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PROVOKE: Your useless people and what to do with them Provocative thought of the month..... May 2008
Do some of your people look at you like this?
If they do, then they are probably as useless as ......well you can complete the expression...
Useless people drag you down Ever actually seen people significantly change?
How difficult is it to really change someone’s behavior?
We loved David Maister's Pigeon example (go to www.davidmasiter.com and have a look at his videos, they are well worth while). You can spend months training the pigeon and then the big day comes and its time to fly across the continent to its mate. You let it go and the stupid bugger flies off in the opposite direction.
Only one solution here folks. Shoot it. No other option. It had its chance and it was too stupid or disinterested and would never make the grade.
Unfortunately the workplace is plagued by people just like our pigeon. They generally do not give a toss about the company. They don’t actively contribute, take up (i.e. steal) your time and create stress while you clean up after them.
Interestingly most managers that we meet have not done anything about it. "Well, he is good guy and I could not let him go. I know his family… ya de ya".
Calculate the true cost to your business and then ask yourself why they are treating YOU like this every day?
The lost profits and stress simply do not justify keeping them on.
The relief we see on managers faces when we help facilitate their removal is enormous. Yes it is unpleasant but so is stubbing your toe. The pain is very short lived.
So how do you handle this situation without causing grief and flow -on effects with their colleagues and unions?
In one word.. Performance Management.... and it works. Let us describe how.
Firstly, WITHOUT referring to their performance sit down with the team and set up their team and individual KPIs. KPIs are targets. There should only be say 3 or 4 for the team and a couple for the individual. They must be easily measurable. Examples are: Number of quotes given or quote conversion rate, number of sales visits, manhours worked vs. manhours planned (for more information on KPIs see Measure my Business At a Glance...)
But here is the key:
LET THEM SELECT THEIR OWN KPIs
In almost every case you will be surprised how realistic and challenging they can set their own targets.
Secondly, Make THEM record it regularly ie. weekly or monthly. Some may be automatically generated from your system but in a lot cases they can enter their results into a book or spreadsheet. The beauty of this is that it keeps them focused.
Thirdly, make sure them and their management look at them monthly.
Recently we set up a performance measurement system for a trade services company and a manufacturer and within 2 months troublesome staff in both companies had resigned
You see troublesome staff KNOW they are underperforming and will quickly blame others or the system for their ongoing poor performance. Having performance measures in place brings the focus back on them and makes them squirmy.
Look at our other articles.....
Look at Progressives' measurement dashboard....
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