Team Building Tips

There are four ways to help a weak performer, regardless of the circumstances.

LIMIT THEIR ROLE: maybe they are just taking on to much work, a good indicator for that is to review a list of completed projects over their last 3 month's and compare that with the same results of every 3 month period over the last 2 years. If you find that they are not being as effective as the past then you may need to delegate some of their duties to others and have your weak performer maintain a workload that is achievable, for a short period of time.

TRAINING: if you find that it's not a matter of workload than you need to review your Training, have they been able to keep up to date on the changes within your industry? Do not discount this very important element, we all need to keep abreast of changes, made everyday to procedures that we may have been doing for years. Study in great detail every step involved with their weak area, maybe they just need to work on a specific step within the whole procedure. 

EQUIPMENT: if it's not a matter of needing to buy more or newer and better gear, most often it's a matter of how your gear is maintained. Do you or your employee have a detailed and disciplined preventative maintenance procedure? Maybe it's a matter of being trained on how to use the gear properly. Very rarely is their need to spend money to solve this reason for weak performance. 

PARTNER: give them a wingman a buddy to help you train and observe their performance, first hand. Partner them up with a strong performer, who can coach them through the difficult issues they are having. You will most often find that the wingman can observe and or find out what the real issue is behind their poor performance. 

In almost every instance it is cheaper to support a weak performer than to replace them, which is the very last resort. Don't forget to take the time to ask them what they feel might be the problem. Use the 5 Whays Method, basically ask them why, than listen. Than ask them why they think that, than listen.

Repeat this process a few times while attempting to bring the issue to the fore front. Remember the most important part of this process is the listening. They have the answer within them, it up to you to bring it out. These suggestions should help while your trying to work through the issues.

The author is Paul Godines from Adapt on a Dime Consulting http://www.adaptonadime.com asks people if they have career goals and whose helping them achieve them.