How to Deal With Underperforming Team Members -Tried & Tested Approach

Working out how to deal with an underperforming team member and then taking the right action is one of the bigger personal challenges any manager or leader faces at work. I would like to take you through the approached I used, successfully, time and time again in over 25 years of managing teams.
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Overview
The first step to take when confronted with how to deal with an underperforming employee is not to ignore the problem. You know it will be a challenge, unpleasant and possibly difficult, yet procrastination around poor performance at work ends up being much worse.

The individual’s performance is likely to get worse, not better. Your team will get fed up with you and the underperforming employee and are likely to lose motivations and team performance will drop. None of this reflects well on you the manager nor your poor performance management skills.

So take action.

On of the first steps to take when thinking about how to deal with a poor performing employee is to talk to them and find out what the reasons are for the poor performance. Tell them why they are an underperforming team member, use examples and set out your expectations for them.

Work together to create a plan for how to help the underperforming team member improve their performance and how you are going to help them do this.

Coach and mentor the underperforming staff member, so they have the tools to enable them to improve their performance. The more effort you put in to this process, the more likely the team member will turn around their performance.

Throughout the plan, give honest feedback and monitor progress. Share progress with the underperformer so both parties are clear on what has gone well and what still needs to be improved.

Not all underperformers are willing or able to improve their performance. If this happens, it is important that you take formal action to resolve the underperformance, even if this means the underperformer leaves the business.

Good luck.

00:00 Intro
02:04 Don’t Ignore The Problem
03:01 Talk & Find The Reasons
04:48 Agree Expectations and a Plan
06:47 Coach & Mentor
08:03 Give Feedback & Monitor Progress
10:59 Take Formal Action If No Improvement
12:18 In Summary

Please let me know of any questions or suggestions in the comments below.
Jess

[pinkpastelstudio]

Summary :

[00:00] 🤖 Ignoring underperformance signals to the team that it's okay to underperform.
[01:53] 👍 Don't ignore the problem. Address it early to resolve underperformance.
[03:03] 🕵‍♂ Find out the reasons for underperformance. Talk to the individual and actively listen.
[04:52] 🤝 Agree on expectations and a plan of action with the underperformer.
[06:43] 🧑‍🏫 Coach and mentor them to improve their performance.
[08:07] 🗣 Give honest, specific, and timely feedback to the underperforming employee.
[09:04] 📊 Monitor progress and measure performance improvement using data.
[09:43] 📈 Use data to prove factual progress assessment.
[10:51] 🚨 Take formal action if there is no improvement.
[12:28] 🤝 Taking action signals to the team that you will not tolerate poor performance.

[highnoon]

I am the underperforming employee and all I want to do is improve. My dream is to be good at my job.

[TimGoree]

I would add that there needs to be a recognition (usually during the mentoring/coaching process) that sometimes the person isn't in the right position, and that would explain their performance issues. If someone's strengths and passions don't fit the work well, the right answer isn't to get them to improve, it's to help them move into a more appropriate role. The only way to know this for sure is to deeply understand each person's strengths and interests, and this shouldn't be pursued only when someone is underperforming, but as a natural part of developing the leader's relationship with them. Good, solid video - thanks for sharing!

[brendapalmer]

I have gone from a staff of 3 including myself, to a staff of 7 including myself, in the past year (I'm the only one still there because the other two had job opportunities with more money and more hours, that i couldnt compete with). The whole dymanic has changed. It has truly been a whirlwind year. Now cracks are starting to show in some performances. Thank you for this video. I did not realize the disservice i was creating for some employees, by not addressing issues created by my other employees. It took us slowing down the amount of services we were providing to the public as a whole, for me to even notice the cracks were so prevalent. This video will really help the process. Thank you.

[artofteams]

Late to the party, but great video. I think managers have to be having these conversations more often especially in new remote / hybrid work settings where reduced visibility/access can give rise to underperformance. Thank you - awesome steps!

[somatiepersad]

Thank you for this, i currently have two underperforming employees who are very toxic to the team and it is causing me so much stress, i am just a supervisor in the chain and i am not getting the support from the team lead. The employees just dont want to accept structure and accoutability. I be using your video as a guide this weekend to build out the gap analysis and desired expectation which i have to present on monday to my upper management once approved we will be giving it to the employees and will be doing some monitoring over the next three months. My current mood is feeling like i am failing my ownself .

[kingsleyagu]

I tried the ideals thought in this video today and it worked out so well. thanks so much. Keep it up!!

[handefabbro]

Clear, specific, well formatted… Thank you 👏

[piuskimani]

Extremely helpful watching from Kenya in East Africa

[jesseskellington]

Thank you so much for a clear concise actuable items in this video. I truly appreciate 😊

[pradeepbhatnagar]

Excellent vdo lecture bt as a professional in my opinion employee participation in decision making is ensured, delegation of responsibility nd authority from seniors to their juniors is is practiced by top executives of HR, Delegated powers r used well, supervisors ensure that shop floor committees r effective, culture of delegation is present in the entire organization, conducting workers education programs through different Training Methodologies for skill development for better OD nd OB results, involving union or association leaders in various HRD activities nd decisions, conducting surveys of learning environment nd HR climate in the organization, studying employee processes nd problems through surveys, providing feedback to employees on survey results, conducting stress audit nd strees research nd conducting communications research etc.in brief in my point of view.It is a continuous process for assessment.Vry.inspiring and incredible lecture.Thanx.

[YouthRappersUK]

Watching this before I give my first PIP to an employee as a manager wish me luck!

[brettsoanes]

I'm having to deal with an underperformer this employee has been with the company for a long time and has been moved to many different areas because he won't perform. I'll be pulling him aside and trying your tips.

[GenK]

Im training two candidates and could immediately tell which one is performing and which one is going to need alot of hand holding. And it’s one of the most difficult things as a manager to go through. One only needs to know where and how to run reports and then she’s all set and can build her own working files while the other one wants me to read his emails before sending them. Smh 🤦🏽‍♀️

[LukeBrennaHarris]

Do you have a recomendation on a performance improvement plan template document?

[ginadiodati]

My problem is when the under preformer states their issue is being overwhelmed with the workload, yet its expected and realistic for their pay grade. Sometimes, the actual position itself isn't the right fit for an employee, but of course, they don't want to take a pay cut if you take some of the workload off them...

[CALM-R]

Loved your video. What would you suggest if you took over an underperforming team where everyone is in their probation period. More often, you do not have three months to set out a plan of action, but rather 3 to 4 weeks. Happy to hear your feedback on this.

[newblackpaladin]

How can I get my team to talk to customers? I work in retail and currently theft by customers and a lack of perceived friendliness has put us in the lowest performance in our region.

I've had multiple meetings with them outlining my expectations but as a whole the team is failing. I've done verbally warnings and written people up to no avail. When I ask for feedback they stay silent.

I'm not a tough manager- if anything I lean towards being more forgiving. Is that a possible cause as well?

I'm afraid if I don't improve my job will be on the line.

[paddykriton]

Managers actually need to care about their team first. If the manager can hide the impact of a poor performer and offload their workload to good performers until the manger can get promoted then the manger will do nothing

[rami]

A manager assistant here, don't know what should i do as my manger doesn't care about it at all .