Employees who have bad attitudes or whose skills and abilities are irrelevant to your organization today were likely valuable employees once. Their irrelevance and resistance were, in part created by leaders who were not relentless and consistent in giving feedback. To be clear: Lack of feedback is the main cause of all employee issues. Leaders who get lazy about giving development and performance feedback create resistant employees of many stripes.
The three most common types:
1. Tenured employees whose skills are not current. This problem is created by leaders who do not challenge their employees to grow and develop by raising the bar for performance each year and offering new assignments. When job descriptions and responsibilities do not evolve over time, people stagnate and become bitter and unproductive.
The top 20 percent of employees will seek out such opportunities and hold themselves to a high standard of performance, but you can't rely on the other 80 percent to do that. If you do not consider coaching part of your job description, you may end up with an office, plant or field full of mediocre people who are no longer fully qualified to do their jobs but are too senior and/or too well behaved to fire.
2. Employees at the of their pay scale who no longer deliver top value.
This happens when leaders over-reward and under-coach employees over the course of their careers. Rewards start to seem like entitlements, and employees become convinced that they are far more valuable to your organization than they are. They respond to coaching and criticism with resentment.
Every time you see someone underperforming and you ignore it, you set a new standard. If you are someone's manager, the first time the person underpeforms, it is her performance issue, but if you fail to confront it, and it's still a problem months are years later, it has become your performance issue. If you are the sort of leader who loves to give feedback in the form of encouragement and rewards but hates to coach and provide constructive feedback, beware of the long-term consequences: an office that runs on pure ego, full of people who can't imagine what you would do without them.
3. Righteous top performers. These are otherwise great employees whose contribution is compromised by their righteousness and judgment of others. Too many leaders allow--even encourage--their top performers to criticize other team members. They collude with these employees, granting them an inappropriate view into others' performance and their leadership decisions.
You are at particular risk of nuturing this brand of resistance if you have been promoted to a leadership position over your peers at work. Perhaps you feel a bit guilty--and they feel a bit jealous--about your new role. It will be tempting to show that you are still one of the gang by being indiscreet with them--resist! Working with the willing is not about forming a clique with your favorites and excluding others from the in-crowd.
The only way to avoid perpetuating these toxic dynamics is to give frequent, honest performance and development feedback. Be consistent, be kind, and get it done. Don't wait for yearly or biannual review; meet with your people one-on-one on a regular basis and keep detailed notes about their progress. It is vital that you get very clear about the mindsets and actions that will generate results for your organization. You will be contributing to a legacy of relevant, ready, and willing employees.
Check our related posts 1) How To Create A Feedback Culture
2) Is Your Feedback Invisible to Your Direct Reports?
To your greater success,
Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant
SMART DEVELOPMENT
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