Truth 45. You don’t have to inherit the problem employees
Unless you spend your life exclusively in serial start-ups, with each promotion you’ll probably be managing previously established workgroups. Their systems, codes, behaviors, and organizational memories will already be in place when you show up. And you’ll feel like you’re constantly interrupting a long-running conversation. One of those conversations will be each employee’s past performance on the job. And some of those old stories won’t be pretty. As the new manager, you have the blank-slate choice of deciding whether these are “to be continued” stories or fresh-start opportunities for both you and the problem employees:
• Take the past in moderation. Your predecessor may have had the record-keeping skills of a bio-nuclear researcher but still had gotten it wrong with your problem employees. The relationship could have gotten off to the wrong start from the very beginning for any number of reasons. There was a spate of lateness. A discourteous word passed between them in an absent-minded moment. Whatever happened, no matter what the employees did (good or bad), those events were evaluated through a negative filter. But now the past is past, and this is the chance for both you and your problem employees to get it right.
But now the past is past, and this is the chance for both you and your problem employees to get it right.
• In addition to your team meetings, have private one-on-one meetings with all your employees, not just the problem ones. Give all your employees every chance to tell you how they feel about the team, the projects, the department, the company—but not about how they feel about each other individually. Learn what the collective frame of mind is like as a result of your predecessor’s regime and what their hopes are for progressive, productive change. See if your problem employees feel the same way or have completely different ideas of what the team should be doing.
During your private meeting with the problem employees, let them know that you see their file shows some difficulties. (Unless they’re both a problem and stupid, they’re not going to be surprised.) Ask them what their perspective is. Keep the conversation as unemotional as possible, but hear them out completely. Let them do most of the talking.
• Resist the urge to suggest that they look at the situation from your predecessor’s perspective. You can bet your new promotion that others have tried this tactic before and failed. You can also bet that the minute you speak on behalf of the past, you’ve joined it in their eyes.
• Help them see how they fit into the overall team. They were hired for a reason, most likely their skill sets. Brainstorm together the ways they add value to the group. They have probably been so focused on the exasperation of trying to perform under frustrating circumstances that they have lost sight of what’s good about the team. They have almost certainly lost sight of how they fit in this team. And the team may have lost sight about what’s good about them.
Brainstorm together the ways they add value to the group.
• Collaborate with them on envisioning successful performance. Come up with measurable performance goals you can agree on. Make sure they’re compelling enough to truly engage your employees’ commitment. Ideally, these goals should speak to their own values and definitions of excellence. Agree on what the penalty should be if they fall short of their commitment.
• Ask whether they need anything special from you to stay on track. If they have been laboring under the heavy pressure of contempt from your predecessor, they will probably be mainly relieved to know that this particular load has lightened up, thanks to your open mind. So, maybe they need a weekly or monthly check-in meeting with you to make sure you both feel that things are going well.
• Mark small successes subtly. Most “most improved” awards are backhanded compliments. Most people want to be recognized for consistent excellence, not for the journey they’ve been on. Your earliest meetings with your problem employees were private. So celebrate the subsequent small successes equally privately.
Don’t worry, your team is noticing. With the employees formerly known as problem back on the team, everyone is getting a fresh start.