Half-Full or Half-Empty

How leaders deal with performance issues can set the cultural tone for an organization. Being empathetic, listening to our people and taking all feedback into consideration when making a decision can be a messy but necessary process to keep all parties motivated and focused. What do you do when you have an employee who has typically been a good producer and who has all of a sudden become unproductive, or even worse a problem? Do you avoid the issue and hope that it will go away? Do you confront the person and corner them until you get answers? Obviously these are extremes, but there seems to be a grey area between being overly empathic with employees about productivity concerns and communicating that the reward for doing a good job is that you get to keep doing it (your job).

I have had conversations with managers who are dealing with these issues and have employees that they define as a productivity concern combined with having a higher sense of entitlement. What a winning combination! There are two ways leaders view this type of behavior. I will use the "is the glass half-full or half-empty" analogy. The "half-full" leaders see this as a way to correct the behavior of someone they have invested in, so they can avoid the high costs associated with replacing that person. In most cases, the "half-full" leader will equate a problem with an opportunity. They might also see this opportunity to work with someone on their professional development as a way to demonstrate their willingness to work with their folks and display their leadership abilities. The "half-empty" leaders will not deal directly with the real issues and will avoid their employee while allowing the issue to become an even larger problem that will eventually spill over into other departments, business units, etc. Ultimately, this will negatively impact the performance of the office, division, business unit, etc.

Are you dealing with these types of issues in your current leadership position? If so, how are you positively impacting or redirecting behavior in your business?