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Remove a Team Member if Necessary

Vernice Givens, the owner of a Kansas City marketing firm, asked her assistant to put together the first draft of a brochure that would be included among the company’s handout literature. After completing the draft, the woman was supposed to circulate it among her teammates for comments, but the woman waited until the last minute to write the initial draft. Her teammates then had to rush through it to meet the next deadline. That perpetuated a chain of events that resulted in an inferior first effort. It was not the first time. Vernice had repeatedly talked with the woman about the importance of pacing herself for complex tasks. But the overconfident woman repeatedly neglected big assignments until the 11th hour. That coupled with other problems prompted Vernice to show her the door.

If an employee fails to improve after you’ve coached her or assigned her to a more suitable project, then you have to consider removing the person from the team or firing her, says Joanne Sujansky, founder and president of the Key Group, a Pittsburgh workplace-consulting group.

If you retain the underperformer too long, she says, you risk demoralizing other team members, hurting productivity, and worse for you, making you look like a weak manager.