems, note gaps and interruptions in your employee's story, encourage your employee to express feeling, and test for responsibility.

Understanding Good Questions

To accomplish your goals as a businessperson and leader, one of the best strategies is knowing how to ask key questions.

Key questioning strategies can help you:

• uncover the problem in front of you
• identify the purpose of your actions
• discover the premise you're following
• determine the resources you need
• determine customer interest
• gather the data you need.

One questioning strategy used by Japanese teachers of quality is the use of Why? They suggest asking this question five times to discover the underlying causes of a problem and then finding solutions.

Another key question is aimed at discovering the purpose of any action. For example, whenever someone suggests a new project or product, you could ask, "What is the purpose of this?"

You should also subject every suggestion or idea that is presented to a question concerning its premise. A premise is the belief or attitude that forms the basis of an assumption.

Every new project, idea, or suggestion that is presented to you requires effort and resources to be carried out. To help employees figure out how to convert these thoughts into actions, you should ask them questions about resources.

Occasionally, your employees will come to you with a suggestion that you know they have not researched. Instead of dismissing the idea, use questions designed to encourage employees to come up with the data they need.

You can maintain a thriving business by knowing how to ask good questions that engage your employees in the process of improvement.

Understanding Leadership through Questioning

One of the most important things that you can do to improve your company is to ask the right questions in the right way.

Questioning strategies that improve the way employees and production process work include:

• collaborating
• experimenting
• educating
• reviewing.

Collaborating
There are many different ways that leaders can approach working with their employees. In the old style of organizations, leaders would direct rather than collaborate.

Leaders who direct have a hard time learning to ask questions. They tell others what to do and pack unsolicited advice into their conversations with subordinates. On the other hand, leaders who collaborate with their team do so by asking questions and using what they discover to improve the way the team operates.

A good piece of advice is to learn the difference between opinions and facts. Employees and co-workers are much more likely to be drawn into dialog with someone who knows the difference.

Experimenting
Leaders who understand what they don't know take the experimenter approach, using questions to learn. Leaders who think they know everything use their opinions as facts and don't listen to those who actually know.

Educating
Another hallmark of leadership is educating. When teachers start giving advice, they have failed as teachers. When leaders spell out what they believe to be true, with no room for inquiry, they are telling others what to do. But when leaders use step-by-step questions designed to let others figure out answers for themselves, they are educating.

The trickiest questioning strategy has to be employed when there is something wrong with someone's work. In the old school of management, leaders often served as inspectors. When they found a mistake, they pointed it out. "This is a mistake," they'd say. This accusatory manner makes people defensive and works against positive solutions.

Reviewing
Leaders who use reviewing as a questioning strategy learn how to ask the questions that get others to see the flaws in their own work. "How can you stop this problem from occurring?" or "What can you do to track down the source of the problem?" are inquiries that encourage participation and involvement.

By using a variety of questioning strategies to involve others in the production process, you can significantly improve quality and efficiency at your organization.

Understanding Group Communications

Group communications are essential to successful organizations.

Leaders can improve group communication by:

1. increasing team communication
2. improving organizational communication
3. using informal communication networks.

Increasing team communication
There are a number of things you can do to improve the way your group shares information. Some of these are shown below:

• Use a variety of formats to get the team together to talk, including team meetings, informal chats, and scheduled informational discussions.
• Ensure everyone understands the purpose of these sessions.
• Ensure that the group understands how proud you are of their work.
• Some people in a group can be bashful about raising questions, so you could attempt to anticipate their needs when responding to others' questions.
• You could use newsletters, bulletin boards, and e-mail to communicate with your team.

Improving organizational communication
In addition to improving communications, it is important to contribute to the communications of the larger organization. The following are examples of how contributions to organizational communications could be made:

• Every organization needs a dependable internal communications program. In larger companies, someone is usually in charge of this. In smaller companies, it can be a collective function of leaders at all levels.
• Good organizational communication means that the members are well informed on all significant issues which affect them, including business challenges, policy changes, and operational and strategic issues.
• Other issues which are included in organizational communications include organizational structure, customer service, workplace improvements, and the use of information technology.
• Leaders should always be searching for ways to improve communications outside of their immediate realms. You are also responsible for correcting any misinformation about your subordinates or department.
• It's also necessary for a leader to actively communicate with other departments to discover information that you need but has not been given to you.
• Another way of improving communications among different groups is to suggest a shared function such as a potluck lunch or weekend social activity.

Using informal communication networks
Another means used to communicate is to use informal networks. This is not much different than what is commonly called the grapevine. Leaders can use this type of communication in the following ways:

• An informal network, or grapevine, can complement or detract from other group communications.
• Accept the fact that grapevines can't be eliminated and are very difficult to control. They are, however, easy to use.
• Talking informally or casually with your subordinates and others can provide you with a vast amount of information about your organization.
• As a leader, it's your responsibility to correct and dispel any incorrect information that you discover in the grapevine.

You can use a variety of methods to improve communications among your group and between your group and the rest of the organization. How can these techniques improve your own group communications?

Improving Personal Communication Skills

Improving leadership abilities is intrinsically connected to improving communication skills.

Factors that improve personal communications include the following:

• face-to-face communicating
• listening to others
• speaking well
• presenting effectively
• writing clearly

Most staff interactions, like most business communications, occur one-on-one and in small groups. You should try to increase the quality and quantity of these small encounters because they are the most effective means of delivering his message.

The following four suggestions can be used in this setting:

1. One key in getting people to come to you when they need your help is to be approachable. Do this by adjusting your speaking style to more closely resemble those to whom you're speaking.
2. Be understanding and sincere. Being empathetic towards others and trying to understand their motivations and concerns helps create a two-way relationship.
3. Consistency in the way you communicate to others improves communication. If your approach to others is erratic, this sends confusing and conflicting messages.
4. It's also valuable to repeat your important messages from time to time to make sure that they are received and understood. Also, having your instructions mirrored back to you helps when you're having a difficult time communicating with certain people.

In addition to the face-to-face communication skills, there are other skills that would improve communication abilities:

• Leaders should aim to spend more time listening than talking. This is an active, not passive process in which you try to understand the other person's perspective. Let your ears be the gateway to others' strengths and concerns.
• Leaders need to communicate clearly. Proper speech and grammar, along with easy-to-follow points are vital to your effectiveness. Seek help if this is a problem for you.
• Making presentations is part of being a leader. Being natural, using visual aids, and including humor are all part of good presentations. Rehearse with someone whose criticism you value.

Writing skills are another area that should be considered important to your development as a leader. Learning to write correctly takes time, effort, and a real commitment. The following are tips to improve your writing:

• Visit a library or bookstore to see the resources available. In addition, write whenever possible.
• Make note of the purpose and main points of your document before you begin to write it.
• Consider who will be reading what you write, what they know about the subject, and what you want them to do after they read the document.
• Avoid using phrases that make excuses, lack confidence, or suggest incompetence.
• Keep your language simple, use a minimum of jargon, or specialized words, and be as brief as possible.
• Reread what you've written at least twice and make whatever corrections or improvements you can.
• Have an assistant or associate review the document for effectiveness, clarity, and correctness before you send it.

Finally, you should learn to improve your awareness of what you communicate nonverbally.
People are naturally aware of your physical actions when they are contradicting or working against what you're saying. Tapping your pen out of nervousness, avoiding eye contact, or looking bored all work against effective communications.

On the other hand, you can use nonverbal communications to your advantage by relaxing, maintaining good posture, staying energetic, and directly addressing others. Videotaping one of your presentations can help you correct bad habits.

The continued success of your company is due, in part, to the effectiveness of your personal communication skills. Consider which of these skills would improve your abilities.

Understanding Clear Messages

For executives, communication is a critical part of leadership.

The essential elements of sending clear messages include:

1. conceiving your messages
2. sending your messages
3. monitoring your messages.

Conceiving your messages
There are a number of steps that you can follow to create a clear message. These are shown below:

1. The first step in creating a clear message is knowing why the message needs to be sent. You could be requesting information or asking for a specific action. Carefully consider the reason for your message before you craft it.
2. Focus on who it is you're contacting. The greater your awareness of that person and his or her concerns, the greater the effectiveness of your message.
3. Believe that the details of the message already exist within you. Learn how to let this information come to the fore, and distinguish between the details that are important and those that are extraneous.

Sending your messages
The second stage of communicating her message is choosing the means of delivering her message and actually sending it.

If the message dictates a personal delivery and you can't go yourself, consider a spoken form such as a messenger, a telephone call, or a videotape. However, if the message is nonpersonal, technical, or routine in nature, then consider delivering it via letter, e-mail, news release, or organizational publication.

Monitoring your messages
The last step that you have to consider before sending your message is how you are going to monitor the receipt of the information and whether or not it was understood.

The following are a few key ideas about following up after the message is sent:

• Set up a way to check whether the message was received, understood, and retained.
• If the recipient didn't receive the message, find out why and correct the problem.
• Make sure you have the attention of the person to whom you're sending the message.

By carefully following the steps to sending a clear message and understanding the key elements of the process, you can effectively communicate information.