How To Handle Low Performers

Handling low performers on a team is one of the worst jobs any leader must do. It’s not fun to have conversations with unmotivated employees and try to figure out how you can get them to put in more effort. And it’s not fun to have brutally honest conversations with team members who are facing a mismatch between their skills and the new demands on the job.

But handling lower performers is also one of the most important jobs that a leader must do. If you want a truly high-performing team-a team with psychological safety but also accountability-then you can’t just tolerate low performing employees. If you’re trying to build a team where everyone holds each other to a higher standard of performance, then you have demonstrate that higher standard and help others attain it.

Or, you may have to invite that low performer to perform for a different team.

But before you get to that even-less-fun-conversation, there are a few things you can do to help low performers turn around their performance. So, in this article we’ll outline four actions you can take to help low performers become star teammates.

Study The External Factors

The first action to take when handling low performers is to study the external factors. Before assuming that poor performance is purely the fault of an employee…