Leadership and People Management: Foundations to Practice · Performance Management
Addressing Underperformance Directly
Genuine underperformance that goes unaddressed tends to worsen over time and damages team morale in ways that are often more costly than the discomfort of a direct conversation the leader is avoiding.
A leader often delays a genuinely necessary conversation about underperformance out of discomfort, hoping the situation will improve on its own, or genuine uncertainty about how to raise the issue constructively, none of which actually resolve the underlying problem and all of which allow it to continue, and often worsen, during the delay.
Key Takeaways
- Leaders often delay addressing underperformance out of discomfort or uncertainty, which allows the underlying problem to continue and often worsen during the delay.
- Unaddressed underperformance is rarely invisible to the rest of the team and can damage morale and trust in a leader's fairness and judgment.
- An effective underperformance conversation uses the Situation-Behavior-Impact structure, describing specific observed instances rather than a general character judgment.
- Documenting underperformance conversations, including concerns, expectations, and timeframe, protects both the team member and the leader going forward.