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Sep 6, 2021
Brenda Smyth
Are the underperforming employees on your team caught in a downward spiral?
When managers lower their expectations at the first sign of trouble, they’re not doing mediocre or underperforming workers any favors. Research suggests that bosses — even those with the best intentions — are often complicit in an employee’s lack of success.
Authors Jean-Francois Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux suggest that when an employee performs below expectations, managers don’t typically blame themselves. The employee doesn’t understand the work, a manager might reasonably assume. Or the employee isn’t motivated, can’t prioritize or doesn't have the right skills. Whatever the reason, the problem is assumed to be the employee’s fault — and the employee’s responsibility.
But is it?
Imagine an employee loses a client or misses a deadline. As the boss, you begin to worry and start noticing their shortcomings.
You respond by increasing the time and attention you give to this individual. You ask the employee to get your approval before making decisions, ask to see more paperwork documenting their decisions or watch the employee at meetings more closely and critique his comments more intensely.
Your intentions are good. You want to boost performance and prevent the subordinate from making more errors.
Unfortunately, however, your worker is likely to interpret the heightened attention as your lack of trust and confidence in them. Over time, your low expectations, can cause them to doubt their own thinking and ability, and lose the motivation to make autonomous decisions or to take any action at all. "Why bother?" they may be thinking. "After all, the boss will just question everything I do — or do it themself."
Helping employees succeed isn’t easy if they’ve gotten off to a rocky start. If you suspect a poor performer may actually have potential, consider discussing your observations and responsibility in helping him or her. Be cautious about jumping to quick conclusions. Instead, build an environment with open communication where workers are comfortable discussing challenges and set up small goals that will help them achieve success on their own.
This post originally ran in October 2018 and has been updated and reposted.
Brenda Smyth
Brenda Smyth is supervisor of content creation at SkillPath. Drawing from 20-plus years of business and management experience, her writings have appeared on Forbes.com, Entrepreneur.com and Training Industry Magazine.
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