Managing Slackers

What’s the first step to managing slackers? Unfortunately, you have to get

to know them in order to discover

why they’re slacking out. To do that, seek out

evidence of what your slacker employees value. Do they wake up for certain

activities but sleep through others? Do you notice them talking animatedly in the

lunchroom on some topics? Study their habits and gather clues as to what useful

rewards might be.

Another technique is, of course, the obvious one: you could just ask. Some

questions to help you discover values might be as follows:

-

I’ve been noticing that you don’t seem as interested in your job as you used

to be. What company reward might be a good motivator for you?

-

I’m curious about your other jobs. Were there any where you felt

consistently motivated? What kinds of rewards or incentives were offered?

-

What’s your dream job? What do you think would motivate you to do your

best in that field?

Once you know what someone values, you’ll find it easier to motivate them.

If you loath managing slackers you’re in good company. In a recent study by

Leadership IQ, a training and research organization based in Washington, D.C., 87

percent of employees reported that working besides low-performing colleagues had

made them want to change jobs. Further, 93 percent also claimed that working with

low performers decreased their productivity.

“Low performers can feel like emotional vampires, sucking the energy out

of everyone around them” said Leadership IQ chief executive Mark Murphy,

whose company surveyed 70,305 employees, managers, and executives from 116

companies and organizations. Those surveyed were asked to list characteristics of a

low performer. The top five characteristics were:

1. A negative attitude

2. A tendency to stir up trouble

3. Often blames others

4. Lacks initiative

5. Is incompetent

Low performers excel in the art of work avoidance. They spend more time

arguing their way out of tasks than it would take to simply complete them. They

are good at identifying problems but not so good at finding solutions. They have

well-crafted excuses for not getting anything done. And their sloth is often at the

expense of more conscientious coworkers, who must pick up their slack.

Ironically enough, many slackers do not see themselves as slackers,

preferring instead to blame others. Of the 87 percent of employee who want to get

away from low performers, half are probably low performers themselves, if other

surveys can be believed. For instance, more than half of American workers are not

engaged in their jobs, according to a recent survey by Gallup. Most are

“sleepwalking though their workdays,” Gallup says. But 19 percent are what

Gallup calls the “actively disengaged.” The 23 million “actively disengaged” U.S.

workers cost the national economy more than 300 billion a year in lost

productivity.

In short, if companies hope to keep their best employees, they should dump

their worst. Otherwise, low performers will start dictating the company’s cultures:

productivity, quality, and service will all decline precipitously, and high

performers will avoid your organization like the proverbial plague.

Former General Electric CEO Jack Welch famously fired the bottom 10

percent of his work force each year. Welch used sports metaphors to justify this

extreme practice, saying he wanted to work with A-team performers. He was

roundly criticized as callous by some, and indiscriminate by others, who pointed

out that for some jobs, there’s just not that much differentiation between the lowest

and highest performance. Yet GE did flourish under his management. “I think the

cruelest thing you can do to somebody is give them a head fake …nice

appraisals…that’s called false kindness,” writes Welch in the book

The Jack Welch

Most managers avoid addressing the problem of slackers. When I teach

management classes, for example, I routinely ask how many of them have

someone on a performance improvement plan. Usually one or two of them do,

despite surveys that show at least 20 percent of the employees in any workplace

perform poorly.

There’s plenty of false kindness and management wimpiness going around.

In the Leadership IQ survey, only 14 percent of senior executives said their

company effectively managed low performers. And only 17 percent of middle

managers said they feel comfortable removing low performers.

Slackers can intimidate most leaders. A lot of managers simply don’t want to

deal with them. They will duck down a side hallway just to avoid engagement.

Managers avoid slackers for many reasons. Some may lack the skills to manage

performance effectively. Good performance management can be difficult and

requires a manager to make certain that he or she knows what behavior constitutes

acceptable performance and what results they seek. Many managers really do not

know what the criteria should be, beyond counting “face time” in the office.

Other managers may be paranoid about confronting an employee who is

different from them in some way: a different gender race, or generation. Finally,

many managers don’t want t make anyone feel bad, or they lack confrontation and

conflict skills.

Can slackers be fired for goofing off at work? Ask the hapless New York

City clerk fired by Mayor Michael Bloomberg for being discovered playing a game

of solitaire when Bloomberg and a group of reporters trooped into the clerk’s

office on a touch. Bloomberg canned him on the spot, which is legal if employees

have been warned that such behavior isn’t allowed. (After all, you are supposed to

work at work)

What to do about slackers? This is the standard coach, counsel, warn, plan,

and then fire. Document, document, document all along the way.

Coaching is what you ideally do every day. If you have an employee who

spends more time making paper airplanes than working, remember the wild animal

approximations. Small rewards received immediately and frequently seem to have

more effect in performance than larger rewards delivered long after performances

and infrequently. A $5 gift card may do more to motivate an employee than a

potential promotion in the vague future. This is especially true for younger

workers. Studies have shown that frequent specific feedback from managers,

delivered shortly after a good performance, is all an employee needs to make good

work a habit.

Conversely, when you need to correct behavior, you have to ask people to

improve, check for improvement and then verbally compliment any improvement.

Otherwise, they may wonder why they should bother if no one notices the change.

It’s important that the feedback be specific. Saying “Great job today,” leaves your

employee wondering what was so great and doesn’t encourage her to do it again.

Try “That report had no errors and I appreciate that you caught my mistake on

page nine. Way to go!”, instead.

This doesn’t mean that you no longer need to give raises, performance

reviews, and promotions. Giving regular verbal rewards to your employees simply

means that you’ll be writing better and better reviews for employees who are

happier and more motivated.

You can rarely motivate lazy people by criticizing them. Criticism leads to

discouragement and bad morale. It can lead to mutiny. Compliments followed by

constructive criticism are more effective. When people receive recognition for the

good things they do, they feel more motivated to be productive. When you

approach a slacker, make a positive observation of something they do well, and

then offer them a tip where they could improve. “Well, you’ve done a really great

job here. Let’s try to pick up the pace and get x number more like this done before

lunch.” Or, “You work very quickly and efficiently, but this could be a little

better.”

Never forget to tell people when they’re doing well. Also, get to know

people. Ask them about themselves at lunch, after work. Keep it light but let them

see the more human side of you. Before you leave, ask someone about their plans

for the weekend. Organize an outing once in awhile, invite families to a barbecue.

Save punishment for people who actively defy you with insubordination.

Make them understand what impact their lack of initiative has on the entire team.

Explain the impact of their actions, such as: When I see you staring out the

window, I worry that you’re not getting your report done, I need you to focus on

how to do that by five o’clock.”

Quantify the results of the job, not the actual activity involved so that

employees will know what they’re working towards.

Many managers are still managing by keeping track of face time, the time

that people actually spend in the office. But in the information age, especially with

younger workers, it’s a good idea to consider quantifying what you really want

them to accomplish and judging by results, not just time. Many studies show that

younger workers want the flexibility to work remotely and be judged by results.

Many managers are reluctant to consider this approach. Because I’m an

attorney, I’m asked to do a lot of consulting projects for law firms, many of whom

are having trouble keeping their best young associates, especially women. When I

suggest that they allow attorneys who have done well the privilege of working at

home or other out of the office locations, many older partners are horrified.

We

, they cry.

Never mind that most legal work these days, even in-office conferences, is

conducted over the phone or the internet. Never mind that attorneys keep track of

their time in tenths of an hour, so it’s very easy to quantify who is working or not

working. The resistance to change remains strong in many professions.

Even if you don’t decide to loosen up on where the work actually needs to

be done, however, you’ll benefit from setting specific, measurable objectives for

the job. These need to be results that are quantifiable, easy to understand, and that

everyone can agree on. Of course, these objectives should actually add value to the

organization. Employees — especially the best and the brightest — rebel eventually

against busy work. Maybe the slacker you’re trying to shape up isn’t lazy but just

bored or failing to see the larger meaning in what you’re asking them to

accomplish.

Copyright © 2009. No part of this material may be reproduced without written permission from Lynne Eisaguirre,

Workplaces That Work, 303-216-1020, Lynne@Workplacesthatwork.com,

www.workplacesthatwork.com