Is your team off the performance curve?
Performance is not linear. That’s a fact.
Many things impact work performance, including the nature of the work itself, your team, the immediate managers and peers, and so on. Stress and personal situations are not to be discounted either.
But as a manager, you need to take a call when your team member has been off the performance curve for a while.
As managers, we could sometimes be the root of such problems.
Do you see how that goes? In an earlier conversation with my team member, we discussed the need for redundant managers. The managers need to be pivotal but not turn into bottlenecks.
Yet, for many, the moment of pride occurs when the team struggles in their absence. “See how important I am?” This mindset sets up your team, and by extension, you, for failure.
By holding onto the reins, you are unintentionally limiting your team’s reach and ambitions, rather than having tight control over performance.
So, what should you do to keep performance soaring high if not this?
#1 Coaching is important
When you have a new team member or a team member who’s taking up additional responsibilities, coaching and reinforcement are critical. These moments lay down the foundation that majorly affects the future course of action your team member is likely to take. More often than not, these are informal conversations that last mere minutes, not hour-long reviews, where we forget the start of the conversation before it ends.
Your early motivation puts them in the right direction and further creates intrinsic motivation for the person. As a result, even when they are working for the long term, they do not remain dependent on your reinforcements to keep up their performance. You should certainly step in when needed; otherwise, make performance independent of your presence.
#2 Understand what’s going on
As a manager, you will encounter situations where even the star performers on your team fall behind and rely on the performance curve. What’s your move then? Putting the burden on them and sending them off to search for solutions is not right.
Instead, take a step back and put your thinking hat on. Consider what’s going on with your underperforming team member. What changed recently? What were they earlier doing to shine as a high-performer that stopped now?
The underlying reason is quite crucial in devising a solution to these challenges.
For example, let’s assume your team member Jake finds their work monotonous. As a result, they naturally do not take an interest in it anymore. Your solution should look at ways to enrich the job by adding variety to their daily tasks.
But panaceas for performance do not come in a one-size-fits-all portion.
Your other team member, Julia, is underperforming because she feels there is no growth and upskilling. Would the same solution work for her? Nope. For Junia, you need to consider the next steps in her professional journey and align them with the team’s objectives before preparing a roadmap.
Those are two areas I keep in mind while building high-performing teams. But that’s not the end of the conversation. You can catch up on the whole discussion with Laletha Nithiyanandan, Executive Director at BoP, below and learn more:
