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Nowadays, managing human capital is maybe the greatest challenge of leadership. In this way, I would like to present a study case of managing talent that I faced in order to improve individual performance of employees in my current job.

We detected an underperforming employee from our direct department report. We described the situation and diagnose why we think this individual is under-performing. The important questions that we should answer are the followings: How could we help coaching this individual in order to improve his performance? What steps would we take? How would we communicate these steps to the person? What developmental assignments would we create for this person to address the performance issues?

Firstly, we described the situation that clearly illustrates the central causes of underperformance. I am working in a company where the evaluation process is carried out following a forced performance distribution. Workers are evaluated each year on a scale 1-4 where one is the best performance employee and four the worst employee. In this particular case, there is an employee who has been qualified 4 the last two years. This poor performance could be due to multiple reasons. Mainly, lack of motivation and engagement could be the cause of bad performance. This employee is excellent in developing others, he is analytical thinking and communicative, however he has a medium performance and strategic, result oriented and influential w/o authority. In the company, it is appeared that there is no a systematic feedback of his performance, behaviour and competencies. This feedback must be provided for his direct supervisor.

How would we help coach this individual to improve his performance? What steps would we took?

A clear description of the strategies proposed to improve the individual’s performance was made. Managing a systematic evaluation process, clearly understand the goals of the organization and periodically inform the results of the behaviour and performance of the employee will be the base on improving the motivation and performance. The first step was to assess the strengths and weaknesses of this employee. It could be possible with the utilization of any test personality available in the market. Hence, some tactics are going to be used in order to improve his performance. Based on these results, it will be necessary to stretch this employee through developmental experiences. Experiences that will be novel, high stakes and expose him to a diverse thinking in a way he feels engaged. Last, support is going to give him continuously. Feedback on real time supports him and to create a board of directors that helps and motivates him to performance better. A 360° degree feedback could be applied by define competencies that they will evaluated, define a questioner with very specific performance of the employee, collect self-rating and results given for all of stakeholders and give the result to the employee.

How would we communicate these steps to the person?

For all processes, collect feedback is going to be continuously, four times per year, the required information will be collected continuously. The select scales will be validated, Also, skills and competencies chosen to measure the performance of the employee. At the same time, some errors must have to be avoided in order to improve the performance of the employee. Our raters should be avoid emphasize the evaluation of performance on information readily available, recently exposed and vivid, also, in most recent meeting, interactions, projects, and assignments. It is important to prevent leniency errors; avoiding inflating ratings and avoiding the tendency to attribute poor performance based on internal characteristics and underestimates the effect of situational constraints

What developmental assignments are we going to create for this person to address the performance issues?

Developmental assignment will be applied in order to stretch him. This assignment will be novel; a new project with high stakes will be assigned. This project will be sought by the high managers and all of the group team. Thus, there will be significant changes and will expose him to a diverse thinking. Also, create accountability. If it is possible it could be assign to work across boundaries from the current department.

Underperforming issues is an important challenge that we face in any industry. We need to be clear in describing the situation and determine the necessary steps to coach and develop the individual strengths of the worker. Moreover, an effective communication is necessary during the application of developmental assignments for employees. This will stretch them and create a positive environment to finally improve his performance.

I hope this case provides you some insights and help you as a leader to face these kinds of problems in your company.
Best Regards,
@leovidalm