How to make your employees want to reach for the stars: Part II

A great coach is someone who makes the poor performance of an employee his or her own responsibility. He is someone who looks at poor performance as a failure to provide some information, example, encouragement, or other resource to his employees. He recognizes that poor performers are good performers who have not yet been tapped for their potential, and he makes a plan to coach that employee towards reaching that potential. The first step, however, is to be able to identify the reasons for poor performance. Following are some of the most common reasons.

First, they feel they aren’t appreciated

No one wants to feel that they aren’t appreciated. Most of us need to get some kind of affirmation from our work and in fact, a portion of our self-esteem is based on getting that affirmation. Employees who don’t feel that they are properly appreciated – whether with money, opportunities, or just words of acknowledgement – are bound to have performance issues eventually.

This is one area in which you can take effective action as a manager. Ask yourself, if you have been providing enough positive feedback. You might need to provide more appreciation to some employees than others, and perhaps more than you would normally provide.

Second, they don’t get along with their colleagues

Most of us spend more time with our work colleagues than we do with our family or friends. If we don’t get along with our colleagues, that’s a lot of our lives that will be spent in unpleasant situations. If an employee feels like an outsider or as if he is not liked, or if he feels he has no support from his team members, then your employee is lacking a necessary resource to be able to perform at capacity.

As the team leader, you have a responsibility to foster a supportive team environment where all of your employees at least respect and are considerate of each other even if they can’t actually like each other. But there’s another reason to foster this kind of environment – your whole team will work better, which will in turn produce overall better results for you. You may need to bring the team together and flesh out the root of the problems and clear out any resentment.

Third, they lack the motivation

If an employee doesn’t see the reason for performing at the level you expect, she is not going to meet your expectations. Lacking motivation means she lacks the drive to do her best. This can also be a symptom of another problem; for example, if an employee feels that she isn’t appreciated, why would she try even harder?

If your employee is not motivated, you have the chance to find what will motivate them. Once you identify what it is that will get your employee excited and enthusiastic about their work, you will resolve this performance issue.

These are some of the main reasons that an employee may have a performance issue, but remember that there are others. Also realize that what you think is the problem at first glance may not actually be the issue at all. You will need to be willing to have open communication with your employee in order to identify the root cause.

Read more about possible reasons for a poor performance in “Coaching and Mentoring” written by MTD Training.

Download the free eBook Coaching and Mentoring right here