DEALING WITH MOOD HOOVERS

IT'S TOO LATE TO RUB THEIR NOSE IN IT

"The more you lead the people who perform the work, the less you need to manage their work performance." - a #Clarism

This week I have been having this conversation quite regularly with leaders. Many of them are now seeing with the economic contraction that certain members of their team's performance or lack thereof is becoming more noticeable. Along with the mood of some people is more prevalent. A few have resorted to making roles redundant as their revenues have currently contracted too.

This is a dangerous slope of "Shrinking to success", which is to just shrink to make the bottom line look good at the moment, not necessarily a long-game strategy. I understand though that it may be the only survival strategy you can see. 

Anyway...in discussing the redundancies and the moods and performances of the people they could not reallocate roles to, it was highlighted that many were mediocre performers who had not been performing at the desired levels anyway. This makes me a little grizzly. 

I first look to leadership for the ownership of this problem.

My question to these leaders is:

How have we allowed this level of performance to carry on, to only be brought to the forefront because "times are tough"? 

Why wasn't the level of performance dealt with prior? 

The answer is usually the same...

"It's easier not to deal with it than deal with it".

The unfortunate part is that this usually catches up with you. If you allow poor performance to continue in your business, because you didn't deal with it right away, then that's your failure...not your team's.

"Your team will live up or down to the expectations you hold them to." - a #Clarism

Just because you're a Purpose-driven Leader doesn't mean you won't have to manage performance issues from time to time. I assure you though, the better you lead them, the fewer performance issues you'll have. 

If you do have a performance issue, it is critical to deal with it immediately. 

Do not delay. 

Now I am not saying you have to write everyone up for everything they do wrong or target they don't hit but get onto the performance gap right away. 

Coach the problem to a solution ASAP! 

Don't talk to your team member a week later and say 

"Hey you remember when you did such and such...?" 

Just remember, never rub a dog's nose in a poop it did last week. It doesn't understand it.

Deal with it now.

Dave Clare

Chief Evolution Officer, Circle Leadership Global.

WEEKLY CLARISM

Please see above...you get the point.