When People Go Wrong

Working with a couple of clients today reminded me that a big part of what I do is encourage people to hang in, to cope with things that go wrong in the people arena and do what they can to find small steps toward a long term solution.

People often ask "am I crazy; do other people face these problems; why doesn't my company do something about this?" Often, when bad employees are involved, Human Resources gets a big share of the blame, many times deservedly so, though it's rarely them alone. They can almost always do more. But what if a senior boss is protecting someone or is afraid of a law suit if an offender is terminated. Perhaps "their numbers are good" and the company "can't live without them" so no matter how obnoxious they are they get to stay.

Eventually the end does come for jerks who make people's lives miserable. Often it seems to be by accident, but it rarely is. Accumulated frustration by enough people usually fuels some sort of solution, though often a hit or miss - quitting occurs more often than firing. I find myself saying over and over, "hang in, it won't last forever."

We know companies can't and shouldn't just fire someone out of hand. It wouldn't be morally right even if they could do it without getting sued. But why don't they at least begin taking action. There are hundreds of rationalizations. If you dig it mostly ends up as "it would take too long." That translates to "I might be gone by then. Why start something I can't finish." The next sentence ("In fact, I hope I'll be gone before I have to deal with this.") is usually not far beneath the surface.

These challenges can be tough, but there are workable ways to start making the situation better. Most people know that if you want to lose weight or exercise more you need to start slowly. Making a big dash usually results in early failure and giving up, back to square one. Things just don't happen over night. Following the same logic, we need to work out a slowly building plan for getting rid of someone. In every office most people know who these offenders are. There are small steps that any boss can take that set the stage slowly, but surely for the inevitable end. Even if that boss moves on in a few months and the job isn't finished, the next boss can step right in. It isn't and shouldn't be a personal vendetta, but it needs to be a solid business approach.

Getting rid of poor performers is an essential task every manager will always face. But very few learn to work logically toward this and few get any real training.

Surprisingly the best answer lies in taking a coaching approach to the offender. Perhaps they literally don't know they're causing problems. Many do, but because no one has ever spelled it out they blissfully think they'll continue getting away with bad behavior forever. When a manager begins coaching them there's usually some denial, but it evaporates fairly quickly because they know they've been caught. As coaching progresses and they see they need to change or go, they're that much closer to quitting to get away from the inevitable.

Coaching should always aim at the positive, but the longer coaching goes on unsuccessfully, the more clearly they will see they won't have a case when the time comes. Some actually do shape up, but the really stubborn, bad ones most often see the steady push and run away, quit, "get sick" or try to transfer. Steady steps walk them steadily to the door and at that point it's an easy, obvious step out.