How to Tell an Employee They’re Not Meeting Expectations
I know it’s hard, and I’m here to help.
I don’t like telling employees they’re not doing a good job any more than I like being told that I am not doing well. Delivering this news is arguably the worst part of being a team leader. Eventually, the time will come when someone on your team isn’t pulling their weight, and you will be faced with a choice. You can choose to ignore it, compensate for it, work around it, and accept the toll it will take on the broader team’s morale, or you can opt to have the tough conversation.
Spoiler alert — the former always ends up being more damaging than the latter.
As an HR Manager, I have coached plenty of fellow business leaders having these discussions with their employees. The first time I had to put one of my direct reports on a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP), it was suddenly a much more difficult conversation for me to imagine having. The temptation to ignore it and hope it went away was very real.
Why? Because it feels so much more personal when it’s your direct report.
Looking back, this was an exercise critical to my evolution as a leader. Having one of these conversations myself afforded me a deeper appreciation for how difficult it is. It made me a more compassionate HR…
