Dealing With Underperforming Team Members?

A Step-By-Step Approach Guaranteed to Yield Results

Tired of missed deadlines and stalled projects? When your project’s success hangs by a thread due to underperforming team members, it’s time for decisive action. If you take the right steps, in the right order, you can quickly transform lagging performance into project-driving success.

Step one: Identify the issue

Before you tackle any problem, you want to fully understand what you’re dealing with, and getting to the root of underperformance is no exception.

First, gather some ‘data’ to confirm what the problem actually is. (HINT: you’ll use this information when it’s time for step two.) Is your team member:

• Consistently missing deadlines or not completing tasks on time?
• Producing low-quality work that doesn’t meet company standards?
• Showing a general lack of engagement or enthusiasm?
• Constantly needing assistance or supervision to complete tasks?

There could be any number of things going on with them. It might be a lack of skills, which could be cleared up with extra training, they might need clarification on project expectations, or they might be dealing with external challenges and require extra support.

Step two: It’s time to talk

Once you’ve gathered some preliminary information, it’s time for a private, candid conversation to find out the reasons behind their performance issue. Approach them with empathy and compassion and remember that you don’t know exactly what’s going on, so come to the meeting without drawing any conclusions.

Armed with the list of what you noticed in step one, start off with, “Here’s what I’m noticing.  … Can you help me understand this?”

Here are a few more pointers to guide the rest of the conversation:

• Practice active listening, show genuine interest, and don’t interrupt
• Ask clarifying questions and summarize what they say
• Acknowledge their feelings and any challenges they’re facing
• Ask for their ideas and collaborate with them on finding solutions

Steps 3-6

You definitely don’t want to skip these next three steps because they’re a key part of turning around an underperforming team. I explain them fully in this video that dives into:

• How to communicate the impact of substandard work
• Why clear expectations are vital and how to set them
• How to follow up effectively after addressing the problem
• When to offer training, mentoring, and other resources
• What you must do when all else fails

Follow me over to YouTube and learn more about turning around your underperformer!

And, if you want more step-by-step guides on all things project management, check out my SLAY Project Management online course where I take you through all the steps of successfully managing a project from start to finish. You’ll get every template you will need, along with detailed video instructions on how to use them.

Adriana Girdler, PMP | Creator of Slay Project Management™

P.S. Check out what one of my students said recently about SLAY:

“After having gone through years of project management experience I still appreciate the value of learning from this course. I learned new tools and principles about team dynamics and getting the team into consensus, that I can start to apply going forward.” KS

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