Expect More ... From Your Low-Performing Employees

 Are the underperforming employees on your team caught in a downward spiral?

 

What is set-up-to-fail syndrome?

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?

 

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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.

 

Low expectations lead to low results

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."   

 

Sometimes the set-up-to-fail triggers are more subtle

• An employee is transferred into a division with a lukewarm recommendation from a previous boss. Or perhaps the boss and the employee don’t really get along on a personal basis. (Several studies have shown that boss/employee compatibility can have a significant effect on a boss’s impressions.) Again, a lack of apparent confidence in the employee’s abilities can set worry and the ensuing lowered expectations in motion.
• When a boss begins to doubt an employee’s ability, it's common for them to give choice job assignments to other people. When this happens, it becomes harder for the employee to prove the boss wrong, because he or she is only working on routine tasks. Opportunities for them to really excell are removed.
• And finally, confirmation bias (as reported in iveybusinessjournal.com) suggests that bosses subconsciously start focusing on an employee's failures and overlook the successes of these labeled "weak performers." Our brains easily categorize people and we must consciously work to prevent this from happening.

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.

 

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