I facilitate lots of strategy meetings that involve sorting out the roles of employees and employee success. These are challenging conversations because the decisions made affect the lives of real people. The issues are weighty and have immense long term impacts on the organization, and on the lives of the people involved.
And there’s no doubt that there are some goofball employees. These come in many varieties. Some have spiralled into a black hole of negativity; some behave like toxic jerks to those around them; others have just settled into a long winter’s nap as underperformers. But these folks are in the small minority (usually somewhere in the range of 5% of the average staff team).
But during these conversations, the best leaders always keep one issue paramount:
How can we set the table in such a way that it offers this person their best chance of success?
The best leaders want to do anything they can to ensure employee success. When your team knows that your heart’s cry is to help them win, they respond (mostly). They listen. They’re more open to change. If they think you’re down on them, you won’t make much progress.
Sometimes, the best path to success involves a difficult conversation or a role adjustment or some coaching and training. Other times it involves helping the employee move on to find a better fit in a different organization.
But the motivation should stay the same: How can we help this person win?
Your assignment for the week:
Ask someone on your team how you can better help them win in their role.
