Sounds wrong, right? We’ve all worked with someone who seemed to underperform. Maybe you’ve even been labelled a low performer before — I have too. What if it isn’t that simple?
Let’s look at Lionel Messi — one of the greatest football players of all time. During his career, he has won nearly every possible trophy. And guess what? Despite all these trophies, he was still called an underperformer. It was during his 2 years with PSG and indeed, he didn't perform as well as expected.
Yes, one of the greatest at what he does has been perceived as a low performer.
As an engineering manager, doing performance reviews will be part of your job. And to be honest, you will most likely have to deal with members of your team who are not performing as expected. Here's a step-by-step guide to help you and your team deal with so-called low performers.
Bring facts. Be fair. Show empathy.
You cannot decide if someone is underperforming based on your own or others’ feelings. Things like "I feel you are not very involved in our team's goals" or "Team members have the impression you are not committed to our next milestone" may sound like an unfair accusation. When talking with someone's performance, as a manager you need to bring actual facts. Focus on concrete, measurable examples of underperformance, not generalizations.
You should never talk about this in public ! Please show empathy and avoid public humiliations. One-on-ones are the best space to have this kind of conversations as they give you and your report a private space to express yourselves. This is where you should first address the issue but make sure you do with enough empathy so that your report sees you as a team member willing to help another.
That is also a place for you to hear their point of view. Ask open questions like "how do you feel lately in the team ?". If your report and you both agree that something needs to be fixed then show them all the empathy and support needed. We are humans and we all have ups and downs at some point and this is exactly when the team spirit should express itself at its best.
As a manager it's important to let your report express himself or herself. Try not to guess or make assumptions. Your role as a manager is to be an active listener. Many factors can lead to lower performance — professional or even personal.
Build a plan, set up SMART goals
Once you have agreed that there is something that has to be fixed, it's time to setup goals. Make sure those goals are documented. They should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) goals.
Specific: goals have to be adapted to the context of your report. It is also very important that they are fully accepted by your report.
Measurable: make sure you agree on the criteria those goals have been achieved or not. The definition of done should be clear.
Achievable: what we all want here is to taste what it feels to win again. Make sure the bar is not too high otherwise it can break the confidence of your report.
Relevant: goals have to be in the context of your team's mission. It way seem tempting to setup specific side goals. If you do so, it can give the impression that you want to put a person in the corner. Your goal as a manager is to keep everybody involved in the same goals.
Time-bound: this should not be a strong deadline. If you communicate this as a deadline you will introduce some unnecessary stress into an already stressful situation. The main idea here is to have a regular follow-up in order to make sure everything is going as expected to achieve those goals.
Provide support and resources
You are a team and one of the team member is facing a difficult situation. At some point every team member will someday face a similar situation. This is exactly the kind of moment when the team should act as one.
- provide training and mentoring with a senior engineer and follow progress during your regular one-on-ones. Helping each other in a team should not be an exceptional event.
- workload has to be adjusted accordingly to the progress of your report. Remember, you want them to win, not to drown.
- do not ignore the situation but don't make it the main event of your team. The focus of your team should stay in bringing value to your company. Make sure that helping a teammate does not become sacrificing your goals.
What if all of this doesn't go as expected ?
Most of the time the actions described before should be enough. As mentioned before, we all have ups and downs and by providing the appropriate support, mentoring and workload everything should come back to normal.
Unfortunately, sometimes things won’t go as expected. As a manager you tried your best, you saw some positive signs but the SMART goals have not been reached completely. You are now in front of a decision: try again or accept that the performance of your team member are not meeting the team's and company's expectations. The risk here is to keep trying and end up hurting your team’s overall focus.
When you have the feeling that everyone of you, as a team, tried as much as possible without a positive outcome then maybe it’s time to accept that it’s better to go separate ways. And you, as an Engineering Manager, have to make the decision in the most respectful may and accordingly to your company's policy. Take time to give feedbacks with respect and empathy.
And remember that if it didn't work as expected it is probably that the right context for success couldn't be created. If you have the feeling you were very close of a successful collaboration you are probably right, it just wasn't the right moment and that's ok.
Low performers don’t really exist — only mismatched contexts, unclear expectations, or moments when someone needs extra support.
Great managers don’t label people. They help them find their best conditions to perform. And sometimes, after doing all this well and respectfully, you still need to make the hard call that it's not working—and that's okay too.
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