When to Coach Versus Fire An Employee?

Sometimes it can be difficult to know how to proceed with an employee that is not living up to their potential.  As a manager, you may spend hours analyzing the situation and wondering if you should terminate the employee, place them in a different position or show them the door.  What are the questions you should ask yourself as a manager to sort through this dilemma?  You will want to read my insights on this tough situation below.

Great sorting!

As I work with many executives throughout the Midwest, I am often asked whether a person can be improved through coaching. I understand this dilemma, because I once managed a staffing organization, and I too, would struggle with what to do with an employee that was not living up to their potential. In an earlier newsletter, I mentioned two critical questions to ask yourself before making a decision to keep or terminate an employee:

 • If this person came to you and said they were leaving, would you be sad or would you be so happy that you want to do cartwheels down the hallway?

 • If you had to do it all over again, would you hire this person?

If you do cartwheels down the hallway and would not hire the person again, it is a “no brainer”…you need to let the person go. But what about those employees that are good, but not great? They may perform below average or average on some aspects of their performance but are above average on other aspects of their work. These employees are living in the gray zone and you may grow tired of agonizing over what to do with them. Enter right stage… behavioral coaching. What exactly is behavioral coaching? It is the process of helping an underperforming employee identify the behavior(s) that are holding them back and giving them the resources to improve their behavior(s) so they are more productive. So who should offer this coaching?

 You have two options; one is to use someone inside your organization and another is to hire an outside coach. Either way you will need to follow these steps for success:

 • Make sure the employee to be coached is fully aware of the low performance areas and is not surprised! Being surprised can lead to defensiveness and will hinder the coaching process. If it turns out that the employee needs to be terminated, the performance evaluation should match your decision. In other words, do not have a stellar evaluation with a raise in his file and then try to defend your termination on behavioral issues.

 • If the behavior violates any company policies, follow your progressive disciplinary process up to and including termination.

 • Identify key stakeholders that have the greatest impact on the employee’s success and gather their perspective on the behavior(s) that need to change. Continue to engage these stakeholders by asking if the behaviors are changing over a twelve month period.

• As the coach, offer the employee tools to help with the behavior change in the format of books- to-read, seminars- to- attend and assessment tools- to- complete.

• If there is a lack of effort from the employee within the first three to six months or no significant change in the twelve months of coaching, the answer becomes clear that you need to help exit the employee from your organization.

Question for You:

Are you struggling with an employee who is not living up to their potential? Are you having trouble deciding what to do next?

 Action for You:

Answer the two powerful questions above, and if you still feel they are worth holding on to, follow the behavioral coaching steps that will allow you to keep a valuable employee and help them become aware of what is holding them back and give them tools for improvement.

How to Bounce Back from Life’s Setbacks

Have you experienced a setback in your professional or personal life?   Whether it be the death of a loved one, a divorce, job firing or demotion, life has a way of humbling us.  So, how do some people seem to bounce back so quickly while others never fully recover?  I believe the answer lies in their resiliency to life’s challenges and how prepared they are for them to occur. 

Read below for five tips that will help you gain resiliency and be better prepared for those tough punches that life can throw your way.

Great reading!

Diane

P.S.  Please share your thoughts about this email or send future topic ideas to diane@dianeamundson.com

 

 

So, you have been fired or laid off or you didn’t get the promotion you had hoped for, or you have been demoted. All of these workplace challenges can cause great anxiety in those that experience them. Your ability to bounce back from this adversity will greatly determine your future personal and professional success. So, how do you find the strength to move forward when life has delivered such a powerful blow? I believe the following five elements will help you build up your resiliency to life’s greatest challenges at home and work: • Feel the emotions fully- I use to think that people who are dealt setbacks should just “buck up” and focus on all the good things in their life instead of focusing on the negative aspects of their life. The brain and body do not work this efficiently. After a setback, you should feel your emotional responses fully and not try to stuff them down deep inside you only to resurface in another way. The stages of grief need to be felt fully from shock, sadness, anger and recovery. Oh, by the way, tears have chemicals that actually heal your emotions so they need to be experienced and not suppressed. • Spiritual guidance-By leaning into your great power whether that be God or nature, or what you believe to have greater power, now is the time to sit quietly, ask for direction and listen for any insights you gain. • Get moving- you do not have to sign up for an aerobics class or anything strenuous but exercise will help lift the depression by producing endorphins which offer healing powers. Just get active…by taking walks, gardening, bicycling or joining a fitness center. • Reach out to others-talk over your issue with friends and family to help you sort out what happened. Let them listen to your painful story and offer insights in how to move forward. Having a social network of caring friends and family is a great asset in a tough period of your life. • Have a vision or goal- creating a goal or vision that is exciting for you will give you the strength to move in a positive direction and stop the persistence negative thoughts. I believe that exercise and quiet reflection will help you gain clarity in creating a new direction or goal and keep you looking towards a better future. Question for You: There are rarely any constants in life but change, and many times these changes are painful to experience. Have you experienced great challenges in your personal and professional life? Call to Action: Begin by reaching out to those friends and family members that are great listeners and tell your story. Find a way to seek out and listen to your higher power, and get moving, as action creates the chemicals in your body and mind to combat depression and help you move towards new goals.