By Ron Carucci | Harvard Management Update
“You need to make Anil do his job!”
My client, let’s call her Robin, received this text from her sales manager during their virtual leadership meeting. Her company, as a food manufacturer, is deemed essential during the COVID-19 pandemic. But like many executives today, Robin is feeling the pressure of running her division remotely as her workers’ nerves start to fray.
Anil, her customer operations manager, was a strong performer back in the office. Remote work, however, has not been kind to him. Though he claims to have his tasks under control, with three children under 10 and a wife who also works, things are falling through the cracks. Salespeople have begun to receive complaints from desperate restaurant customers. Orders are arriving incorrectly and late. Since their businesses depend on every order to survive, these mistakes can pose a serious threat.
Despite being an empathetic and skilled leader, Robin is struggling to hold Anil accountable. She’s not alone. One study shows that 18% of top executives say holding others accountable is their greatest weakness. The guilt that many managers like Robin feel has been made worse by the current crisis and the pressure to remain compassionate at such a stressful time — not to mention the challenge of giving feedback virtually.
Still, an employee who isn’t keeping up while working remotely is a problem that cannot be ignored. How can leaders confront team members who are struggling to find success working remotely while also showing compassion?
It requires a broader approach. Here is where to start:
EXPAND YOUR DIAGNOSTIC LENS
With many unfamiliar variables introduced by COVID-19, getting to the bottom of a new performance problem is more complicated. Before the pandemic, most leaders might have reflexively zeroed in on the underperformer and presumed the problem was the result of insufficient skills, lack of initiative, or commitment, or a poor attitude.
While these often play some role in underperformance, they rarely account for all of it. That’s why focusing on the underperformance rather than the underperformer leads to better problem-solving. This is especially true today, when myriad new factors could be contributing to the issue.
Before confronting your underperformer, figure out what those factors may be. Begin by identifying new variables that could be interfering with their work. Have there been recent organizational shifts? Difficulties in their personal life? For many, working from home has presented several technical and self-management challenges. Working virtually will also amplify weak areas of your organization, from clunky processes to a culture of secrecy. Leaders must be able to identify which broader organizational problems may be contributing to an employee’s performance issue.
Finally, healthy accountability starts with a leader acknowledging that they may play a role in someone’s underperformance. Have you been clear about what you expect from your newly remote team? Have you provided needed resources, coaching and feedback?
SHOW EMPATHY WITHOUT LOWERING THE BAR
Managers dealing with new performance issues in a remote setting can easily confuse empathy with lowered expectations. But your fear of making your employee “feel bad” isn’t compassion; it’s cowardice. Instead of lowering the bar, ask yourself, “How do I help my key leaders succeed?”
You can demonstrate your care for an employee’s struggles by both acknowledging their hardships and redoubling efforts to help them succeed. Schedule a video call, so that you are able to read one another’s tones and expressions. “Check in” before you “check on” as a rule. Ask how that person is doing to gauge their well-being. Then, clarify that your goal for the conversation is to help resolve the problem at hand.
Use probing questions like, “Why do you feel this is happening?” Listen carefully to how they describe the situation. If he or she denies there is a problem, you may have mismatched expectations. If he or she points fingers, makes repeated excuses or refuses to take responsibility, you may have someone in the wrong role.
ENGAGE THE UNDERPERFORMER IN PROBLEM-SOLVING
In my experience, performance shortfalls, especially sudden ones, are best resolved by asking the person in question to be responsible for solving the problem. Once you’ve identified what the issue is, ask, “What would you change if you could?” or “What can we all learn from this?” to open your employee’s imagination and signal that you trust their ability to improve.
Resist telling your employees what to do. You don’t want to dilute their ownership and commitment. Reassure them that you are OK with missteps as long they are corrected and learned from. At the same time, you should remain available to provide guidance when needed. This may require instituting more frequent check-ins to compensate for the changing conditions.
STRENGTHEN TEAM ACCOUNTABILITY
There are things you can do to avoid allowing these issues to occur again in the future. One is making sure that your team members realize their collective success belongs to one another — not just to you, the boss. Otherwise, you’ll end up playing air-traffic control for every result the team delivers, and spend more time managing what falls through the cracks than on helping them achieve greater performance.
There is one exercise you can use to strengthen your team’s sense of shared accountability during this crisis. In your next meeting, ask every person to identify how they rely on each of their team members. Then compare answers: You will find you that you now have a list of explicit commitments they each can make to one another, in which you are not involved.
Remember, your biggest contribution to those you lead is in helping them to be, and to contribute, their best. When they fall short, your greatest act of compassion, especially right now, is to help them figure out what it takes to get back on track. In some cases, it may be more compassionate to loosen expectations, so long as you make that decision with other people, and not for them.
Ron Carucci is co-founder and managing partner at Navalent.
Image credits: Graphixchon | Dreamstime.com