Perspectives on Subpar Performers
I had a conversation with a former coaching client last week. She was lamenting the weak performance of someone who works for her, and I couldn’t resist the inclination to put on my coaching hat and ask her a few questions about accountability. It became clear that she was tolerating the subpar performance, making it easy for the employee to do the scant minimum to keep his job.
The conversation motivated me to dust off my notes from a presentation by a guy named Mark Wiskup. I brought Mark to Indy on three occasions to speak to my leadership groups. My favorite Wiskup presentation is titled “Stop Talking and Start Communicating.” In it, Mark offers his insight on dealing with underperforming employees.
His thesis is simple: People underperform because they believe they can.
To put it another way, people underperform when they’re not held accountable, and there are no consequences for poor performance.
Mark’s words took me back three decades to a time in my work life that I’m not very proud of. I was an underperformer. I did the bare minimum because I didn’t respect my boss, and I knew he didn’t have the courage to confront me.
The lesson I learned during those dark days as I watched him avoid confrontation is that you are what you tolerate. Leadership guru Lee Thayer said it more emphatically:
How people perform is the leader’s mandate. Performance shortfalls are by choice. Poor performers aren’t incompetent; they’re simply competent at performing in incompetent ways. Dr. Thayer could have had me in mind when he wrote those words.
I’ll close with one more thought on poor performers. It’s a quote from Pat Murray, the person who has taught me about accountability and healthy confrontation. I’ve used it in executive coaching sessions more times than I can count. It’s a keeper:
There are moments of truth in organizations, when it is time to deliver on the commitment, when the performance is due. At the moment of truth, you can only get two “products.” You either get the promised performance or you get a story. In many organizations, a good story is the same as delivering the performance. If you want a good team, you have to make performance the only acceptable product. You can’t accept stories.