PLEASE VISIT OUR SPONSORS

Performance Management

Turn Low Performers Into Passionate Team Players

David Jones

How do you transform poor performers into passionate team players? First, the talent manager must determine if poor performers aren’t passionately engaged at work, what exactly are they? Low performers often can be categorized in one of the following groups:

Griping Gary: Gary cares a lot about his work. In fact, he cares so much he often complains about the lack of progress he feels is being made. To turn Gary from griping into gung ho, illuminate milestones that are currently invisible to him and help him obliterate obstacles to progress that do exist.

Boring Billy: Billy just isn’t fired up about work. He’s dispassionate about the products and the process. A lack of meaning and intellectual challenge in his work has Billy weary. To transform Billy into a passionate performer, show him how his work helps others. Simultaneously, help him track his personal development on the job. Without meaningful work and personal growth, Billy will continue to underperform.

Obsessing Oscar: Oscar drives everyone who works with him crazy. He can’t let go of anything and has no tolerance for others’ mistakes. To turn Oscar into a passionate performer, help him see that other people can get great results doing things their own way. Further, he needs help relinquishing his obsession for perfection. Without the ability to trust others, Oscar will eventually alienate himself and burn out.

Coasting Carla: Carla is doing just enough work to get by. She doesn’t go the extra mile ever and really doesn’t care that much about the quality of her work. To turn Carla into a passionate performer, help her set meaningful goals and establish ways for her to frequently track progress toward those goals. Without reasons to try harder and ways to see the impact of these efforts, Carla will surely keep on coasting.

Rushing Rhonda: Rhonda is constantly busy doing tasks that don’t seem to add up to anything very important. She feels like she’s on a runaway treadmill. To turn Rhonda into a passionate performer, help her set priorities that support meaningful objectives and learn how to say no to projects that don’t create progress on these objectives. Without the ability to prioritize and find meaning in her work, Rhonda will keep rushing and gradually burn out.

Dreaming Dan: Dan is constantly coming up with new ideas that he rarely implements. In fact, colleagues don’t believe he’s at all serious about his work. To turn Dan into a passionate performer, help him create and follow implementation plans for his ideas and hold him accountable for following through with these plans before he starts coming up with new ideas. Without follow-through and accountability, Dan’s dreaming will drive some of his colleagues into griping.

Resting Rita: Rita is taking a well-deserved break after a busy period to recharge and plan for her next major initiative. To turn Rita into a passionate performer, support and validate these efforts to rejuvenate. To sustain her passion, it’s important that Rita incorporates these brief periods into her work. Without some form of downtime, she’ll be far more likely to turn her passion into obsession and eventually fizzle out.

When supporting resting and eliminating griping, boring, obsessing, coasting, rushing and dreaming behaviors, talent managers can help poor performers become an organization’s most passionate performers.