Dehiring

Some people need to be on a different team

As leaders, we need to use the tools we have to motivate our team members.

When someone is underperforming, we need to figure out why. Are they demotivated? Do they need training or coaching? Is there an interpersonal issue on the team?

Don’t procrastinate dealing with underperformers, since the other team members will need to do more work to cover the backlog, and that is not fair to them. They might also learn that “working hard” and “hardly working” take home the same size paycheck, so why bother giving extra effort if they can slack off and get the same reward?

Sometimes, even when we have tried motivating, training, and coaching a person, they still underperform. If a person can’t or won’t pull their weight on the team, they should be on a different team. Look to see if there is a better place in your organization—one in which they might be successful.

But if they will be an underperformer no matter where they go, it’s best to let them go work for the competition.