Deck 16: How to Manage Ineffective Performers

Question 1

What is a potential fallacy behind the idea that workers in the bottom 10 percent or 5 percent of the workforce are substandard performers?

Answer 1

It is not always correct to term bottom 5 to 10 percent of employees as substandard performers. The potential fallacy behind this idea is that the forced ranking evaluation system forces managers to rank employees. Consider a scenario that out of bottom 10 percent only 2 percent of employees are substandard or what if 20 percent of employees are substandard performers.
In a forced ranking system someone still must be ranked low even if he meets performance plan goals because someone other has exceeded the firm's expectations. In this scenario, it would be wrong to term lower ranked employee as below standard performer.
Another scenario would be where managers want to get rid of some employees due to personal conflicts rather than judging them on the basis of their performance. This would affect the firm adversely in the long run.

Question 2

What is the link between managing ineffective performers and organizational productivity?

Answer 2

Managing substandard performers has a direct impact on organizational productivity. Efficient management of ineffective workers can increase the output of those workers which in turn would boost up the overall productivity of the firm.
It is difficult to assess a proper reason behind an employee's substandard performance because there could be various factors related to employee himself, his job, management, or the organization. A combination of all these factors would lead up to employee's ineffectiveness and adversely affects overall productivity of the company.
By adopting a proper control model, the performance of ineffective workers can be improved substantially. These control models provide various techniques which when applied effectively can turn an ineffective worker into an effective performer. All these measures would increase the productivity in an organization.

Question 3

Why is it that first-level supervisors usually spend more time managing ineffective performance than do C-level executives?

Answer 3

First level supervisors are considered to be more suitable in managing ineffective performance because they can best understand the root cause of substandard performance. These managers work closely with their subordinates and generally have face to face contacts with them on daily basis.
Immediate supervisors can manage ineffectiveness of employees at a very initial stage as they would be the first one to know about any deviation from expected to actual performance. Substandard workers also feel most comfortable while communicating their problems to immediate supervisor rather than to someone more superior.
Immediate supervisors can also closely monitor the implementation of corrective action plans for ineffective workers. Center level executives have other major responsibilities to perform and therefore are only required to intervene when situation goes out of control of first level supervisors.

Question 4

How might an athletic coach apply the control model for managing ineffective performers to improve team performance?

Question 5

Why should management be willing to rehabilitate employees through an employee assistance program when so many workers have been downsized in recent years?

Question 6

In what type of job might being a difficult person not be much of a liability?

Question 7

What is your opinion of the merits of using an outside consultant to terminate substandard performers?

Question 8

Imagine that you are the team leader, and one of the team members frequently fails to show up when a critical task must be performed. He or she usually has an excuse, such as another assignment from upper management, a funeral, or a medical appointment. You and the other team members are concerned that this person is a social loafer. One person plays the role of the teammate with excuses; one person plays the role of the team leader; and three or four other students play the role of the team members. At your meeting today, you intend to confront the errant team member and you have developed a plan for improvement. Being a true team, all team members will contribute to dealing with the problem member. Run the session for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Question 9

Workplace bullying continues to receive attention as a serious workplace problem. In this role-play, one student plays the role of an abusive, intimidating bully who likes to damage the self-esteem of coworkers. Today the bully is particularly upset because his or her long overdue cell phone account has been turned over to a collection agency. During the rest break, this bully decides it is time to initiate bullying with a coworker seated at the table. Another student plays the role of the worker who is the bully's target. After receiving about four minutes of abuse, the second role player gets into the bully busting mode. Observers will judge both the acting ability of the role players, and the effectiveness of the bully buster.

Question 10

" It Takes Me a Long Time to Get Here "
Mark works as a cost estimator for a commercial construction company in Denver, Colorado. He reports to Tanya, the manager of cost estimating. Tanya regards Mark as a satisfactory performer, but she disapproves strongly of his frequent tardiness. During a snowfall, Mark is often over 90 minutes late for work.
One Thursday morning, Tanya sent Mark an e-mail requesting that he meet with her at 3 that afternoon. Mark responded immediately and said that he would have up to one hour for the meeting because he had to leave promptly at 4 p.m. to deal with a family emergency.
Tanya began the meeting by saying, "Mark, as I have mentioned before, your lateness is getting out of hand. You are too late for work too often. Sometimes I am looking around for you at 10 in the morning, and you are nowhere to be found. A few times your coworkers have asked me where you are because they need your input. What is your problem, Mark?"
"Tanya, you might be judging me a little too harshly. I have a valid excuse. I live 65 miles away, and that is a long commute. It is hard to estimate the traffic. And during the snow season, it is difficult to judge the road conditions. It takes me a long time to get here."
"So why do you live 65 miles from our office?" responded Tanya. "Can't you work out a better living arrangement so you can be closer to work?"
"I've got two problems that I respectfully would like you to understand. First, my father has M.S. (multiple sclerosis), and he needs me to live with him to help out. He's a widow, and he doesn't have the money to hire a home health aide.
"My second problem is that rents are sky high in this mile high city. I would need a 50 percent raise to live in an apartment near here. Do you see my predicament now?"
"I sympathize with your challenges, Mark, but I need you to report to work on time. I can accept the fact that you might face an occasional emergency, but you need to be more prompt about reporting to work.
"Let me think about the problem a little more, and get back to you."
What recommendations can you offer Tanya to be more effective in dealing with Mark's tardiness problem?

Question 11

" It Takes Me a Long Time to Get Here "
Mark works as a cost estimator for a commercial construction company in Denver, Colorado. He reports to Tanya, the manager of cost estimating. Tanya regards Mark as a satisfactory performer, but she disapproves strongly of his frequent tardiness. During a snowfall, Mark is often over 90 minutes late for work.
One Thursday morning, Tanya sent Mark an e-mail requesting that he meet with her at 3 that afternoon. Mark responded immediately and said that he would have up to one hour for the meeting because he had to leave promptly at 4 p.m. to deal with a family emergency.
Tanya began the meeting by saying, "Mark, as I have mentioned before, your lateness is getting out of hand. You are too late for work too often. Sometimes I am looking around for you at 10 in the morning, and you are nowhere to be found. A few times your coworkers have asked me where you are because they need your input. What is your problem, Mark?"
"Tanya, you might be judging me a little too harshly. I have a valid excuse. I live 65 miles away, and that is a long commute. It is hard to estimate the traffic. And during the snow season, it is difficult to judge the road conditions. It takes me a long time to get here."
"So why do you live 65 miles from our office?" responded Tanya. "Can't you work out a better living arrangement so you can be closer to work?"
"I've got two problems that I respectfully would like you to understand. First, my father has M.S. (multiple sclerosis), and he needs me to live with him to help out. He's a widow, and he doesn't have the money to hire a home health aide.
"My second problem is that rents are sky high in this mile high city. I would need a 50 percent raise to live in an apartment near here. Do you see my predicament now?"
"I sympathize with your challenges, Mark, but I need you to report to work on time. I can accept the fact that you might face an occasional emergency, but you need to be more prompt about reporting to work.
"Let me think about the problem a little more, and get back to you."
To what extent do you think Tanya should be more tolerant with respect to Mark's problem of being tardy?

Question 12

" It Takes Me a Long Time to Get Here "
Mark works as a cost estimator for a commercial construction company in Denver, Colorado. He reports to Tanya, the manager of cost estimating. Tanya regards Mark as a satisfactory performer, but she disapproves strongly of his frequent tardiness. During a snowfall, Mark is often over 90 minutes late for work.
One Thursday morning, Tanya sent Mark an e-mail requesting that he meet with her at 3 that afternoon. Mark responded immediately and said that he would have up to one hour for the meeting because he had to leave promptly at 4 p.m. to deal with a family emergency.
Tanya began the meeting by saying, "Mark, as I have mentioned before, your lateness is getting out of hand. You are too late for work too often. Sometimes I am looking around for you at 10 in the morning, and you are nowhere to be found. A few times your coworkers have asked me where you are because they need your input. What is your problem, Mark?"
"Tanya, you might be judging me a little too harshly. I have a valid excuse. I live 65 miles away, and that is a long commute. It is hard to estimate the traffic. And during the snow season, it is difficult to judge the road conditions. It takes me a long time to get here."
"So why do you live 65 miles from our office?" responded Tanya. "Can't you work out a better living arrangement so you can be closer to work?"
"I've got two problems that I respectfully would like you to understand. First, my father has M.S. (multiple sclerosis), and he needs me to live with him to help out. He's a widow, and he doesn't have the money to hire a home health aide.
"My second problem is that rents are sky high in this mile high city. I would need a 50 percent raise to live in an apartment near here. Do you see my predicament now?"
"I sympathize with your challenges, Mark, but I need you to report to work on time. I can accept the fact that you might face an occasional emergency, but you need to be more prompt about reporting to work.
"Let me think about the problem a little more, and get back to you."
What advice can you offer Mark with respect to his arriving to work late?

Question 13

Coach Fred Zweiger
Fred Zweiger is a vice president and investment consultant at a large branch of a leading financial services firm. Zweiger's main responsibility is managing the portfolios of clients with over $300,000 in assets. Reporting to Zweiger are two office assistants, and his administrative assistant Maria Mehani. Maria's main responsibilities are taking care of administrative tasks in relation to clients, such asmaking sure they complete the correct paperwork or computer forms, and arranging meetings between clients and Fred.
Each client is supposed to have one faceto- face meeting with Fred each year to discuss his or her investment portfolio. Maria telephones the clients to encourage them to visit the office for the meetings. Relatively little contact with clients is conducted over e-mail, to minimize the security risk of account numbers or social security numbers beings stolen by hackers.
Maria has worked as Fred's assistant for three years. He has been generally satisfied with her performance yet believes that if Maria reached out more to clients she would help establish better client relationships, thus encouraging more investments by clients. Fred has also noticed that several clients have mentioned that Maria continues to spell their names incorrectly and needs several reminders on address changes. As a result of these needs for improvement, Fred decides to hold a coaching session with Maria.
Later that afternoon, Fred drops by Maria's desk about 25 feet outside his office. He explains that he would like to have a staffdevelopment meeting with her on Thursday at 4 p.m., right after the U.S. stock markets close. Maria responds with a smile, "Are you going to develop me to become a financial consultant? Or are you going to fire me?"
"Somewhere in between," responded Fred with a smile. "I'll see you Thursday." A partial transcript of the meeting is presented next.
Fred: Thanks for being here on time. It was a great day on Wall Street, so I'm in a good mood to talk about your development. Specifically I want to talk about your development into a more helpful administrative assistant to me.
Maria: I thought that I was already pretty helpful. I do whatever is required in my job description. Also, I stay late many times without overtime pay just to take care of office details.
Fred: Maria, I am not accusing you of doing a poor job. I just think you could do a better job. You need more oomph, more push, more caring, and more warmth in what you are doing.
Maria: More oomph, push, caring, and warmth. I don't know what you're talking about. I like my job but I wasn't hired to be a cheerleader.
Fred: If you don't know what I'm talking about, it only proves that I'm right. You're missing out on the subtle things needed to be an outstanding administrative assistant to an investment consultant.
Maria: I feel like I'm being accused of not doing things that are not even in my job description. I was never told this job required oomph and warmth toward clients.
Fred : But it is part of your job to serve our clients in the best way you can. You need to show them more concern and interest when they telephone you, or come into the office to see me. You should act like everyone is our most important client. To make matters worse, I've heard lots of complaints that you don't spell some of the clients' names correctly on the envelopes you mail them.
Maria: What do you mean by "lots of complaints"? Is that two, three, four, or one hundred?
Fred: I haven't kept a log, but I think you are making way too many mistakes with our clients' names. A few of our clients with long Indian last names have complained the most. Just be a little more careful with the names. The big change I want is for you to make more of an impact on our clients. Form stronger bonds with them.
Maria: How do you recommend I make that big change with all the other responsibilities I have?
Fred : You figure it out. Maybe study a book about charisma or go to a human relations seminar. I'll pay for it. That's all I have to say on the subject for now.
Maria : I'll talk to you later, Fred. I am not very happy about our meeting today.
What is Fred doing wrong from a coaching standpoint?

Question 14

Coach Fred Zweiger
Fred Zweiger is a vice president and investment consultant at a large branch of a leading financial services firm. Zweiger's main responsibility is managing the portfolios of clients with over $300,000 in assets. Reporting to Zweiger are two office assistants, and his administrative assistant Maria Mehani. Maria's main responsibilities are taking care of administrative tasks in relation to clients, such asmaking sure they complete the correct paperwork or computer forms, and arranging meetings between clients and Fred.
Each client is supposed to have one faceto- face meeting with Fred each year to discuss his or her investment portfolio. Maria telephones the clients to encourage them to visit the office for the meetings. Relatively little contact with clients is conducted over e-mail, to minimize the security risk of account numbers or social security numbers beings stolen by hackers.
Maria has worked as Fred's assistant for three years. He has been generally satisfied with her performance yet believes that if Maria reached out more to clients she would help establish better client relationships, thus encouraging more investments by clients. Fred has also noticed that several clients have mentioned that Maria continues to spell their names incorrectly and needs several reminders on address changes. As a result of these needs for improvement, Fred decides to hold a coaching session with Maria.
Later that afternoon, Fred drops by Maria's desk about 25 feet outside his office. He explains that he would like to have a staffdevelopment meeting with her on Thursday at 4 p.m., right after the U.S. stock markets close. Maria responds with a smile, "Are you going to develop me to become a financial consultant? Or are you going to fire me?"
"Somewhere in between," responded Fred with a smile. "I'll see you Thursday." A partial transcript of the meeting is presented next.
Fred: Thanks for being here on time. It was a great day on Wall Street, so I'm in a good mood to talk about your development. Specifically I want to talk about your development into a more helpful administrative assistant to me.
Maria: I thought that I was already pretty helpful. I do whatever is required in my job description. Also, I stay late many times without overtime pay just to take care of office details.
Fred: Maria, I am not accusing you of doing a poor job. I just think you could do a better job. You need more oomph, more push, more caring, and more warmth in what you are doing.
Maria: More oomph, push, caring, and warmth. I don't know what you're talking about. I like my job but I wasn't hired to be a cheerleader.
Fred: If you don't know what I'm talking about, it only proves that I'm right. You're missing out on the subtle things needed to be an outstanding administrative assistant to an investment consultant.
Maria: I feel like I'm being accused of not doing things that are not even in my job description. I was never told this job required oomph and warmth toward clients.
Fred : But it is part of your job to serve our clients in the best way you can. You need to show them more concern and interest when they telephone you, or come into the office to see me. You should act like everyone is our most important client. To make matters worse, I've heard lots of complaints that you don't spell some of the clients' names correctly on the envelopes you mail them.
Maria: What do you mean by "lots of complaints"? Is that two, three, four, or one hundred?
Fred: I haven't kept a log, but I think you are making way too many mistakes with our clients' names. A few of our clients with long Indian last names have complained the most. Just be a little more careful with the names. The big change I want is for you to make more of an impact on our clients. Form stronger bonds with them.
Maria: How do you recommend I make that big change with all the other responsibilities I have?
Fred : You figure it out. Maybe study a book about charisma or go to a human relations seminar. I'll pay for it. That's all I have to say on the subject for now.
Maria : I'll talk to you later, Fred. I am not very happy about our meeting today.
What is Fred doing right from a coaching standpoint?

Question 15

Coach Fred Zweiger
Fred Zweiger is a vice president and investment consultant at a large branch of a leading financial services firm. Zweiger's main responsibility is managing the portfolios of clients with over $300,000 in assets. Reporting to Zweiger are two office assistants, and his administrative assistant Maria Mehani. Maria's main responsibilities are taking care of administrative tasks in relation to clients, such asmaking sure they complete the correct paperwork or computer forms, and arranging meetings between clients and Fred.
Each client is supposed to have one faceto- face meeting with Fred each year to discuss his or her investment portfolio. Maria telephones the clients to encourage them to visit the office for the meetings. Relatively little contact with clients is conducted over e-mail, to minimize the security risk of account numbers or social security numbers beings stolen by hackers.
Maria has worked as Fred's assistant for three years. He has been generally satisfied with her performance yet believes that if Maria reached out more to clients she would help establish better client relationships, thus encouraging more investments by clients. Fred has also noticed that several clients have mentioned that Maria continues to spell their names incorrectly and needs several reminders on address changes. As a result of these needs for improvement, Fred decides to hold a coaching session with Maria.
Later that afternoon, Fred drops by Maria's desk about 25 feet outside his office. He explains that he would like to have a staffdevelopment meeting with her on Thursday at 4 p.m., right after the U.S. stock markets close. Maria responds with a smile, "Are you going to develop me to become a financial consultant? Or are you going to fire me?"
"Somewhere in between," responded Fred with a smile. "I'll see you Thursday." A partial transcript of the meeting is presented next.
Fred: Thanks for being here on time. It was a great day on Wall Street, so I'm in a good mood to talk about your development. Specifically I want to talk about your development into a more helpful administrative assistant to me.
Maria: I thought that I was already pretty helpful. I do whatever is required in my job description. Also, I stay late many times without overtime pay just to take care of office details.
Fred: Maria, I am not accusing you of doing a poor job. I just think you could do a better job. You need more oomph, more push, more caring, and more warmth in what you are doing.
Maria: More oomph, push, caring, and warmth. I don't know what you're talking about. I like my job but I wasn't hired to be a cheerleader.
Fred: If you don't know what I'm talking about, it only proves that I'm right. You're missing out on the subtle things needed to be an outstanding administrative assistant to an investment consultant.
Maria: I feel like I'm being accused of not doing things that are not even in my job description. I was never told this job required oomph and warmth toward clients.
Fred : But it is part of your job to serve our clients in the best way you can. You need to show them more concern and interest when they telephone you, or come into the office to see me. You should act like everyone is our most important client. To make matters worse, I've heard lots of complaints that you don't spell some of the clients' names correctly on the envelopes you mail them.
Maria: What do you mean by "lots of complaints"? Is that two, three, four, or one hundred?
Fred: I haven't kept a log, but I think you are making way too many mistakes with our clients' names. A few of our clients with long Indian last names have complained the most. Just be a little more careful with the names. The big change I want is for you to make more of an impact on our clients. Form stronger bonds with them.
Maria: How do you recommend I make that big change with all the other responsibilities I have?
Fred : You figure it out. Maybe study a book about charisma or go to a human relations seminar. I'll pay for it. That's all I have to say on the subject for now.
Maria : I'll talk to you later, Fred. I am not very happy about our meeting today.
What suggestions would you offer Maria so she can develop warmer and closer relationships with clients?

Question 16

Coach Fred Zweiger
Fred Zweiger is a vice president and investment consultant at a large branch of a leading financial services firm. Zweiger's main responsibility is managing the portfolios of clients with over $300,000 in assets. Reporting to Zweiger are two office assistants, and his administrative assistant Maria Mehani. Maria's main responsibilities are taking care of administrative tasks in relation to clients, such asmaking sure they complete the correct paperwork or computer forms, and arranging meetings between clients and Fred.
Each client is supposed to have one faceto- face meeting with Fred each year to discuss his or her investment portfolio. Maria telephones the clients to encourage them to visit the office for the meetings. Relatively little contact with clients is conducted over e-mail, to minimize the security risk of account numbers or social security numbers beings stolen by hackers.
Maria has worked as Fred's assistant for three years. He has been generally satisfied with her performance yet believes that if Maria reached out more to clients she would help establish better client relationships, thus encouraging more investments by clients. Fred has also noticed that several clients have mentioned that Maria continues to spell their names incorrectly and needs several reminders on address changes. As a result of these needs for improvement, Fred decides to hold a coaching session with Maria.
Later that afternoon, Fred drops by Maria's desk about 25 feet outside his office. He explains that he would like to have a staffdevelopment meeting with her on Thursday at 4 p.m., right after the U.S. stock markets close. Maria responds with a smile, "Are you going to develop me to become a financial consultant? Or are you going to fire me?"
"Somewhere in between," responded Fred with a smile. "I'll see you Thursday." A partial transcript of the meeting is presented next.
Fred: Thanks for being here on time. It was a great day on Wall Street, so I'm in a good mood to talk about your development. Specifically I want to talk about your development into a more helpful administrative assistant to me.
Maria: I thought that I was already pretty helpful. I do whatever is required in my job description. Also, I stay late many times without overtime pay just to take care of office details.
Fred: Maria, I am not accusing you of doing a poor job. I just think you could do a better job. You need more oomph, more push, more caring, and more warmth in what you are doing.
Maria: More oomph, push, caring, and warmth. I don't know what you're talking about. I like my job but I wasn't hired to be a cheerleader.
Fred: If you don't know what I'm talking about, it only proves that I'm right. You're missing out on the subtle things needed to be an outstanding administrative assistant to an investment consultant.
Maria: I feel like I'm being accused of not doing things that are not even in my job description. I was never told this job required oomph and warmth toward clients.
Fred : But it is part of your job to serve our clients in the best way you can. You need to show them more concern and interest when they telephone you, or come into the office to see me. You should act like everyone is our most important client. To make matters worse, I've heard lots of complaints that you don't spell some of the clients' names correctly on the envelopes you mail them.
Maria: What do you mean by "lots of complaints"? Is that two, three, four, or one hundred?
Fred: I haven't kept a log, but I think you are making way too many mistakes with our clients' names. A few of our clients with long Indian last names have complained the most. Just be a little more careful with the names. The big change I want is for you to make more of an impact on our clients. Form stronger bonds with them.
Maria: How do you recommend I make that big change with all the other responsibilities I have?
Fred : You figure it out. Maybe study a book about charisma or go to a human relations seminar. I'll pay for it. That's all I have to say on the subject for now.
Maria : I'll talk to you later, Fred. I am not very happy about our meeting today.
What is your evaluation of Maria's willingness to develop her job-relevant skills?