Have you ever encountered a situation where you had to have difficult conversation with your employees? Or have you ever put any employee on a Performance Improvement plan? It is very unfortunate that some of the Managers try to avoid those situations. Instead of having appropriate conversation with their employees, they try to avoid those situations. Well, I am not a master of these conversations by any means, but I have few tips through which you can handle this situation well. Verbal discussion: Let say, you have a poor performer in your team. And despite of your numerous efforts to improve his performance, he didn’t improve. In this situation, I would advise you to have a personal discussion with him, if you haven’t done that already. This one-on-one discussion will give you an opportunity to explain your concern about his performance, while it will give him an opportunity to explain his side of the story. The purpose of this meeting should be to let him know about your concerns, so that he can correct those behaviors. Document your concerns: After you had your verbal discussion, you should always make sure to document those communications via e-mails or memos. This will help you not only in any legal proceedings that might arise in the future but it will also help you to reiterate your point. Your e-mail should contain summary of your discussion reinforcing your message and the place where this discussion took place. It’s a good idea to let the employee know that they will be receiving a follow up email after the meeting. Explain that it is to ensure each party is on the same page regarding discussion points. This can circumvent the perception that you are using the email for “tracking” purposes only. Follow-up discussion: You should never have a discussion with someone, and then not follow up with that. I would advise you to schedule a follow-up meeting regarding your verbal discussion as soon as you send the follow-up e-mail. Of course this meeting might not happen within 1-2 months, but it’s always a good practice to keep a checkpoint on these kind of discussions to make sure that you don’t forget it. And yeah! Make sure to have a specific agenda for this meeting. For example: specific projects that he might be working on, his performance improvement within last month, action plan to success, time frame for improvement, etc. Don’t forget to include all the consequences clearly and visibly in this meeting request. This will ensure that your employee is aware of all the consequences before you decide to take any action. I hope these tips will help to become a better manager and effectively deal with your poor performers. Let me know, if you have any other ideas through which you can effectively deal with your poor performing employee. Thanks. – Bhavin Gandhi

1. How to deal with a poor performer in your team?
by Bhavin Gandhi
Have you ever encountered a situation where you had to have difficult conversation with your employees?
Or have you ever put any employee on a Performance Improvement plan? It is very unfortunate that some of the
Managers try to avoid those situations. Instead of having appropriate conversation with their employees, they try to
avoid those situations. Well, I am not a master of these conversations by any means, but I have few tips through
which you can handle this situation well.
Verbal discussion: Let say, you have a poor performer in your team. And despite of your numerous
efforts to improve his performance, he didn’t improve. In this situation, I would advise you to have a personal
discussion with him, if you haven’t done that already. This one-on-one discussion will give you an opportunity to
explain your concern about his performance, while it will give him an opportunity to explain his side of the story. The
purpose of this meeting should be to let him know about your concerns, so that he can correct those behaviors.
Document your concerns: After you had your verbal discussion, you should always make sure to
document those communications via e-mails or memos. This will help you not only in any legal proceedings that
might arise in the future but it will also help you to reiterate your point. Your e-mail should contain summary of your
discussion reinforcing your message and the place where this discussion took place. It’s a good idea to let the
employee know that they will be receiving a follow up email after the meeting. Explain that it is to ensure each party
is on the same page regarding discussion points. This can circumvent the perception that you are using the email
for “tracking” purposes only.
Follow-up discussion: You should never have a discussion with someone, and then not follow up
with that. I would advise you to schedule a follow-up meeting regarding your verbal discussion as soon as you send
the follow-up e-mail. Of course this meeting might not happen within 1-2 months, but it’s always a good practice to
keep a checkpoint on these kind of discussions to make sure that you don’t forget it. And yeah! Make sure to have a
specific agenda for this meeting. For example: specific projects that he might be working on, his performance
1 Author: Bhavin.Gandhi@live.com | Contact information: http://gandhibhavin.wordpress.com

2. improvement within last month, action plan to success, time frame for improvement, etc. Don’t forget to include all
the consequences clearly and visibly in this meeting request. This will ensure that your employee is aware of all the
consequences before you decide to take any action.
I hope these tips will help to become a better manager and effectively deal with your poor performers. Let
me know, if you have any other ideas through which you can effectively deal with your poor performing employee.
Thanks. – Bhavin Gandhi
Bhavin Gandhi | February 13, 2012 at 2:28 PM | Tags: 21st century, Challenges, Change Management,E-mail
Communications, Employees, Leaders of Tomorrow, Leadership, Management, Manager,Manager
Training, Manager's Guide, Manager's Note, Performance Improvement, Performance
Management, Performance Review, Poor performer | Categories: 21st Century, Leadership,Management |
URL: http://wp.me/p103Cm-6z
2 Author: Bhavin.Gandhi@live.com | Contact information: http://gandhibhavin.wordpress.com