Tag Archive for: management

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When It's Not Working With an Employee Infographic

How to Fire Someone: When It’s Not Working With a New Employee

We all want to be great leaders, inspiring our teams to reach their full potential.

But what do we do when it’s just not working out with someone, especially earlier in the relationship? Here’s some tips for hopefully figuring it out and then gracefully moving on if necessary.

Make sure we understand why it’s happening. A conversation where we ask “I’ve noticed (insert shortcoming or behavior) happened yesterday as well as the Monday before. Can you help me understand better why that’s happening?”

Make sure there’s been enough of the right training and helpful materials have been provided. Too often, we feel people should be able to come in and “figure it out like we did”. Things are usually not as easy as we think for people to learn, so make sure you design training for someone who knows nothing about your product, service and systems when they start.

Ask yourself if you’re dedicating enough of the right person’s time early on. If the assigned trainer is also a functioning team member and is just as productive as normal the first few weeks with a new employee, chances are they’re not spending enough time with them.

When we discuss shortcomings, focus on the specific behaviors and not personality adjectives. “I noticed it takes 15 minutes for you to enter an order, we find most people can do it in 3 or 4 minutes after a month” works a lot better than “It seems like you’re too slow to keep up with our pace here.”

When it’s clear it’s not working out, be sure to say it. No one should ever be surprised. Written warnings and performance improvement plans aren’t just HR paperwork. They’re a chance to have up front conversations and treat people like human beings with families, house payments and feelings when it’s not working out. They put employees on notice that things aren’t going as they should – if they’re at risk of being let go, be willing to say it. It gives employees a chance to move on under their terms with dignity and pride.

If it keeps happening over and over in the same role, ask yourself if you’re really setting people up for success. Good people can succeed in situations where they’re set up for success. Are you hiring people with too little experience due to budget? Are the tools in place for people to succeed? Is the role and training well designed? It doesn’t just keep happening.

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Segmentation and Focus Infographic

Segmentation and Focus

Segmentation and Focus Infographic

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First, Break All the Rules Book Review

Book Review: “First, Break All the Rules” by Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman

The original book by Gallup on employee engagement and management styles launched the StrengthFinders book series and product.

What might be obvious to most people is not so obvious to others – no two employees are the same. Thus, treating employees the same will fail to get the highest level of engagement and performance from them. That’s the main rule to be broken – treating everyone the same.

End of the day – managers matter. Probably more than any other perk, benefit or development program. Great managers attract, retain and grow great people. People tend to quit managers, not jobs.

What We Like About this Book

The book starts off by looking at the 12 questions for employee engagement. We often come back to them again and again when it seems things aren’t going well with employees, or when we’re trying to take someone to the next level.

  1. Do I know what’s expected of me at work?
  2. Do I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right?
  3. At work, do I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day?
  4. In the last seven days, have I received recognition or praise for doing good work?
  5. Does my supervisor, or someone at work, seem to care about me as a person?
  6. Is there someone at work who encourages my development?
  7. At work, do my opinions seem to count?
  8. Does the mission/purpose of my company make me feel my job is important?
  9. Are my co-workers committed to doing quality work?
  10. Do I have a best friend at work?
  11. In the last six months, has someone at work talked to me about my progress?
  12. This last year, have I had opportunities at work to learn and grow?

Then the book goes into more rule breaking, like spending the most time with your best people versus equally. Or not making everyone follow the same progression and steppingstones.

Any criticisms?

Hard to criticize this one. The chapters break up well, the examples are great and it’s clearly well researched.

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Switching from QuickBooks to an ERP Infographic

Switching from QuickBooks to an ERP

Switching from QuickBooks to an ERP Infographic

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Radical Candor Book Review

Book Review: “Radical Candor” by Kim Scott

Is it best to be really nice to employees? When does pushing people go too far? Kim Scott takes a look at finding the balance between being pushy and being kind. Drawing her two axes for Caring Personally and Challenging Directly, she gives a review of techniques for striking the optimal balance as a manager.

What We Love About this Book

Lots of examples. Lots of techniques. Covers everything from employee meetings to career conversations. From annual reviews to decision making. If there’s a situation you might face at work, there’s likely a great example here of common pitfalls of being too nice or too aggressive and how to land in between the two extremes.

Kim Scott makes a great argument that being too nice is really doing a disservice to your team. She also shows how important it is to actively demonstrate that you care about the person as a person and not as an employee. Striking the balance allows for happy and engaged employees working in a high performing organization.

Any criticisms?

It’s geared mostly to work environments where employees are professional and have a certain level of education. The concepts do apply anywhere, but Kim Scott worked at Google and Apple, so a manager on a shop floor or in a restaurant might not find the same benefit as someone managing a professional office team.

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RASI Chart Infographic

RASI Chart – Responsibility Assignment Matrix

RASI Chart Infographic

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The Situational Leader Book Review

Book Review: “The Situational Leader” by Dr. Paul Hershey

How do you handle employees at each stage of their career development? How do you handle employees who are very experienced in some areas and then are taking on an assignment in an area much more unknown to them. Dr. Paul Hershey’s framework from 1984 is still taught in employee development programs for Fortune 500 size companies across the world. Finding an actual paper copy of this one can be a little tough, but if you can it’s a quick read loaded with great techniques.

What We Love About this Book

It really systemizes employee supervision based on the employee’s level of confidence and their skill level in what they’re doing. The framework allows directors and VPs to more easily break down employee issues with their managers and guide them through how to handle situations. Conversations like “Are they are R3 or an R4” become common and the management techniques in each situation start to flow naturally.

In addition, the book is only 125 pages with big print and diagrams. Ken Blanchard took this framework and wrote the “One Minute Manager” series, so if you’ve read those books this will look familiar.

Any criticisms?

It is a 40-year-old theory. Although we certainly still need to be more directive with very confident people that lack the skills to complete tasks, the book wasn’t written to address how to do that skillfully with today’s Gen Z and Millennials that might not receive that sort of direction well.

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