6 ms·
I've had a few situations treated as "interpersonal conflict." It's always happened right before a lousy manager was pushed out / fired. In hindsight, IMO a wa
by gwbas1c 5y ago
I've had a few situations treated as "interpersonal conflict." It's always happened right before a lousy manager was pushed out / fired.
In hindsight, IMO a way to handle this situation is to have a 1-1 with the underperformer, and clearly explain your expectations. Bring notes. Don't be afraid to "explain common sense." You might need to have repeat meetings every 2-3 weeks.
Give periodic summaries to your supervisor, occasional summaries to your +1. Reiterate that this isn't an interpersonal conflict situation, but that the other person truly isn't doing their part of the job. If you're generally happy with your job, wait out the situation. Otherwise, this might be the que that it's time to seek greener pastures.
Furthermore: When someone isn't pulling their weight, it will show with other people. Feel out your other teammates to see what they think of the other person. If they aren't happy, make sure that they express that to their manager and +1.
Remember: All companies make bad hires from time-to-time; and good management is hard. It's okay to tolerate a few management mistakes when, overall you're happy with your job.
- pas 5y agois there any article/book/blog about this +1 system?
- gwbas1c 5y agoThe +1 is the boss's boss
- gwbas1c 5y ago2'nd reply: That's a good idea, maybe I'll blog about it someday. Although it's not exactly what you're looking for, "The E-Myth Revisited" might help you understand some of the thinking that's needed for dealing with underperformers: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About-ebook/dp/B000RO9VJK/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1648772284&sr=8-1 https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About... The book is targeted to someone running a small business that needs to hire in order to grow. Think of a restaurant, RV rental business, flower shop. The mantra is to write down how you do everything, and then train everyone. If "how you do your job" changes, then you need to update the process and re-train everyone. This is what I meant by "clearly explain your expectations" and "Don't be afraid to 'explain common sense.'" You're giving the underperformer a chance to improve, working on your "interpersonal conflict" issues, and building a set of objectives expectations that can be used to measure performance. (In my case, the underperformer quit the day after I explained all of my expectations; and the replacement that was hired was AWESOME.)
- pas 5y agoThanks for the details and the recommendations. I'm in complete agreement with them. Especially the explain the common sense part. A lot of people are ridiculously bad at communicating their expectations (both managers and managees(?))...