“You’re in here every day! Why didn’t you know we weren’t on track?!” This was the accusation a project head launched at a founder when she spoke to him about his insufficient performance. “There’s too much going on in here for me to keep track!” the disgruntled employee continued, throwing the responsibility for his underperformance back at his boss.
Shortly after this exchange, the relationship collapsed completely and the founder had to let the employee go. But things hadn’t been smooth for a long time, as their conversation makes obvious.
It’s a real problem when a midlevel manager can’t keep track of their own work or team and uses these deficits as an excuse for poor work. It’s similarly dangerous for a subordinate to pretend or assume that their boss automatically recognizes everything that’s happening operationally. But these misperceptions are common among employees who mess up repeatedly without learning from their failures.
Perhaps a bigger problem for this founder was that she knew the employee was having a tough time but was waiting for him to say so himself, rather than addressing the situation promptly herself. Instead of focusing on the problematic work, her conversations with the underperforming employee included day-to-day chatter and praise for things that were going well. Unfortunately, an employee who’s sliding down the slippery slope of underperformance will grasp at the smallest twigs of success to comfort themselves that they’re doing fine and their boss understands everything that’s gone wrong.
Sometimes a Bad Job Isn’t an Underperformer’s Fault
It’s great when an employee identifies their own problems and asks for help solving them. That’s a person who’s trying to improve and grow. But when employees aren’t self-aware or self-managing, responsibility for progress falls to the leader. Leaders who are willing to help may feel relieved to see even small or inconsistent improvements, or they may help for a while until they recognize that the employee won’t ever achieve at the expected level.
Bottom line: It’s the leader’s job to ensure progress, whether or not the subordinate is capable of generating that progress—and particularly if the leader is the one who approved the underperformer’s hiring or assignment. So what’s a leader to do?
Use Structural Supports
Start by checking the situation’s parameters. You can operate as if you’re attempting a DIY project and something seems off. Go back to the plan: Do you have the right components? Did you follow the instructions in the correct sequence?
In this case, were the goals clear and well understood? Are the right people in the right assignments? Are the appropriate tools and resources readily available? If not, maybe the employee deserves a pass this time—or at the very least, perhaps they need more ongoing support to do a poorly structured job, even if that’s frustrating to the leader.
Watch for Patterns
Use checkpoints, milestones, and other reporting to assess progress. Was the work originally delivered on time and of high quality, but then something changed? Or was the work late or messy right from the beginning? As soon as you’ve noticed more than one lag or similar sets of errors, get ready to intervene—not by leaping in and taking over, but by asking probing questions to determine how things went awry.
Has the project leader provided the correct guidance to the team? Are deadlines and expectations being published and reviewed within the team? Have you kept to the schedule yourself? Did you monitor early performance and show up at the scheduled review meetings? Or did you take a “no news is good news” stance? Not knowing all the details doesn’t excuse you if you should have known.
Manage Your Avoidance
It’s not easy to confront someone who’s supposed to be an expert in the role, came highly recommended, or was the best internal candidate. And it’s hard to tell someone with whom you’re hoping to build relationship that you’re disappointed in their subpar work. But if you know something’s wrong and you don’t provide guidance promptly, you can’t blame the bad outcome on the subordinate.
Perhaps you were indirect when you noted that a deadline was missed more than once or there were errors in a presentation. Or maybe you haven’t gotten the subordinate’s agreement about how things need to go or checked to see if they have all the necessary scaffolding, training, and support. So take care of all that: Be clearer about your expectations, get their agreement about performance, and provide the necessary concrete help. But meanwhile, prepare yourself in case another default occurs. Just hoping they’ll get better will leave you increasingly frustrated if they don’t.
Don’t Let an Underperformer Bring You Down
If you’re really concerned that this person won’t improve, and you’re convinced that you’ve done all the right things, consult with your HR team and possibly your legal counsel. They can advise how to conduct a difficult feedback conversation. In general, I suggest being more, rather than less, direct. Here are a few lines you can tailor to your own needs:
- Okay, what did we agree would be the standard for this section?
- Tell me how you explained the timing to your team.
- I expect you to let me know promptly when you realize that you won’t be able to…
- Here are the things that go wrong for others when you don’t deliver on time…
- It’s your responsibility to speak up if…
- We’ve already discussed this problem twice. Please tell me what you’ll do differently to prevent it from happening again.
No one wants to feel like the bad guy or a micromanager. But you also don’t want to behave like an underperformer yourself, just hoping they’ll suddenly improve and spare you the difficulty of a painful conversation. Check in frequently with employees and be attentive to what’s happening. It’s a lot easier to ask how things are going and point out your concerns than it is to ask people if they understand that they’re almost on their way out the door.
Onward and upward—
LK