If you’ve got a poor performer, what should you do?
I’ve often heard things like “Some people only respond to being kicked” or “being nice doesn’t work on everyone”.
Ask any dog trainer and they’ll tell you that it’s all about reward. If your dog doesn’t come back when you call her, and then when she finally does come back you tell her off, she won’t come back next time! You have to praise her when she eventually comes back – reward the good behaviour when it finally happens!
Are people different to dogs, in that criticising or threatening them can work? I think the answer is “Sort of, but only in a bad way. Yes in the short term, but not in the longer term.” I hope this diagram explains why. I hope this diagram becomes famous and that every manager in the world sees it and understands it – it could make the world a better place.
If a person is doing badly in their job, there are two possible reasons. Aptitude or Attitude. Either they don’t know how, or they don’t want to do it. Clearly you can’t kick Aptitude into them; training is the only answer to that – but can you kick Attitude into them?? If they are lazy, or don’t care, will threatening them make them work harder?
I would suggest that you can go up the LEFT hand side of the J by using threats and coercion, and you can get a bit more out of a person – but only up to a point, because you can’t force them to care, and you can’t force them to be creative, and without these two things you won’t get much useful work out of them. (And when you’re not around you won’t get ANY work from them at all!).
If you go up the RIGHT hand side of the J then the sky’s the limit! With praise and encouragement and coaching and ownership and trust and thanks and belonging they would start to care, to be creative, and could well go beyond the call of duty, beyond what you expected or even what you could imagine, maybe even beyond what THEY could imagine. The left side might reach “Satisfactory” if you’re lucky but the right side can go well beyond that.
Why would anyone take the left route?
Maybe because it’s easier and quicker, maybe because the person has annoyed you and it’s your natural reaction to have a go at them, perhaps because you just can’t understand a person who doesn’t care about the job. And maybe because you, or someone before you, has already started down that road so you can’t really turn around. Once you’ve started on that left hand path, the road to nowhere, it’s hard to go back down and up the right had side. There could be a temporary drop in performance as you take off the pressure, and an investment in time to motivate the person. But it’s the only choice – otherwise you just go further up the road to nowhere.
Can everyone be saved?
I don’t know. Probably not. I think some people are so ‘broken’ by previous bad management, or maybe in their life before work, that it’s not viable to turn them around, and you may have to set them free, to find a more suitable life for themselves. But you owe it to them to try, and you might be surprised. Don’t judge them to be a lost cause, don’t prejudge that positive management won’t work on them – at least give it a try.
And pass this on!
Should you tell them what you’re doing?
Yes indeed! Show them the J of Judgment. Tell them they are half way up the left fork but you want to change the way you work with them because currently it’s got no future. Ask if they want to give it a go?
Management training:
https://www.udemy.com/practical-leadership/?couponCode=SPECIAL10
