What are effective ways to facilitate career development conversations with underperforming employees?

All of us have a built-in "performance barometer". We know when we are stalling, but are reluctant, afraid, or defensive to initiate the conversation --- especially with a supervisor. An empathetic supervisor, then, might set up a time to meet. (No surprises, please!) And begin the conversation by asking the Team Member how s/he feels that things are going in general. Are there questions? More information needed? Tasks aligned with skills and talent? --- Often, such a conversation can lead to constructive requests and offers for help, as needed and wanted.

First, have a tough conversation about the performance evaluation. Discuss how the employee's performance has begun to slide. While at it, discuss your responsibility with the employee about performance as their manager/supervisor. Show how this performance review will make his non-performance more formalized. Highlight how you need to get the employee's performance up to par. Your goal in the performance interview is to create an improvement plan documenting the employee's underperformance and looking over the employee's evaluation rating. Thus work together with the employee to develop an improvement plan. The plan should address project deadlines/budgets, skill gaps/clarity, and how helpful it will be for their career development.

First of all, honesty goes a long way and I think sometimes as leaders, we are trying to be the best manager we can in these situations and focus too heavily what process we can follow to make this easier for the under performing employees. If we bear honesty in mind, as managers, we'll be able to give contextual, constructive feedback to the individual and guide them on a forward path to improve from there. It is important that we don't just have development conversations when there are challenges but keep them as part of your regular catchups, 1:1s with them.

Both the supervisor and the underperforming employee need to take time to prepare for this often difficult but essential conversation. In addition to analysing performance data and 360 degree feedback, supervisors need to take a holistic look at the employee by revisiting their CV to understand their career trajectory and analysing psychometric data, if available, to better understand the employee as a person. This will provide the supervisor with a clearer picture of the employee's exposure, experience, qualifications, personality, strengths and gaps. The employee on the other hand should prepare by reflecting on their own performance and identifying areas for improvement.

I use a coaching model when it comes to delivering underperforming feedback to my team or individuals. -KICKSTART with interest (What’s on your mind?) -Keep the LAZY Question short (What do you make of this scenario?) -Command a REFLECTION (How has this happened and what can we do about it? What needs to change?) -Find a LEARNING moment (What was most useful to you today?) This helps the discussion move from underperforming feedback to development feedback.