Leadership Lessons

How will you approach a non-performing employee?

This, by far, is the most practical question raised during the recent leadership training I have attended; and I agree with the speaker’s answer: “It’s hard because you feel sorry for the concerned person.”

Non-performing employees are very annoying or irritating for managers. They are a source of stress and can cause trouble to the overall health of the team; they disrupt the normal course of flow in any type of business.

From my experience, handling young employees who have grown up in a permissive home and school, respond more to a democratic environment where they can participate well. On the other hand, the older workers need some appropriate doses of behavioral reinforcement because it is not easy for them to adjust to both value and organizational changes. Hence, it is only natural that they often refer to the “good old days.” Since they have been around for a long time, it is suspected that they develop certain peculiar characteristics, work habits, and patterns of performance. These might have become routine, and any type of change may not come easy. This was revealed when I introduced a new way of internal control. The young ones have deeply appreciated it for it bred a sense of responsibility, effectiveness of planning, and efficiency in terms of using company resources. However, the old ones mistook it as mistrust and micromanaging.

Apart from operational concerns, other unethical issues involving a subordinate adds up to the pressure and it tests the manager’s patience and resilience. When I received a report concerning a subordinate’s gross negligence of duty, I almost lost my temper and almost decided to terminate the said employee instantly. My outburst of emotion revealed that if there are more rational ways of handling the problem, people will eventually incline to the easiest course of action – decide hastily.

I suddenly realized that it is very difficult to approach a non-performing employee because it is also hard to address the concern with rigorous facts and not about emotional aspect or political agenda surrounding the issue. As a manager, the importance of overcoming the lazy cognitive impulses by practicing empathy and objectivity should be learned. We learn different leadership styles based on our environment, but leadership behavior can be learned or unlearned; and this allows us to promote excellent governance in an organization. In totality, this lesson echoes to the gospel of St. Mark about the Parable of the sower wherein it magnifies the dilemma on the modern world. “Despite seeing, we do not perceive.”

This means that the leadership lessons are like seeds that need to be sown on the right soil. According to a Jesuit priest, the soils may be represented by four types of hearers:

1. Prejudicial hearers – “Wala nang pag-asa yan.” (That person is hopeless.)
2. Shallow – lacks depth; fails to think through with the issue
3. Selective – too busy, too preoccupied because of different interests
4. Open-minded – willing to learn and admit that they do not know.

As managers, we have power to choose which type of hearers we wish to emulate. (Francis Manayan)