Leadership Institute

Managing Performance Problems

Learning Format: Classroom; Comparable Web-Based Course is Helping Others Adapt to Change.

Skill Practice Course (Optional)

Order No. IMEX106

Just one employee with chronic performance or work-habit problems can drag down the performance and morale of an entire work group. And it can dominate a leader’s time and lead to frustration and stress.

This course builds leaders’ skills in handling chronic performance or work-habit problems or serious misconduct. They learn how to document the problem and explain what the employee must do to address it. Leaders are skilled in discussing and imposing formal consequences while adhering to their organizations’ disciplinary policies and procedures.

Do You Face Any of These Issues?

  • Are your leaders ill-prepared to conduct performance problem discussions?
  • Do they fail to gather and document the hard performance data they need?
  • Can your leaders defuse strong emotions when discussing performance problems?
  • Do employees understand why their performance doesn’t meet expectations and what will happen if they don’t improve?

Performance Objectives

Helps leaders:

  • Provide people with performance problems with a clear understanding of what they must do to improve and the consequences of failing to do so.
  • Take appropriate action, based on best practices, to effectively address ongoing performance and work-habit problems or serious misconduct.
  • Impose formal consequences, such as probation or suspension, with the confidence that the person has been fully heard and fairly treated.
  • Minimize the impact of ongoing performance problems on the individual, work group, and organization.

Primary Competency Developed

  • Coaching

Secondary Competencies Developed

  • Follow-Up
  • Gaining Commitment

Course Overview

  • Welcome to Your World: In this simulation, learners review the personnel file of an employee with chronic performance problems and observe this person’s interactions with his leader, teammates, and customers. They decide whether the situation warrants discussing formal consequences and discuss the importance of documenting performance and agreements when dealing with serious performance or work-habit problems. Learners also discuss the challenges of shifting from coaching for improvement to imposing formal consequences.
  • Introducing Formal Consequences: Learners watch a positive model of a leader discussing formal consequences. They explore issues leaders might face after introducing or imposing formal consequences. Learners then practice imposing formal consequences with a fellow participant in the role of the “problem employee.”
  • A Fork in the Road: Participants discuss the paths a person’s performance can take after a performance problems discussion: continued decline, immediate improvement, or “mixed results.” They watch a short video of a leader handling challenging situations when imposing formal consequences. Learners participate in two skill practice discussions of two different scenarios. In the first scenario, the employee’s performance has continued to decline and the leader must impose further formal consequences. In the second scenario, the employee has achieved “mixed results,” showing improvement but still not meeting expectations in all areas.
  • HR Policies Practicum (Optional): An HR representative or the facilitator provides an overview of the organization’s policies and procedures related to managing performance problems. Learners take this opportunity to ask any questions they may have.

Video Segment Summaries

  • An employee exhibits negative behavior in a team meeting and during a call with a customer.
  • A positive model shows a leader effectively conducting an initial performance problems discussion.
  • A leader effectively handles challenging situations -- such as strong emotions, defensiveness, and opting out -- during a discussion in which formal consequences are imposed.
  • A leader discusses “mixed results” with an employee who has shown some improvement but is still having some problems.

Course Details

  • Target audience: Frontline leaders through mid-level managers.
  • Course length: 3 hours, 30 minutes. Course can be lengthened with optional activities.
  • Facilitator certification: DDI-certified facilitator required.
  • Prerequisites: Essentials of Leadership.
  • Series: Suitable for all environments.
  • Group size: 8 to 16 people.
  • Prework: No.

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