Does an MBA degree make leaders exceptional at their roles? In some cases, yes. An MBA does give them the textbook knowledge on how to lead people and teams; alongside which they've most likely picked up 'real-life' skills such as effective communication and negotiation.
This somewhat optimistic perception of leadership can take a sharp 180 degree turn when they're within an underperforming team during the crisis situation. While in textbooks, this situation and process to get out of it might be linear. However, in real life, it's anything but that.
Handling an underperforming team plus this crisis is not a smooth sailing ride, and the conversion into a high-performing team requires people, emotions, and responsibilities to be dealt with empathy and care. It also involves introspection at times. A recent Randstad survey pointed out that 60% of workers have left jobs or are considering leaving, because they don't like their direct supervisors.
Listed below are a couple of steps and methods a leader should take to guide a team toward success in this crisis situation:
1. Listen to the chatter; don't take any drastic move
Don't act, listen. As counter-intuitive as it sounds, it is indeed the one thing that'll lead to long term success when managing an underperforming team. Actively listening to the team does reveal how information is passed and understood and reveal bottlenecks.
According to Salesforce, a surprising 86% of employees cited a lack of communication, and directly linked it to workplace failure, making it something to watch out for!
While you observe, it is important to understand the efficiencies and inefficiencies that exist within the team—are the team members helpful? Are they descriptive?
Once you've done this exercise, the next step should involve having an open conversation with the team about your findings, the reasons why the team isn't performing at par and lastly, what you think is the solution.
2. Preparation
According to BambooHR, 70% of HR professionals feel the need for performance reviews, and, in contrast, only 34% of non-management employees feel the same. Hence, performance reviews need to come with a lot of preparation, and proof!
Performance reviews are tricky, especially at a time when the team is underperforming because it is easy to slip into a blame game. Therefore, as a manager, it is important to gauge the behavior of employees as well as other learnings you’ve had with the employee in question to back your claims. The conversation must focus on three key areas—goals, performance, and development.
Having a structured, factual, and actionable conversation with the said employee will lead to a much more productive conversation as you've done your part with the prepping and are not coming in from a criticism angle.
When managers criticize, it leads to demotivation and a dip in interest to further work for the company and/or boss. If managers plan this conversation well, the chances of retaining the employee and converting them into a high-performer are significant.
3. Set clear targets
The most important quality of a leader is to show the team a vision/goal.
Managers must ask questions such as "What was your biggest achievement this year?" or "How many goals did you achieve after our last performance appraisal?"
Asking these open-ended questions will give the manager and employee a fair insight into areas of success and failure. It will also eliminate potential barriers and provide the scope for development.
Once the context and tone has been set, it is up to the manager to convey targets in a manner that they are achievable. One way is to set SMART goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and timely.
An example would be to say, "Let's get version one rolled out in two weeks.Charlie, get started with xyz on Monday. Annie take over from Charlie on Wednesday where you will do abc"- Actionable, time-based feedback sets a clear expectation out of every individual. Setting clear targets is probably the most significant step for a leader of an underperforming team, as it reinstills trust, shows you're ready to fix previous issues, and really do care about the success of the team and individuals.
4. Monitoring success and performance
In a high-performing team, leaders can use the laissez-faire method of management; but, in an underperforming team, it is essential to be very hands-on. However, there's a fine line between hands-on and micromanaging. Micromanagers interfere with productivity, morale, communication, and learning—basically with every part of the day-to-day activities of employees.
Alternatively, being hands-on means that managers trust their team and don't get in the way; instead, they help the team succeed by providing support and big picture perspectives.
Hands-on managers are much easier to communicate with as they are willing to hear feedback, even if it's about their management style. Lastly, employees perform better under a hands-on manager as they are given a positive environment to work within, helping them mentally and actually produce high-quality work.
Therefore, hands-on can be translated into a regular 30-minute team run-down and then everyone gets on with their tasks.
Being a hands-on manager will help you and the team communicate better, complete tasks in an efficient manner, and achieve performance metrics together. While you're beginning to set the path and ensure that it is being followed, it is also important to monitor progress via conversations and seeing tangible results. For example, a hands-on manager can follow up on developments and performance of employees by setting a weekly team meet-up on Friday to run by the tasks performed throughout the week.
5. Training, coaching, mentoring
Sometimes, information gaps exist among teams in organizations. In such cases, the only way to solve the problem is to rely on third-party expertise or get external help, especially if the leader does not have the information or knows the method to guide the team. Offering training and development is said to increase retention rates by 86%, according to a recent Bridge survey.
Training is usually an externalized activity, whereby the company brings in a third party who's a subject matter expert to converse with the team. Training is a more rigorous process and deals with 'problem areas' in a manner where the subject is re-taught, in this instance. It could be something as simple as the employees not understanding a process, which can be fixed with a day of training so everyone is on the same page.
Coaching, directed toward performance, can be done by the leader, or again, externally. This is a more time-intensive process as you deal with individuals one-on-one or in small, manageable groups, to achieve agreed-upon tasks. The beauty of coaching is that it encourages more conversation and can lead to the individual building trust with their coaches. This enables them to have candid discussions, in case they feel intimidated by the managers.
Mentoring, directed toward self-development, is the most energy-intensive and time-intensive project of all—requiring not days, but months, wherein the mentor and mentee work together, parallelly. Mentorship is not task-oriented and is more focused on personal development and progress. Therefore, mentorship can help with boosting productivity and morale, increasing the bottom line of organizations.
Managers will have to take the call on the difference of training, coaching, or mentoring depending on the situation and its intensity.
6. Be ready to make the tough call
Sometimes, managers need to make difficult judgments or choices. This can involve delivering news of termination or something that may not ‘go down’ very well with the employees.
Gallup estimated this 'loss' to be between $960B and $1.2T per year and even after multiple attempts, sometimes employees may not able to match up to standards or deliver as expected. If all efforts are going to waste, it might be the time to take a tough call.
When the individual is in an underperforming team, they may begin to take feedback personally, potentially harming them emotionally, therefore it is vital that this conversation happens in private, with a detailed explanation and a chance for them to explain/provide feedback.
Although hard and not preferred, it is mandatory to make these tough calls as and when necessary to ensure that the team is moving in the right direction, together, hand-in-hand.
To be a leader of such a team is not the easiest task after all. However, it does show the power of a leader and the strength of the team if this situation is diverted smoothly and put back on track. The steps mentioned above are actionable, simple, and are a basic guideline into turning this team into a high-performing one. Each instance must be handled with its own understanding and care as there is no one-shoe-fits-all method here. For employees, it is critical that they stay positive, accept feedback, and feel a sense of belonging. Only then, one employee at a time, will the team succeed.