Not every employee you manage is going to be successful in their role. Usually, when employees underperform it may signal the need for further training or even transfer to another area perhaps more suited to their skills. Sometimes, termination may be the only option if the other avenues were unsuccessful.

Be Careful With Employee Personal Problems

Sometimes employees have personal problems outside of work that can affect their performance (and even attendance) at work. As a manager you need to be careful that you are only addressing the work problem and not the personal problem. You don’t have capacity, authority or the resources to solve personal problems as a manager.

If an employee is not performing well because of a personal problem, you will need to sit down and have a talk about it but define your objective first, which is correcting a work problem. You can direct them to human resources or employee assistance programs if there is a need but it is up to them as to how to solve the problem themselves (otherwise they will blame and possibly even sue you and your company). As a manager you can demand that they solve the problem or otherwise they may be dismissed. However, do this in a caring way but such that it is clear and there is no misunderstanding.

Confronting Challenging Behavior Personalities

When you are in management, you will come across a whole swag of different employee personalities. Some attack, some constantly seek the limelight, some complain, others don’t do anything unless it is expressly stated in their job description and so on.

The best way to confront these personalities is to take the employee aside and explain to the employee what behaviors need to change and why. Once you’ve said your bit, you need to allow them to speak and listen to what they have to say. There are often reasons as to why people behave the way they do. Be sure to have examples of the behavior so they understand what you mean. Get them to agree to change and talk about how you will monitor their behavior, remembering to give positive feedback later where improvement is shown. Before you know it, you will have both improved the performance of a problem employee and also demonstrated that you do care in them doing a good job by showing an interest in their development on an individual and team level.

Remember, you have two ears and one mouth so you should be listening twice as much as you talk.

Why Poor Listeners Fail

Poor listeners love the sound of their own voice and have to let other people hear it as well. Sometimes poor listeners also spend their time thinking of some smart arse remark with which to interject rather than listening to the other person. Poor listeners make poor managers. Remember that.

Some people can comprehend much more per minute through reading than through hearing someone talk (at a comparatively slower rate). This is especially true for speed readers. So when someone speaks, it is only natural they tend to zone out since the speaker doesn’t demand their full attention. This “comprehension gap” is another reason why some people are poor listeners. The amount of people actively listening are few and far between, so it doesn’t really take much to differentiate yourself among other managers by being an active listener.

How To Be An Active Listener

Encourage the other person to talk. Nod occassionally to show comprehension but more importantly look at the other person when they are talking to you. Don’t turn your head away or be distracted by a piece of paper. Stay focussed as much as possible.

Some well-placed comments work well in conversations: “That’s interesting. Tell me more”, “Why do you suppose that is?” To be an active listener you need to send the same signal with all of the following:

• the words you use
• your facial expressions
• your tone of voice

Naturally, when you become a good listener (and therefore a better manager) some people will start coming to you more with your problems. This can waste a lot of your time.

Conversation Terminators

Some managers use verbal cues such as “I appreciate you coming in” or “Let me think about that a while” to indicate that a conversation has come to an end for the time being. More subtle ways I’ve witnessed include a manager placing his hand on the telephone to indicate he is about to make a call when you leave. Sometimes when all else fails a bit of direct communication would not be considered rude given that all other signals have been ignored. Both parties should be actively paying attention to tune in to each other’s signals.

At the end of the day being an active listener means you are more aware of what is happening around you, especially with your direct reports, making you a more effective manager.

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The Success Habit

When assigning tasks to your team, and more specifically to new members, give tasks that can be mastered and build from there. Don’t assign an extremely challenging task such that the poor employee is stressed, struggling and destined to fail. Start with the small success to faciliate the larger ones later on.

Furthermore, if an employee should fail at a given task, never criticize them publicly. Talk to them privately in your office and never make it seem like the end of the world. Explain why an action was wrong and how it should be done next time. Remember, people come to work wanting to do a good job.

Do You Expect Perfectionism?

I must admit I do, for myself, as a project engineer. But I don’t make the mistake of thinking that others are the same as me. People have different abilities.

As a manager, don’t pretend to be perfect – others will resent you for it. Involve your employees when formulating a plan to improve your business or divisional performance. This brings ownership and a better chance of success as your team want to “make their idea work”.

Building Trust

Some other ways to build trust:

• Give clear directions when you are assigning tasks. Explain why the task is required and how long they have to complete it.
• Share the vision or your goals. Don’t guard everything close to your chest because you think people only need to know the minimum to do the job. Communication is key. If you explain how each task fits in to the bigger picture, your team will appreciate its importance and take more care in their work as they understand how it affects other people’s work.
• Share your “success and failure” experiences. This makes you human and you will develop a better relationship with your team, making you a more effective manager.

Making People Management Easy

Use Employee Handbook Templates to help you manage your staff in half the time.
Note: these are designed for Australian businesses.

Trust or Bust: How to Win by Building Trust in the Workplace