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When to Coach Versus Fire An Employee?
As I work with many executives throughout the Midwest, I am often asked whether a person can be improved through coaching. I understand this dilemma, because I once managed a staffing organization, and I too, would struggle with what to do with an employee that was not living up to their potential.
In an earlier newsletter, I mentioned two critical questions to ask yourself before making a decision to keep or terminate an employee:
- If this person came to you and said they were leaving, would you be sad or would you be so happy that you want to do cartwheels down the hallway?
- If you had to do it all over again, would you hire this person?
If you do cartwheels down the hallway and would not hire the person again, it is a "no brainer"...you need to let the person go. But what about those employees that are good, but not great? They may perform below average or average on some aspects of their performance but are above average on other aspects of their work. These employees are living in the gray zone and you may grow tired of agonizing over what to do with them. Enter right stage... behavioral coaching. What exactly is behavioral coaching? It is the process of helping an underperforming employee identify the behavior(s) that are holding them back and giving them the resources to improve their behavior(s) so they are more productive. So who should offer this coaching?
You have two options; one is to use someone inside your organization and another is to hire an outside coach. Either way you will need to follow these steps for success:
- Make sure the employee to be coached is fully aware of the low performance areas and is not surprised! Being surprised can lead to defensiveness and will hinder the coaching process. If it turns out that the employee needs to be terminated, the performance evaluation should match your decision. In other words, do not have a stellar evaluation with a raise in his file and then try to defend your termination on behavioral issues.
- If the behavior violates any company policies, follow your progressive disciplinary process up to and including termination.
- Identify key stakeholders that have the greatest impact on the employee's success and gather their perspective on the behavior(s) that need to change. Continue to engage these stakeholders by asking if the behaviors are changing over a twelve month period.
- As the coach, offer the employee tools to help with the behavior change in the format of books- to-read, seminars- to- attend and assessment tools- to- complete.
- If there is a lack of effort from the employee within the first three to six months or no significant change in the twelve months of coaching, the answer becomes clear that you need to help exit the employee from your organization.
Question for You:
Are you struggling with an employee who is not living up to their potential? Are you having trouble deciding what to do next?
Action for You:
Answer the two powerful questions above, and if you still feel they are worth holding on to, follow the behavioral coaching steps that will allow you to keep a valuable employee and help them become aware of what is holding them back and give them tools for improvement.
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