Choices abound when it comes to disciplining erring employees. But they all come with several strings attatched! Just a cursory glance at the list below reveals multiple options that have differing impacts on the concerned individual as well as on rest of the team.
a) just letting 'em have it - in the presence of others. Embarrass the guy, make him squirm.
b) well targeted artillery fire in private so that the world can be spared his agony.
c) question, probe, question,question, probe for days on end till the guy feels pressurised to alter behaviour
d) load him with so much work that he knows that somethings wrong
e) Write nasty mails with the world on cc and say nothing when you cross one another
f) take away his responsibilities and load it onto others
g) polite, docile fact based discussion
wanting to keep your team members in high spirits, motivated and charged for the tasks on hand is often a big challenge as intrinsically it is difficult to motivate people who are not firedup themselves. It's like expecting fuel less rockets to soar up skywards. But tolerating mediocre performance is as tricky for it directly contradicts with what you would like to achieve for the business. And then there is the even more contradictory stance when one doesnt like the thought of loosing team members because of the impact this has on the morale of the rest of the team. So what does one do?
I had tried several routes and not seen them deliver. The route i recently took was (e) except that instead of the world, only the HR deptt was on cc followed by a pretension of (f) and (b).
The pretence was necessary to instil the fear of God in a guy who had the ability but not the attitude. My genuine concern was to improve his performance level and to send out the right signals to the rest of the team watching in anticipation, waiting for my first stumbling block.
I am confident, he will change. If he does, it will be the organisation's victory. and mine too.
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