How leaders help underperformers

All leaders love to work with team members who are high performers. High performers are self-motivated, passionate, energetic and they deliver high value. They require less supervision, get the job done in good time and often exceed expectations. So, they make the leader’s work easy.

But not all team members come ready to launch, some need the input of the leader to reach their maximum level.

While some leaders are impatient with underperforming team members and are eager to ship them out, great leaders take it upon themselves to help the underperforming member become a high flyer.

Leaders and underperformers

Probably the most important task of a leader is to inspire others to strive to be better than they ever imagined they could be.

As observed by John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States of America, “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” Therefore, leaders are supposed to bring out the best in others by leading them from their lowest point to their highest level. Leaders are expected to lead a people from lethargy to fervor, weakness to strength, shortage to surplus and ordinariness to greatness. Leaders who understand this always leave those who come across them better than they met them. Hence, leadership is relational; a leader must be ahead enough to show the way but must also be close enough to understand the challenges. Great leaders are willing to spend and be spent to bring out the best in their followers. They go to any extent to help an underperformer overcome underperformance because of their conviction that they need to give others a push to take them from where they are to where they ought to be.

The king, the princess and the pool

A king who had a beautiful daughter wanted to betroth his daughter to a courageous young man but he was not sure who, among the many young men who daily thronged his palace asking for the hand of his daughter in marriage, had that kind of quality. So, one day, he called all the men together beside a pool and said he would give his daughter to whoever among them could swim from one end of the pool to the other. He, however, warned them that the pool was filled with crocodiles. As the young men were wondering what manner of offer that was, they heard a splash. A young man was already in the pool, swimming frantically ahead of the crocodiles that had swarmed around him. He eventually made it to the other end of the pool before the crocodiles could reach him. As he clambered out of the water, the king approached him with an outstretched hand, saying “Congratulations, Son. What gave you so much courage?” But the young man replied the king, “No, Your Majesty. I did not intend to swim in the pool. I am still wondering who pushed me?”

The young man was unaware of his capacity to beat crocodiles in a race even in their territory until he had a push. Great leaders always push others to attain their maximum capacity.

How leaders help underperformers

The starting point for helping an underperforming team member is to find out the cause of the problem. Many people want to be successful. So, it is against the run of play that anyone would wish to fail if they could help it. Therefore, the first thing the leader must ascertain is what is responsible for the underperformance.

Many a time, mismatch of skills with tasks result in unsatisfactory result. The leader has to be sure that the task given the staff member is in line with his strength. If he is given a task which is not in alignment with his area of strength, his performance may fall far below expectations. If it is a case of mismatch of skills and tasks, solving that problem is quite easy. All the leader needs to do is to properly align the individual’s skills with tasks to be assigned to him.

Sometimes underperformance is a consequence of bad attitude. If a team member’s performance is hampered by his bad attitude, the leader’s responsibility is to make plain to the affected individual the harm that the attitude is having on his career at the moment and the likely effect in future if the trend is not reversed. The leader must not mince words about this; it is the only way to get the individual out of the rot and set him on the right path. As observed by Scott Hamilton, the only disability in life is a bad attitude.

Bad attitude will result in a poor output and a bleak future. If the team member is made to know how his attitude is adversely impacting his performance, the effect of this on the team’s overall productivity as well as the eventual effect on his career, the likelihood is that the team member will have a change of attitude.

But oftentimes underperformance is a result of the affected individual’s failure to make enough demand on his ability. When this is the case the leader has to do the following.

Assure him of support

Very few things motivate team members more than the knowledge that they have the backing of their superiors. When a team member is not sure where he stands with his leader, the probability of making mistakes is very high. So, the first thing the leader must do is to instill confidence in the individual. The leader needs to let the team member know that he can walk up to him to discuss issues bothering him whether they are official or personal. Creating this kind of atmosphere will thaw every ice and diffuse every tension building up in the mind of the team member. With that, he will be able to settle down and tackle the challenge with all his might.

Draw up an improvement plan

To take the individual from the level he is to the appropriate level will require setting a new vision for him. In The One-Minute Manager, Ken Blanchard suggests that a manager must sit down with his subordinate to set goals that they both must agree on. According to him, this goal setting enables the staff member to know what is expected of him right from the onset. This provides immediate feedback to both the staff member and the supervisor. So, both the leader and the member must have an understanding of what the tasks and the terms are so as to be able to measure compliance.

Motivate him to achieve set target

Drawing up an improvement plan for the team member is not enough; the leader has to take it to a higher level by providing the required motivation to achieve the objective. Many people don’t put in their best because they can’t find a reason to do so. Part of the responsibility of the leader is to provide the reason. If the individual believes that the reason to achieve the set target is good enough, he will strive hard to achieve the set target.

Coach him

Every great leader is a coach. Coaches are great assets. No matter how skilled or knowledgeable an individual is, he still requires a coach. That is why boxers, who are world champions; tennis players, who are on top of their games and footballers who have global acclaim go about with their coaches. As god as these stars are they cannot coach themselves. A coach helps an individual to correct his flaws so that he can get maximum benefit from his strength. So, the leader has to play the role of a coach by helping the team member to correct his flaws and optimise his strength.

Set higher goals

After attaining the earlier set goals, set higher ones. The leader must ensure that the individual does not become complacent after accomplishing the first set of goals; the way to do this is to set new goals. Let him realize that the journey to improvement is an unending one. So, he has to keep setting new goals so that he can keep mounting higher.

Train him to be independent

One sign of maturity is the ability to take initiative. So, the leader must encourage the individual to progress from the point that has been reached by taking initiative on his own without waiting for prompting from the leader before doing what is required or exceeding expectation.

Great leaders do not raise dependants; they train people to be independent so that they can also raise others. So, the leader must encourage the team member to be strong on taking initiative so that he won’t have to keep leaning on the leader.

Last line

Greatness is birthed when lives are positively impacted. Leaders who take it upon themselves to help those who cross their path to become their best have earned themselves a conspicuous space among the greats.