Dealing with Poor Performance - get the full picture from 3C Performance Management Specialists

Helping Managers
Deal with Poor
Performance
Key considerations for when that difficult
conversation just didn’t work…
Hedda Bird, 3C Founder Director

DEALING WITH POOR PERFORMANCE
THE CHALLENGE
CEOs and Leaders everywhere are demanding that their
managers ‘do something’ about poor performers.
A lot of ‘tick the box’ training is built around a poor performance
conversation structure – if this approach worked, then poor
performance would be much less prevalent than it is now.
So the question is…
…what tools and techniques do managers REALLY
need in order to tackle and improve poor
performance?
© 3C Associates Ltd 2024 |
www.3cperform.co.uk

What’s the problem with having a
poor performer on your team?

IT’S NOT THEIR PROBLEM…
…IT’S YOURS
You are stressed
You are having to pick up work that the poor performer
has not done, or done badly
You have to ask one of your team to pick up the extra
work – and explain why
You have late nights worrying about how to account
for your team’s apparent failure
You get a bad performance review – your team didn’t
deliver overall
You fail a leadership potential assessment – you didn’t
deal with a poorly performing member of your team

AND YOUR TEAM
ARE SUFFERING
TOO…
Your team carries the burden of a poor performer
Your team start to avoid picking up the extra work
Those who do pick up the extra work are
demotivated and annoyed
Your team blame you for not dealing with the poor
performer
Team effort reduces because they don’t see why
they should bother when you don’t deal poor
performers
Maybe one of the team opts for minimal
engagement, as you clearly won’t do anything to
challenge them
Maybe one or more of the team starts looking to
find a more competent manager to work for
Maybe one of your best people resigns to go and
work for a better managed team, with no free-
loaders

AND ALL THE TIME…
The poor performer is left unchallenged
The poor performer is under no pressure to change
The poor performer ‘gets away with it’
The poor performer takes their salary and benefits regardless
Is that what you want?

BUT WHAT CAN YOU DO?
You’ve probably …
Dropped hints to the person that their work is not
what you expected – but it’s made no difference
Tried to give some feedback – but they rejected
your perspective, maybe even cogently indicated you
were wrong – and so it didn’t make much difference
Had a ‘difficult conversation’ – but it was just, well,
difficult – and didn’t make much difference

Now what..?

If poor performance was easy to deal with – you would have done it by now.
Because right now – you have probably tried what you had available – a conversation structure,
more documents to read, some notes from HR on when to escalate
AND
If you don’t deal with poor performance in your team… then the poor performer will soon be
YOU.
YOU NEED A PROPER TOOLKIT FOR DEALING
WITH POOR PERFORMANCE

WHAT DOES A PROPER TOOLKIT
EVEN MEAN?
A toolkit gives you ALL the things you need to do a job,
not just one or two items.
Imagine a toolkit for putting up shelves that only had a
piece of wood and a screwdriver – no drill for making the
holes in the wall, no tape measure for positioning the
shelf correctly, no saw for cutting the shelf to the right
length, no spirit level of checking the shelf is level, maybe
even no screws…
For too many managers who have to deal with poor
performance – we give them just one tool – a structure for
an all purpose ‘generic conversation’. But you need so
much more than that…

A TOOLKIT TO TACKLE POOR PERFORMANCE NEEDS
TO SET YOU UP PROPERLY SO YOU CAN…
ANALYSE what is actually going on - poor performance often presents
as one thing in order to cover up another
CREATE a thorough list of potential outcomes of dealing with the
situation – from miraculous to disastrous and all the more realistic
options in between
CHOOSE an outcome that is deliverable, and that will work for you
PLAN your actions to deliver the outcome you have chosen

WHY DO THESE THINGS MATTER?
WHY ANALYSE?
It’s too easy to think you know what the real problem is, especially if you have lived with it for a long time.
In fact, that’s often the challenge – if poor performance has been left unchecked for a prolonged period,
many other problems will have arisen. Perhaps customer complaints have gone up, or team engagement
scores gone down, or team meetings become unproductive, or a myriad of other problems. It can be hard
to work out what the underlying problem is, if many other problems are also in play. It’s even harder if you
have been brought into manage the team, where poor performance has been allowed to fester.
The 3C Poor Performance Toolkit will give you the ANALYTICAL tools and techniques to do this
analysis effectively. So you tackle the problem and the causes of the problem, not just the
symptoms.

WHY CREATE?
There are multiple outcomes to most performance problems. Some of them you want, and
some of them you definitely don’t want.
If you get stuck thinking there is only one possible outcome, you will run the risk of missing
a lot of issues and may end up being blamed for all sorts of outcomes that you never
intended.
The 3C Poor Performance Toolkit will give you all the Outcome CREATION tools you
need – so you have a set of realistic options to address the poor performance and
all the related problems it has generated

WHY CHOOSE?
In early feedback to a poor performer, you may have adopted a strategy which invites them to contribute to the solution.
And if you haven’t done that yet, then the toolkit will give you the means and methods to do so.
BUT if you are still struggling – and many people find that poor performers don’t change just because you invited them to –
you need to CHOOSE an outcome to work towards.
Why Choose? You are the manager – you are the person dealing with all the fallout from the poor performance, the team
needs you to deal with this constructively. Therefore, YOU need to make some decisions, and have some agency in this
situation.
The 3C Poor Performance Toolkit will help you CHOOSE one or more solutions that you have a realistic chance of
delivering, and CRUCIALLY – ensure you understand what it will take to deliver them.
None of this means you cannot respond to offers or suggestions from others, but to manage is to make some choices

PLAN
YOU will almost certainly want to discuss your desired outcome with your poor performer.
• How will you do this?
• What will you need to prepare?
• What might stall/ de-rail the conversation?
AND
In addition to a conversation, there will definitely be other aspects to your plan…
• Agreed performance expectations, standards, timelines for the poor performer…
• Documenting of agreement, agreed resources, support …
The 3C Poor Performance Toolkit gives you all the PLANNING tools you need to ensure you
get this right – so the outcome you go for has a very high chance of success.

SO MUCH MORE THAN ‘DIFFICULT
CONVERSATION’ TRAINING
A lot of ‘how to handle poor performance’ training fails to work because it:
a) focuses on PROCESS
b) increases ANXIETY about employee grievance
c) ignores Manager’s FEELINGS
d) ignores Manager’s potential as ‘part of the problem’
3C’S MANAGING POOR PERFORMANCE WORKSHOP FOR MANAGERS
INCLUDES OUR UNIQUE TOOLKIT
1) Giving them the CONFIDENCE to deal with poor performance
2) Helping them deal with your personal FEELINGS about the situation
3) Ensuring they recognise and correct areas where they may have contributed to the problem
4) Providing time and practice for them to plan SPECIFIC conversations about poor performance and TEST the plan with others

AND IF YOU STILL AREN’T SURE…
WHERE WOULD HIGH PERFORMERS RATHER
WORK?
High Performing
• Accountable
• Goal driven
• Strategy fully understood at front line
• Performance conversations ‘the norm’
• Consequences for high & low performance
• Behaviours & values embedded in daily activity
• Open communications
• Honest conversations
• Effective Talent Management
Under Performing
• Lack of accountability
• Poorly defined goals
• Goals quickly out of date or irrelevant
• Lack of feedback
• Performance conversations rare
• Bullying behaviours / Consensus cultures
• Performance ratings not reflecting business
performance
• Limited definition of talent, weak promotion
criteria

THE POOR PERFORMANCE TOOLKIT – SO MUCH
MORE THAN A CONVERSATION GUIDE!
The comprehensive toolkit includes:
• Addressing emotional responses in both manager and employee
about a poor performance situation
• Analysing the root causes of the poor performance – capability,
work ethics, working relationships
• Assessing the manager’s contribution to the existing poor
performance
• Systematically analysing potential outcomes of a poor
performance conversation
• Selecting the outcome of choice
• Preparing a conversation with the employee
• Holding the conversation about performance
• Implementing and evaluating agreed actions arising from the
conversation
Using this toolkit empowers managers to address poor
performance effectively, with much less fear and stress, and
significantly improves outcomes.
The Workshop takes managers through each aspect of the
toolkit using a set of detailed case studies relevant to their
sector.
Key ‘script me up’ activities enable participants to apply the
tools to their own situations, without ‘fake role-play’ or
intrusive discussions about individual circumstances.
“Thank you for today, your session was
brilliant and exactly what they needed. It
exceeded my expectations and to see the
room so engaged and involved was an
absolute joy .
It is a testament to how useful people found
today that they were starting to ask if their
managers could have something similar. A
great result!”
Dr Amanda Maclean, Head of OD, Canterbury
Christ Church University

To find out more about
The 3C Poor Performance Toolkit & Workshop
contact 3C on 01491 411 544 or by email
Hedda.Bird@3cperform.co.uk | Helen.Eades@3cperform.co.uk
Our performance management solutions are specially designed to help managers who have been promoted because of their academic, technical or
professional expertise, rather than their managerial skills.
Employees own their own performance. Managers set direction, challenge, coach, give feedback and support.
Our energising and refreshing approach combines our expertise in the areas of:
a) specialist workshops and advice to kick-start your thinking, blow away the cobwebs and get you on the road to a whole new approach to
effective performance management for your whole organisation
b) training and engagement workshops - interactive, sometimes witty, self-directed training to empower even the most sceptical employee
through a new understanding of not just what to do but why.

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