Addressing Performance Issues is Key for a Leader!

Managing performance and addressing performance issues are key to having an effective organization. Your standard of performance becomes your weakest individual. If you are not addressing the performance of your weaker performers, the rest of the organization may relax and come down to that standard set by the weaker performer.



The organization watches the leader to see how the leader handles poor performance. They watch the actions the leader takes and pay attention to that as opposed to the words the leader may say. If the organization sees a weak performer at the executive level being allowed to carry on, the leader loses credibility. Without credibility the leader will be unable to get the organization moving behind him or her.



It is even more critical if there is an excecutive or other employee who is ethically challenged or creates a hostile work environment and the organization sees no consequences for the executive or other employee's actions. You can rest assured that the other employees know what is going on and they can not understand why the Leader doesn't take action.



Too often at the executive level, Senior Executives or Boards of Directors of companies, take short cuts and after turning their heads for a very long period of time, pay the executives to leave. That happens many times even when the termination could be for "cause". If you are a "rank and file" employee, you know you will not get any money when fired for cause. Unfortunately, many organizations have a double standard when it comes to dealing with the Senior Executives.



Additionally, many times a "reorganization" at the executive level is done in order to eliminate a poor performing or a trouble making executive. They pay a lot of severance to get them out of the organization. Rather than take the performance management steps necessary, they simply eliminate that position.



Even worse, many times, an organization "reorganizes" and reassigns the poor performing executive to a different position. They don't bury their dead. That is an incredible mistake. It is very rare that a trouble making or poor performing executive will be more successful at a different position. Keep poor performers around and you are sending the wrong message to your organization. Additionally, for the leader who reassigned the executive, he or she has left an employee in the organization who in the vast majority of cases, will do his or her best to regroup with one goal in mind...to undermine the leader who put them in that spot and to bring the leader who put them in that spot down.



I have seen Chief Executive Officers who have left organizations in shambles with declining stock prices and employees' retirements and investments dramatically reduced who should have been fired for poor performance with no severance leave with several million dollar packages. I have seen executives who should have been fired for cause for violating company policies and being a Human Resource Manager's worst nightmare paid to leave.



That doesn't happen at the rank and file employee level and credibility is destroyed in those organizations. Respect is lost and there is no trust in the organization and we all know that Trust is a Must for effective leaders.



Not addressing performance at the executive level also can prevent an organization from moving forward with an important initiative. At one of the companies I worked with, I witnessed that company miss one critical opportunity to send the right message and make an initiative successful that they had invested in heavily.



The company had hired a well known consulting organization to help them find a way to cross sell across the enterprises' distribution organizations. One of the organization was huge but unfortunately slow moving and in my opinion, incredibly arrogant. It was an organization that had a lot of people who managed up well but did not manage accross or down very well at all. However, managing up seemed to be the key skill needed to survive in that organization.



The other key distribution arm was relatively small but very successful at distribution driving great sales and profit growth. The decision was made to have some test programs to see what challenges would need to be addressed and how the organization could be more successful by cross selling to each others customers.



With great fanfare, a team of Senior Executives from both of those organizations were going to the three test markets to show the importance of the project. They were going to conduct kick off meetings. Obviously, there was a lot nervousness in the organization because most of the time these kinds of tests led to merging organizations and duplicate management and sales positions. Positions could be lost.



The Regional Sales Executives in the top positions in the field organization were expected to be in the kick off meetings to show their commitment to the tests. Not being in attendance would be sending the wrong message.



The organization was provided an incredibly lucky break that could allow them to send the message to the rest of the organization that they were serious about the project. The opportunity, if handled appropriately, could insure that the behavior by leaders in the distribution organizations would line up appropriately for success in this pilot.



The lucky break is that the top Sales Executive in the larger distribution organization did not go to the two meetings that were his responsibility. He was a no show.



The enterprise's Senior Execs had the gift of an effective implementation handed to them. They had the opportunity to send a message to the rest of the organization that they were serious about this initiative and that No One is Bigger than the System!



They should have fired the missing Sales Executive. Plain and simple. What he did was wrong but unfortunately the Senior Execs chose to defend him and to indicate that he was now going to be on board. They missed a great opportunity to send the right message to the organization. Everyone would have paid attention if the executive was fired. Unfortunately, they sent the wrong message. They sent the message that they weren't serious about the project. They said the words, but the actions they did not take, betrayed them and spoke volumes to the rest of the organization.



As a leader, you have to manage by principle and if you do that, the tough decisions come easy. If you have a rep that cheats, you fire the rep. It doesn't matter if it is your best rep or your worst rep. You cheat, you are gone. If you create a hostile work environment or harrass any employee, you are fired.



In one region I had the privilege to lead, I had to fire two reps in the first few weeks I took over that region. They had been cheating and we had one of the State's Department of Insurance looking at us as to how we were going to handle the situation. Those two reps had done $3 million of production the year before. My region missed the sales goal by $2 million that year but the rest of the organization took notice and behaved very appropriately and did business the right way. We never had any other issues.



The organization watches how you operate. They don't really listen to your words. They pay attention to the actions you take every day.



As a leader, manage the performance and take action. Don't miss opportunities to send the right messages with your actions.



Addressing performance issues in a timely fashion will make your organization successful. The dread of dealing with a performance issue is always worse than taking the action.



If you want your organization to implement the initiatives and help you set sales and profit records, remember to address the performance issues.



It is What You Do Every Day That Counts!