Keeping Valued Employees: Why Terminate When You Can Turnaround?
Keeping Valued Employees: Why Terminate When You Can Turnaround?
Statistics show that a full third of senior executives ultimately fail. Often the unseen causes stem from psychological blind spots, areas of weakness that others can see all too clearly. Chances are good that you've got folks like this in your organization. Who doesn't know people with one or more of the following difficulties?
1. He lacks effective people skills - he's too abrasive with others - or he is isolated, unavailable. Perhaps his reactions are unpredictable, leaving others wary of interacting with him.
2. He lacks managerial finesse - he micromanages his team - he fails to delegate responsibility where appropriate.
3. He lacks follow-through - he fails to keep his promises - he leaves his people hanging.
4. He doesn't communicate effectively with others in the organization.
What can be done with this type of valued but underperforming employee? Should he be dismissed from the organization? Replaced, perhaps, with someone who exhibits more enthusiasm for the job? Well... not necessarily. In fact, the costs associated with termination of a key employee can be immense. They include, but are not limited to, the following: exit costs; recruiting, hiring, and restart costs; lost training and development costs; opportunity costs; disruption, down time, lowered morale of the team, even disputed termination litigation.
Doesn't it make more sense to help the underperforming employee turn around his behavior - by addressing those troublesome blind spots and working toward greater effectiveness? Why not motivate and empower the individual to make meaningful and lasting changes to his self-defeating patterns of behavior? Most folks are eager to succeed and open to receiving help in enhancing job performance.
So, what does it take to turn things around? The details vary, of course, from individual to individual, but the basic process can be applied to most. First, there must be a means of assessing the what's and why's of the problem behaviors. This means gaining insight into the way this person approaches his work, interacts with others, manages his team, and communicates with his peers, supervisors, and direct reports. Data should be gathered directly from the individual, from those all around him, and through the administration of appropriate, business-normed psychological evaluations. Past performance data should also be reviewed. Of course, due to the sensitive nature of this exploration, it's important to leave it to an expert, ideally someone external to the organization. Attempts to do it any other way can lead to mistrust, inappropriate interpretation and use of the data, and limited impact on the individual's behavior.
Once a clear picture emerges of what the individual is doing right and wrong, as well as why he's operating this way, it's time for action. The individual must be given the opportunity to set new goals, try new ways of interacting, and discover how much more effective he can be. Some changes will work and some won't. That's okay. The idea is to allow the individual to continue to make improvements, to assess and reassess over the course of time, and make refinements where needed. Efforts at improvement must be encouraged and recognized on an ongoing basis. This encouragement can come from a boss, a peer, even a spouse... as long as there are people who know what's happening and are invested in supporting the individual and providing honest feedback along the way.
The change process isn't easy. And there's no quick fix. People can, however, change. Given the proper tools and motivation, most people do change. So... why terminate when you can turnaround?
copyright 2006 Bywater Consulting Group, LLC, Liz Bywater, PhD. All Rights Reserved.
Keeping Valued Employees Why Terminate When You Can Turnaround - To learn more about this author, visit Liz Bywater's Website.
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When the once-successful, top-flight executive loses momentum and no longer performs to potential, the questions to be asked are "Why?" and "What now?" As the once-effective manager begins to flounder or derail, these very same questions must be considered.
Statistics show that a full third of senior executives ultimately fail. Often the unseen causes stem from psychological blind spots, areas of weakness that others can see all too clearly. Chances are good that you've got folks like this in your organization. Who doesn't know people with one or more of the following difficulties?
1. He lacks effective people skills - he's too abrasive with others - or he is isolated, unavailable. Perhaps his reactions are unpredictable, leaving others wary of interacting with him.
2. He lacks managerial finesse - he micromanages his team - he fails to delegate responsibility where appropriate.
3. He lacks follow-through - he fails to keep his promises - he leaves his people hanging.
4. He doesn't communicate effectively with others in the organization.
What can be done with this type of valued but underperforming employee? Should he be dismissed from the organization? Replaced, perhaps, with someone who exhibits more enthusiasm for the job? Well... not necessarily. In fact, the costs associated with termination of a key employee can be immense. They include, but are not limited to, the following: exit costs; recruiting, hiring, and restart costs; lost training and development costs; opportunity costs; disruption, down time, lowered morale of the team, even disputed termination litigation.
Doesn't it make more sense to help the underperforming employee turn around his behavior - by addressing those troublesome blind spots and working toward greater effectiveness? Why not motivate and empower the individual to make meaningful and lasting changes to his self-defeating patterns of behavior? Most folks are eager to succeed and open to receiving help in enhancing job performance.
So, what does it take to turn things around? The details vary, of course, from individual to individual, but the basic process can be applied to most. First, there must be a means of assessing the what's and why's of the problem behaviors. This means gaining insight into the way this person approaches his work, interacts with others, manages his team, and communicates with his peers, supervisors, and direct reports. Data should be gathered directly from the individual, from those all around him, and through the administration of appropriate, business-normed psychological evaluations. Past performance data should also be reviewed. Of course, due to the sensitive nature of this exploration, it's important to leave it to an expert, ideally someone external to the organization. Attempts to do it any other way can lead to mistrust, inappropriate interpretation and use of the data, and limited impact on the individual's behavior.
Once a clear picture emerges of what the individual is doing right and wrong, as well as why he's operating this way, it's time for action. The individual must be given the opportunity to set new goals, try new ways of interacting, and discover how much more effective he can be. Some changes will work and some won't. That's okay. The idea is to allow the individual to continue to make improvements, to assess and reassess over the course of time, and make refinements where needed. Efforts at improvement must be encouraged and recognized on an ongoing basis. This encouragement can come from a boss, a peer, even a spouse... as long as there are people who know what's happening and are invested in supporting the individual and providing honest feedback along the way.
The change process isn't easy. And there's no quick fix. People can, however, change. Given the proper tools and motivation, most people do change. So... why terminate when you can turnaround?
copyright 2006 Bywater Consulting Group, LLC, Liz Bywater, PhD. All Rights Reserved.
Keeping Valued Employees Why Terminate When You Can Turnaround - To learn more about this author, visit Liz Bywater's Website.
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Leanne Hoagland-SmithAre your sales where you want them to be? Will you be one of the few who achieves sales or business success or one of the many who have failed to change? Are you tired of being told you are like everyone else? Then you may find my first book on sales of interest. Be the Red Jacket in the Sea of Gray Suits, The Keys to Unlocking Sales available at Amazon or at http://www.processspecialist.com/red-jacket.htm. This book is a reflection of my no-nonsense approach to improving sales to overall business results. If you are truly committed to making sustainable changes, then I can help you secure a positive return on your investment because I focus on executable solutions not telling you the problems you already know you have. From training to corporate (group) coaching to executive one on one coaching, my approach is to assess, create awareness, build a goal driven action plan and then execute. The bottom line question is "Not do you or your employees know it, but do you or they want to do it?" Please call for a free strategy session at 219.759.5601. - Visit Leanne Hoagland-Smith's Website |
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Cheryl MatthynssensCheryl is a life skills coach, licensed Chemical Dependency Counselor and a 20 year entrepreneur. Cheryl's dedication to achieving a life of balance led to her expanding her teaching from the simple managing of life's daily challenges to adding financial well being as well. A direct marketer with DrinkACT, she is gaining ground in the online community with her concepts of making sure business owners, entreprenuers and employees have well rounded life styles. She opened up a small affiliate site - The Balance Guide- to help others find resources for mental and emotional well being. Visit Cheryl's blog to see more of the diversity beyond business she has began offering online at www.thebalanceguide.blogspot.com - Visit Cheryl Matthynssens's Website |
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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