CHAPTER 7
Lack of Requisite Skills

Have you ever wondered what makes some people successful in the business world, while others never quite reach their desired level of achievement? Generally speaking, three ingredients are necessary to make someone successful: intelligence, motivation (aka the “desire factor”), and communication/bonding/people skills. If any one of these three factors is missing, a career will typically fall short of its potential. For example, deep intelligence without motivation will typically not go very far. Intense motivation without the ability to bond with others makes it difficult for a career to take root because people skills make up the glue that bonds us together. And great communication and people skills without intelligence and motivation will make it equally difficult to launch a successful career in business.

All people have differing levels of intelligence, motivation, and communication abilities, and all three of these traits determine an individual’s competence. However, although employers can’t really impact these innate character traits in others, there are subgroups of characteristics that are indeed “influence-able” from the standpoint of human interaction and conditioning.

When employees excel in areas such as organization, time management, technical know-how, and logical problem solving, then their careers will typically stand out, and your company will reap the benefit. However, when these same skills atrophy due to lack of application or motivation, then careers stall and company performance suffers.

When you’re challenged by subordinates who suffer from mediocre performance, look first to create a work environment in which they can motivate themselves. Look second at providing the appropriate training and skills acquisition opportunities to ensure their success. And look third at holding them accountable for their own growth and development. After all, no supervisor can force a subordinate to educate himself or herself by reading a technical manual, annual report, or industry newsletter. However, every supervisor can set high expectations and raise the bar so that an entire team of individuals excels, feels supported, and works together to reinvent themselves in light of your company’s changing needs.

This chapter will focus on topics where requisite skills will make or break a new hire or determine how far a tenured employee will go in his or her career at your company. Keep your requirements simple, keep your employees’ eyes on the goal, and keep your expectations high. These issues may feel subtle to you and difficult to articulate at times, but they’re very important both for your team’s performance and for the good of the individuals involved.

Scenario 41: Inferior Job Knowledge

Where do workers acquire the skills, knowledge, and abilities necessary to perform in certain roles and excel in their careers? Well, it depends: If your company prides itself on hiring a lot of recent graduates and training them (while benefiting from their motivation, willingness to work hard and put in long hours, and low salary expectations), then industry and technical knowledge will typically come from your corporate training and development group. On the other hand, if you generally hire seasoned professionals with strong records in terms of industry knowledge, longevity, and career progression, then you’ll end up paying higher wages for the benefit of that level of experience and accomplishment.

The Solution

Let’s assume your company falls in the latter category, and you’ve hired someone with the experience and competencies that make her well qualified to perform in her current role. You soon find out, however, that she just doesn’t seem to be catching on or applying herself. As a result, you wonder about the investment she’s made into her career and into your company since joining your organization. As such, your conversation might sound like this:

Marilyn, we need to talk. The videoconference that we just participated in exposed some issues that I’ve been questioning, and we should really address them at this point. There’s a saying that you can tell a lot more about a person’s gravitas by the caliber of the questions they ask than by the statements they make. On our videoconference call with Atlanta just now, you asked a few questions that lead me to believe that you’re not as up to speed with certain things within our company as you should be.

For example, when you asked what the revenues were of the XYZ Company that we’re planning on acquiring, I think you threw everyone back. The due diligence had already been completed, and we’ve already gone through various discussions regarding revenue history and projections two calls ago. Your question was so out of the blue that I’m sure others were wondering if you had been on the calls, which you had, or if you were having a temporary brain freeze.

Then you asked a question about the pension funding liabilities and wage and hour claims exposure we had, which were both accounted for in the due diligence report, which you should have read prior to the call. Am I missing something here, or does what I’m saying have merit? [No, you’re right. I’m sorry.]

Okay, but there’s no need to apologize. Finish your sentence: “I’m sorry” and what? [Well, I’ll be more careful about asking questions about things that have already been discussed.] I agree, Marilyn, but it’s more than that: Your questions aren’t only off relative to the conversation at hand, but they’re out of sequence with the whole acquisition and due diligence processes, at least in terms of how our company handles them.

Listen, I don’t know what to say other than the fact that you’ve got to bring yourself up to speed very quickly. With all due respect, you’re in damage control mode at this point, and you’ve got to assume responsibility for fixing this perception problem on your hands. After three months with our company, you should know these things. You’ve already been trained, you’ve completed two due diligence assignments on potential acquisitions, and you’ve visited some of our portfolio companies to understand what those business models look like from the inside out.

I can only assume that there was some misrepresentation on your résumé in terms of accurately describing your background and achievements, or else you’ve somehow either burned out early or lost interest in our company. In either case, Marilyn, something is amiss.

I like you personally and enjoy working with you, but I wouldn’t be doing you a service as your supervisor if I didn’t let you know that you’re at a critical juncture in your career with us at this point. Sleep on this, talk it over with family and friends, but when you come back to work tomorrow, I need to know if you’re on board, and if so, what your action plan will be to reinvent yourself and sharpen your image in the eyes of the rest of acquisitions and the asset management teams.

Will you make that commitment to me? [Yes.] Good. Then set a time for us to meet tomorrow and let me know what you decide. Remember, I’ll respect your decision to leave if that’s what you ultimately come up with. But if you decide to stay, I’ll expect a full plan of action demonstrating how you’re going to excel and reinvent yourself now that you’ve put three months into us and we’ve invested that much time in you. Thanks very much, and I’ll wait to hear from you.

Phew! Not an easy conversation, but in light of the misdirected comments that Marilyn made, you’ll certainly want to have this conversation with her first, before any of your peers who were on the conference call you to ask what’s going on. If that happens, your simple response will have to be that you read her the riot act and threw the proverbial book at her. She’ll let you know tomorrow if she’s on board or if she’ll resign. It’s unfortunate that these types of conversations have to take place from time to time, but salary is typically the highest expense on a company’s operating statement. If you show that you’re not guarding and fostering those resources correctly, it could reflect poorly on your own career.

Scenario 42: Lack of Technical Skills

Inferior job knowledge is a large area where an employee demonstrates an overall lack of understanding in terms of process flows, product knowledge, and generally how things get done. A lack of technical skills, in comparison, is a subset of inferior job knowledge in that a worker doesn’t know how to apply the tools of the trade.

Let’s look at the case of an administrative assistant who doesn’t know how to complete basic spreadsheet functions. As a result, she spends much of her time asking her coworkers for help rather than communicating with her boss about her shortcomings. In addition, she’s already taken the company’s Introduction to Spreadsheets class and still is very intimidated every time she has to open an Excel spreadsheet.

The Solution

Inviting employees to take classes that help strengthen their skills is a critical first step in terms of improving performance. Indeed, plaintiff attorneys have proffered a legal concept known as “failure to train,” whereby they allege that companies were remiss in providing workers with the tools necessary to succeed. As such, goes the logic, the company committed wrongful termination in letting the substandard performer go.

Yet some people are just afraid of computers, and you can’t seem to understand how they’ve gotten this far in their careers without them. When that is the case, proceed as follows:

Leah, we’ve got to talk about your Excel skills again. I know that we sent you to training for one full day last month to go over the basics of spreadsheets, and I recall your telling me how helpful that class was. [Yes, it was.] Okay, so let me ask you, how comfortable are you with spreadsheet basics at this point? [Oh, I’m fairly comfortable.]

Well, I’m glad to hear that, but when I walked by Sally’s cubicle this morning, I saw you standing over her asking how to perform a simple cutandpaste function. Do you recall that? [Yes.]

Then that concerns me. Cutting and pasting is as simple as spread-sheeting gets. I’m wondering how you spent eight hours of company time and at company expense learning Excel basics, only to not understand how to move an item from one area of the spreadsheet to another. [Well, sometimes I forget and need to be reminded.]

I’m sorry, but that’s not an acceptable answer. When the company pays for you to attend a daytime workshop, we have an equal expectation that you’ll assume responsibility for educating yourself, staying abreast of what you’ve learned, and filling in any holes by practicing on your own. Simply going to an eight-hour workshop and assuming that you’ve fulfilled your commitment just isn’t enough.

Here’s what I’m thinking: You need to review all of your notes and all the materials that you received at last month’s workshop. I’ll then want you to prepare a report of all the various functions that you know how to do using Excel. Grade each of those functional areas on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 meaning that you’re an expert in that area, and 1 meaning that you really don’t understand it or remember how to do it at all.

I’ll keep a copy of your assessment with the understanding that I will assign you work in all areas where you graded yourself a 5. I’ll then expect you to bring your skills up to par (which I’d say is a 3) by the end of the month. At that point, I want you to enroll in the Intermediate Excel course that we offer. When you’re done with that course, I’ll want you to do the same exercise.

I won’t force you to take an Advanced Excel course because I probably don’t need that level of support, but I would encourage you to do that on your own using the company’s tuition reimbursement program. In any case, Leah, I want you to change the paradigm about how you think about company-sponsored training: It’s not a free day away from work and a chance to have a break from routine. If we’re investing in you, we expect you to master the material that you’ve learned or actively follow up with the instructor if you have questions.

You really can’t keep asking your coworkers for help, though. That’s inappropriate and an inefficient use of everyone’s time. If you really feel that you can’t master these technical basics, then this may not be the right job for you. If you ultimately determine that to be the case, let me know, and I’ll be as supportive as possible. Maybe we could work out a transition plan where you give a longer notice than usual, maybe six to eight weeks, and we’ll allow you to interview elsewhere during the business day.

I don’t want you to feel like you have no options here. Truthfully, though, if you can’t get your hands around basic and intermediate Excel within the next month or so, I’m afraid I’ll have to move to progressive discipline, meaning written warnings and the like. And that could end up in a termination for cause, which is something I know you wouldn’t want to have on your record.

Think about all this, Leah, and let me know how I could help. I know it’s frustrating, but it’s better to face these things together, openly and honestly, and agree on a plan of action, rather than work around the problem and allow frustration to build up inside. I’ll wait to hear from you.

It’s interesting how you could make a tough conversation like this very supportive, in essence placing yourself on the same side as your assistant. Remember that one of our golden rules is that it’s not what you say, but how you say it. In this case, you were very supportive and presented your ideas objectively, empathetically, and on a problem-to-solution level. As an alternative, you could have simply given Leah a written warning, letting her know that failure to improve her technical skills immediately would result in her being fired. Ouch—talk about pressure!

Whenever possible, demonstrate empathy and understanding, give your subordinates choices and alternatives, and respect whatever decision they ultimately make. However, don’t compromise your expectations because you have every right to insist that members of your team have the technical skills necessary to ensure a smooth workflow.

Scenario 43: Inadequate Problem-Solving Skills

Much like technical skills, which ensure that employees can use the tools of their trade adequately, problem-solving skills require a basic, logical understanding of your business and its operations so that subordinates can do their part in moving the work forward. Unfortunately, many employees live more by fear than anything else, and they freeze up whenever it becomes time to make a decision. Instead, they defer all issues right back to you, which frustrates you and negates their value in the workplace.

Let’s go back to Leah, our administrative assistant in the previous example. Let’s assume that Leah acts like a deer in the headlights any time she’s asked to do something on her own. Instead, she prefers to get step-by-step approval from you every time she needs to do the smallest of things, and she basically avoids any risk associated with making mistakes. Before too long, you realize that you’re creating a monster by allowing her to go on this way, and you decide that you have to wean her off you so that she can become an independent member of the team.

The Solution

Once Leah comes in asking a silly question about your approving something, it’s time to sit her down and outline your expectations as follows:

Leah, you shouldn’t have to ask me that. We’ve been working together for a full year now, and I think I’ve allowed something to get out of hand: You’re coming to me to verify things that you already know the answer to, and I’m afraid I’m responsible for that. I should have ended this way of doing things long ago.

Okay, let’s review this one more time: If an employee comes into our benefits department asking if he could add his spouse to our company benefit program, what’s your response? [They could add a spouse only if there’s been a change in circumstance. In other words, if they just got married or their spouse lost a job within the last thirty days, then the spouse can be added; otherwise, the employee has to wait until the open enrollment period in October to add a family member to our benefits program.]

That’s correct. Now why would you feel a need to ask me permission to add Ted’s spouse to our benefits program, knowing that they just got married and having a copy of the marriage certificate in your hand? [Well, I always like to check.]

Okay, then that’s what we’ll change. You don’t need to check with me on things that are that basic. Sure, you could let me know that you put in to add Ted’s wife to our benefits program seeing that he just got married and presented you with a marriage license, but you don’t need to ask me for permission. Do you see the difference? [Yes.]

Good. Then I’ve got one more rule for you to follow from now on: Whenever you have a question for me, come to me with two suggested solutions. Think through what those solutions are and ask me which one I prefer. In essence, I want to change your thought pattern about our daily working relationship: My job isn’t to give you answers; it’s to choose from the choices you present to me. How’s that sound? [Well, okay, I guess.]

I’m glad to hear it. Okay, then, how would you redo your question about adding Ted’s wife to our benefits program using this new paradigm? [Well, I’d ask you if you felt it was okay to add Ted’s wife to our benefits or if you’d not want to add her.]

That’s right. And what would my answer be? [Well, it’s not really a valid question because we have no choice: We have to add Ted’s wife to our benefits because it’s a valid change in circumstance that’s occurred within thirty days of the event.] Bingo! That’s exactly correct. And that’s why this new method of asking questions and suggesting two answers for me to choose from makes so much sense. It will eliminate a lot of unnecessary questioning, and it will force you to think things through more thoroughly and independently.

I’d say this was a very good conversation! How do you feel? [Well, okay, I guess.] Great. Then I’m looking forward to your next question and my two choices. Before you know it, you’ll have all the answers to questions that come up day to day, and that’s always a great feeling.

Problem-solving skills have to be taught—almost forced—when the opportunity arises. If you ask one of your subordinates, “Well, what do you think?” and the person automatically replies, “I don’t know,” then ask the magical follow-up question, “Well, what would your answer be if you did know?” It may sound silly, and that question usually raises an eyebrow and a smirk of laughter, but getting subordinates to think things through and problem-solve on the spot is quite a gift. More than anything, it will help build their self-esteem and possibly prepare them for their next promotion.

Scenario 44: Substandard Written Expression

Substandard writing skills are the plague and scourge of the workplace. The inability to write clearly causes confusion and consternation on the company side, and more important, career limitation on the employee side. For that reason, many companies add a section to their employment application asking job candidates why they’d want to work for the company and how a position there would help them in terms of their overall career progression. Yes, the answer itself could be illuminating; more often than not, however, the employer is looking to see if the individual can write a paragraph.

And in certain states, you can’t simply terminate someone for poor writing skills. In California, for example, companies with more than twenty-five employees must reasonably accommodate and assist any worker who reveals a problem of illiteracy and who requests company assistance in enrolling in an adult literacy education program, unless that would cause an undue hardship on the employer. In short, you can’t terminate an employee who discloses a problem of illiteracy but who is otherwise satisfactorily performing his work.

Okay, now that I’ve got your attention, keep the following in mind as well: Many employees who demonstrate substandard written skills aren’t necessarily illiterate; rather, they’re just sloppy and lack attention to detail. Let’s assume that a member of your team has difficulty expressing himself via e-mail. He’s by no means illiterate, but he has difficulty with grammar and punctuation as well as composition and style. In short, between the grammatical errors and the skewed structure of his messages, reading his e-mails is painful.

The Solution

Under such circumstances, you’ll want to go back to the basics. As an employer, you’re under no obligation to turn this writer into Shakespeare, but a dose of training and skills enhancement would certainly go a long way in tightening up his written message.

Michael, we need to talk. I wanted to spend some time with you reviewing that last e-mail that you sent to the safety committee. It was about three paragraphs long and you sent it last night at 5:00 P.M. Do you recall the one I’m talking about? [Yes.]

Good. Tell me about the message you were trying to convey. [Well, I wanted to reconfirm our assumptions about the safety committee’s role and the responsibilities of the floor wardens in case the fire alarms went off.]

Okay. Do you remember anything in particular about that e-mail? Anything that made it stand out in your mind? [No.] Fair enough, then. Here’s a copy of it, so would you mind reading it aloud for me? [Sure.]

Now that you’ve read it out loud, what’s your initial impression? [Well, I see some grammar and spelling errors, and overall it’s a bit confusing.] Yeah, I’d agree, and that’s why I wanted to meet with you. Truth be told, from my vantage point, your writing skills don’t reflect your abilities in a positive light.

Looking just at that one e-mail as an example, how would you describe the writing? [It’s a bit long-winded and doesn’t seem to make a clear point. The last sentence is probably all everyone needed to know, and it feels like I added those first three paragraphs as a warm-up. I see what you’re saying.]

Good—that’s half the problem. Now what advice would you give you if you were me? [I’d advise me to use the spell checker before I click send, and I’d also advise me to read the memo out loud before distributing it.]

Bingo! That, in and of itself, would go a long way in tightening up your written message. There’s another problem, though: Your grammar and punctuation are fairly far off the mark. Let me give you a few examples (showing him the paper): Here you wrote “between you and I” when it should be “between you and me.” Here you used the term “irregardless” when the proper word is “regardless.” And here you used the term “it’s” when you should have written “its.”

How do you feel we might be able to strengthen those basic grammar and punctuation skills? [I could buy a book.] I totally agree! Your written message will often precede you in the business world, and people’s first impression of you will be found in your written word. I have two books that I’d like to recommend to you.

There’s another issue as well: What was your overall message in your e-mail? [I wanted everyone to know that the floor wardens needed additional training from the safety committee before they’d be ready to certify.] Okay, then: Where did you finalize that key thought? [In my last sentence.] Then how about we move that up to the top of the memo? In fact, you could make that the subject line of your e-mail message. This way, everyone has the key point without even having to double-click on the message to open it up.

Remember, less is more when it comes to business writing, so when ever you could shorten or sharpen your message, readers will be more inclined to read the entire thing. I don’t have a book on composition and style that I could recommend to you offhand, but I’d like you to consider purchasing a book on business writing basics that I think would really help you. Are you game? [Yes—and thanks for the heads-up.]

Proper writing skills are easily self-taught, and there are a number of excellent works available at your local library or bookstore. Encourage your employees to educate themselves, and consider suggesting that they find a business writing workshop or two through providers like the American Management Association. They’ll be giving themselves a critical advantage career-wise, and all you have to do is point them in the right direction.

Just be careful not to base a termination decision solely on a subordinate’s literacy challenges. That may open doors that you’d prefer to keep closed in terms of legal vulnerability.

Scenario 45: Poor Time Management

There’s been so much written about time management that this particular topic could easily justify its own book. Time management, like organizational skills, is needed to run your life smoothly and without a lot of stress. Employees who demonstrate poor time management skills often lose things, forget things, and fail to meet deadlines. Supervisors who manage employees with poor time management skills suffer untold anxiety and frustration just because their subordinates didn’t learn these critical life skills at an early age. That may seem unfair to you as a supervisor, especially if you’re an excellent prioritizer and time manager yourself, but it’s an all-too-common challenge in the workplace.

When faced with a subordinate who has countless difficulties keeping on schedule and keeping you up-to-date with everything going on around you, structure your talk around shifting the responsibility for improvement away from the company and back to the employee. Yes, you’ll make suggestions and even sign the individual up for a workshop or two on mastering time management. But no, it’s not your responsibility to force subordinates to learn these skills—mastery is up to them. What matters to you is that the work gets done efficiently and on time. Period.

We’re all too socialized by the time we enter the workforce to change our basic personalities and assumptions about life. Time management is one of those founding principles in our lives that defines who we are. In essence, your job isn’t to retool the employee with basic life skills; your role will be to point the individual in the right direction as far as acquiring the appropriate skills, while insisting that work productivity continues at an expected level. In short, your benchmark and your concern is productivity; the employee will have to figure out performance-wise how to meet the goals of his or her department and company. That’s where this talk might come in handy.

The Solution

Managing professionals should not require that you monitor their every move. If you’ve ever felt the urge to ask someone on your staff to jot down everything he or she does for an entire day because you’re frustrated with the person’s inconsistency in meeting deadlines, reconsider it: Although that may be a worthwhile exercise when someone claims to be underresourced and that additional staff support and head count are needed, it’s generally not your responsibility to measure employees by the minute when it comes to their own productivity. Our jobs as managers, after all, are to assist our subordinates without holding their hands.

Let’s assume that a staff recruiter is responsible for producing monthly metrics for the head of human resources: cost-per-hire, time-to-start, turnover and vacancy analysis, and the like. You’ve set up the expectation that the monthly stats should be completed by the first Friday of the first full week of the month. Low and behold, your staff recruiter misses the deadline three months in a row. When you ask for specifics, you find that she just can’t gather all the data to finalize the report. As such, your conversation might sound like this:

Nancy, I’m frustrated. I’m sure you are too, but the reality is that you haven’t met this deadline three months in a row. If I felt it was unrealistic, I’d push it back. Truth be told, though, I feel that if I push it back, you’ll simply miss that deadline too. How far off am I in my assumption? [Probably not too far.]

Okay then, let’s try this again. I want you to conquer this particular challenge of ours because it’s important for you to know you can. Are you open to hearing what it looks like from my point of view? [Sure.]

Well, first of all, I don’t see you taking notes in one consistent place whenever a position is open or a hire is made. If you discipline yourself to note these things as soon as they occur, say in a notebook, on your dry-erase board, or in a spreadsheet, then gathering the data at the end of the month would be a snap.

Second, when you fill a position, you don’t immediately close out the requisition folder by pulling all the new hire information that you need (background check results, references, and the like). Likewise, you don’t log on to our applicant tracking system and close out the requisition electronically and take the posting down. As a result, candidates keep applying, and you end up chasing your tail at the end of the month trying to sweep all your filled positions into the filled category on the master staffing report. There’s a much easier way, which we’ve discussed before. But I feel like now would be a good time for a reminder. Does that sound like a good idea? [Yes.]

Okay, first, you’ve got to follow what I call the Five Rules of Effective Time Management:

1. Prioritize. Focus on the 20 percent of your work that generates 80 percent of the results. Only you know what those priorities are, but I’m holding you accountable for meeting our department’s needs at any given time.

2. Create a to-do list and track your progress by marking A, B, and C next to each item based on its significance and timeliness. And be sure to keep your A items on the front burner at all times.

3. Schedule your biggest project for your peak energy period. Remember, racehorses work in sprints. Pace and structure your day so that you’re generating key activities when you’re most focused and free of distraction.

4. Touch each piece of paper only once. If you find that you can’t file or toss something, bring it in to me for review. We’ll determine together what to do with it, and you’ll soon get a feeling for how to prioritize your in-basket.

5. Do everything possible to a file or a piece of work before retiring it to your drawer. Along the same lines, keep a yellow flyer on top so that as soon as you open a folder, you know exactly what needs to be done next.

Second, I want you to let me know if you run into any stumbling blocks with the monthly metrics report. I’m not going to remind you or ask you anything about it in any way. As far as I’m concerned, no news will be good news, and unless I hear anything to the contrary well in advance of the pending deadline, I’m going to assume that you’re on target to meet the first Friday deadline. Does that sound fair? [Yes.] Good. I’m a resource, but it’s up to you to use me for help when you need it.

Finally, it’s time for us to get serious about this. I want you to think about how you feel I should respond if you miss another deadline. I’d also like to know how you’d handle it if you were the department lead and a subordinate missed a deadline like this three months in a row. How would you respond, how would you feel, and what would be the consequences? [Well, I guess there’d need to be some kind of disciplinary response on your part.]

Correct. So do me a favor and commit to me right now that we’ll never have to have a talk like this again. [Okay, you’ve got my word.] Good—thank you. That doesn’t mean you can’t come to see me if you have questions or to keep me abreast of your progress. Just no more blindsiding me with news that we’re not going to have the report ready by the agreed-upon deadline. Fair enough? [Yes.] Okay, we’re done then. Thanks for your support with this.

And there you have it: a lesson shared, a lesson learned, and a goodwill effort to push your employee to raise her own expectations and standards. It’s a bigger favor than she’ll know because many managers wouldn’t have the patience to explain this as thoroughly and cogently as you have. Consider it a gift you’ve given to her. Should she fail again after this verbal intervention, then a gentle reminder about this conversation or even a letter of clarification may be in order.

A letter of clarification is an alternative to a written warning. Unlike a formal warning, it doesn’t contain consequence language stating that “failure to provide immediate and sustained improvement may result in further disciplinary action up to and including dismissal.” However, much like a written warning, it outlines the problem as well as your written expectations, and as such, serves to escalate your emphasis on the need to improve in a particular area.

Scenario 46: Lack of Organization and Neatness

Much like time management skills, organizational skills are taught at a young age and mastered hopefully by the college years. Without them, life becomes one hectic paper chase as individuals scurry in panic to locate important documents and e-mails that are critical to justify a business cause of action or decision.

You know what it’s like to work with someone who is disorganized: “Oh, where did I put that file?” “Well, I don’t have the information on hand, but allow me to look for it and get back to you.” “I’m afraid I can’t locate the hard copies, so I’ll have to go back and print out all the e-mails and recreate the paper trail, although they won’t have my handwritten notes on them.” Excuse after excuse comes your way, which slows you down and frustrates you due to someone else’s inefficiency and poor work habits.

The Solution

How do you handle a conversation when one too many files or documents gets lost? As in the previous cases, you’ll want to be firm but fair, nonjudgmental yet insistent that this unacceptable habit change for the better immediately. And as a supervisor, you have every right to insist that a subordinate’s sloppy desk or unkempt office be reinvented so as to make documents and information easier to locate whenever you walk into the room. Here’s how your conversation might sound with your banking credit manager subordinate who has a particularly challenging time closing deals because of sloppiness and disorganization.

Laura, I wanted to schedule some time with you in your office to discuss neatness, tidiness, organization, or anything else that you want to call it. After the Lehman file debacle earlier today when we couldn’t close the loan because you couldn’t locate the original loan documents, I felt it was time that we have a talk. Do you know what I’m about to say? [Ah, yes, I’m afraid I do.]

Okay then, my goal isn’t to berate you or beat you over the head with a “What were you thinking?” diatribe. But you know that this has been a problem before, and to not be able to close a customer’s deal on the spot because of misplaced paperwork is about as bad as it gets.

Let me open up by asking you, how would you propose we fix this problem? [Well, I’ll commit to keeping a much closer eye on all of my paperwork, whether it’s loan documents, insurance applications, home equity line files, or whatever. And I’ll ensure that this doesn’t happen again.]

That all sounds great, but it only addresses the what; I want to know the how of it all. What’s your action plan for putting a system in place that will ensure that you’re on top of all your work and, more important, that I can find information in your absence because your system becomes totally transparent? [Uh, I don’t know and will have to think about that.]

Well, let’s just think about it now, together and out loud, and put a plan in place. That’s why I wanted to meet with you in your office rather than mine. There are a whole lot of messy desk people out there, or MDPs, as I like to call them. Sometimes it’s a mild irritation; at other times, a person’s whole career can hinge upon it.

If we know that coworkers and clients judge you based on the perception of organization and neatness that you create, then you’ve got to take certain steps to ensure a streamlined office operation. More important, it’s wonderful to be known as someone who could come up with relevant information in a heartbeat because of her exceptional organizational skills. In short, Laura, in the field of banking and finance, you really want to become one of those people.

Looking at your desk right now, how could we get there? Remember again that you’re not just doing this for yourself—you’re doing it for me. That means that we need to create a short map of where you’ll store things like pending files, closed files, files pending signatures, and files missing information. Do this for me thinking that your goal is to teach me how to find things in your absence. That will help discipline you and educate me, and that’s what this meeting is all about. Now where do you want to start?

This “teach me” approach to organizational awareness makes the process somewhat fun and takes the sting out of the negative discussion that could potentially happen in its stead. There’s no need to punish at this point: This is your first verbal counseling session. Granted, if the problem continues, then your response may appeal to guilt (“I’m really disappointed that this has become an issue again, especially after we sat together and you made the commitment that we wouldn’t have to worry about this again.”) or formal progressive discipline in the form of a written warning.

For now, make it a shared learning exercise. Laura’s walking you through her processes out loud and showing you where she plans on strategically locating all of her work documents helps her learn about the process as well. After all, she’s presenting a logical case for organizational skills that she’s “teaching” you about, and that will help strengthen her understanding of a process that she may not have given enough thought to.

Besides, she’ll always remember how painful it is to mishandle documents because of disorganization now that the Lehman incident is behind her. In essence, you’ll have taken a moment of embarrassment and weakness and turned it into an opportunity for shared learning. That’s a very enlightened way of handling an uncomfortable workplace situation and turning lemons into lemonade. Bravo—well done!