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I once heard a management trainer use the concept of “how to or want to” in a class I was attending.  The topic was training and the specific context was the idea that if you have someone on your team who is not performing at an acceptable level, you first need to determine which of these two reasons is the root cause.

People Don’t Show Up to Fail

Let’s start with a fundamental concept that people don’t show up to fail.  People don’t join your team so that they can frustrate you, do a bad job, and totally underperform.  I know at times it appears so but trust me, people have a natural inclination to want to succeed.

Do They Know How To Do the Job?

We’ll start with the “how to” analysis.  Do they know how to do the job?  One of the tendencies of new managers is to assume everyone is like them.  Remember, you got promoted for a reason.  You were really good at doing the work.  Chances are you had great understanding of how to do the job and as a result, put yourself in positon to get promoted.

Now here’s the catch…just because you were good at the work doesn’t mean you are good at teaching others how to do it.  At least not initially.

You will need to make sure you have a solid, teachable, repeatable system that you can teach to others.  That system has to be such that an average person can use it to get above average results.  You need a training system or a game plan.

Let’s go back to that underachiever on your team and consider if they know how to do the job.  If the answer is “I’m not sure” then you have a good starting point to work from.  Always assume first that if they aren’t performing, it’s a “how to” issue.  Hopefully most of your underachievers fall into this category and you can help bring them along with your system.

What’s the Motive to Take Action?

If after some period of time, working with them on how to do the job you realize they aren’t progressing, then it’s time to go to the “want to” question.  Be forewarned that this is a much more challenging process because we’re now attempting to figure out motivation.

What is motivating this person?  They are getting the results they are getting because of the actions they are taking, but something or someone is behind those decisions.  How do you figure it out?

Start by asking some discovery questions.  Here are a few:

  1. Bill, what’s important to you?
  2. Sarah, where do you see yourself with our company in 12 months?
  3. John, what do you like most about working here?

Sometimes these questions will open up some good pathways to understanding.  But often, the underachiever will be guarded and provide very little response.  That’s when it’s important to be clear about your concerns that they are not performing as expected.  It’s important to convey concern without implying threat.  Let them know you are committed to helping them succeed.  Point out that you know they know how to do the job because you have spent time training them and you have observed they understand and are capable of doing the job.  Now you are trying to understand what’s keeping them from doing the job at an acceptable level.

This can be scary stuff because there is a wide variety of possible topics you can get into.  But you need to know what’s going on.

Needs or Wants?

I believe people seek what they want more than what they need and therefore I look for what they want.  How can doing this job satisfy what they want?  If I can uncover that answer, we are on our way to improved performance.

There’s a catchy little phrase I learned early in my career that speaks to what is going to inevitably be true if you are in a management role where you hire and train people.  “Once you have filled the seats, replace those who can’t with those who can, and then you replace those who won’t with those who will.”

It’s expensive to your organization to experience turnover and it’s impossible to hire all “10’s.  Therefore you will need to get good at working with not only the top performers, but also the one’s who struggle initially.  Make sure you do your job and provide the “how to” and encourage the “want to” before giving up on anyone.

Transformational Exercise

This week commit to writing down on a single sheet of paper the key essential activities (game plan) that if followed, would insure above average performance by an average person on you team.  If you already have that document in place, take a look at anyone on your team not performing to expectations and ask yourself if they are doing the activities you have identified.  If not, is it because they don’t know how?  Consider spending some time working with those individuals this week on improving their abilities to perform these activities.

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