Three Strikes
I recently had a relatively new sales manager confide in me that she was wrestling with the internal discomfort of initiating her first firing.
I recall the first time I had to terminate an employee. I was the ripe old age of 24, and found the task so distasteful that I had to pull off on the side of the road on the way home that evening and throw up.
To this day, I feel that failure of a staff member is also partially failure on management’s part. It’s management’s mandate to recruit and cultivate great people.
Having said that, management can lose the respect of the rest of the staff if they are perceived to be too weak to do what is in the company’s best interest and tolerate an underperforming employee.
And you can bet your underperformer doesn’t feel very good about their career either.
Before dismissing a person for underperformance, however, I recommend you use my Three Strikes process.
Step one: is to only manage what can be measured. Underperformance is the generic result of not doing certain things right or often enough. Identify exactly and precisely what steps the ‘underperformer’ is missing or why they aren’t performing to par.
Get them to agree to specific tactics or actions, complete with specific measureable goals and deadlines, to improve their results and document and confirm that agreement in writing. ‘Attitude’ for example, can be subjective and hard to measure, but showing up on time every day or making ‘x’ number of presentations is a measurable sign of a good attitude.
Step two: give the person three opportunities to correct those specific causes. And during each of those opportunities, offer your assistance, training, coaching and whatever resources you can bring to the table to help them achieve those goals.
Once you’ve done your best three times and the individual has not progressed in those specific problem areas, you’re doing them, yourself, your company, and the other people on staff a huge favor when you give them the opportunity to seek a new career.
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