Have you got a coworker who doesn’t perform according to your expectations? Most leaders and managers have been in, or will end up in, this situation, and then it is important to act and find out the reason.
Here are some important questions you as a leader can use when a coworker doesn’t perform. This is of course something you should do in a one-to-one meeting.
Questions focusing on your leadership
- Is it clear what should be done and what I expect?
- How can I clarify the objectives and expectations?
- Is the quality level required for this job clear?
- What examples can I provide to clarify the quality level required?
- Do I respect the time you have to accomplish what I expect?
- Can I do a better job in protecting your time so that you can focus?
- Are my expectations realistic?
- Is there anything we need to change to make it reasonable to meet my expectations?
- Have you got the tools and resources required to do what I expect of you?
- Have I given you enough context about why this job is important, who the work is for, or any other information crucial to do your job well?
- Do I follow up with you too often and, if so, how often should we touch base?
Questions focusing on the coworker
- How have you experienced your performance lately?
- Where do you see possibilities to improve your performance, if anything?
- What do you like the most in the work you do?
- What part of work is inspiring and motivating, if anything?
- In what part of work do you feel that you have got stuck?
- Which tasks bore you?
- When was the last time you could talk to a customer (internal or external) who benefits by the work you do?
- Do you want more possibilities to talk to those who benefit from your work about the value it gives them?
- Do your feel that you can use your strengths in your role?
- What parts of your work do you experience that you have difficulties performing?
- Would you say that you feel optimistic, pessimistic or somewhere in between about the future of the organization?
As you might have noticed, none of these questions are of the type “What do you think you are doing wrong?” or “What do you think I am doing wrong?”.
The purpose is not to accuse your coworker or yourself about whose the fault is. The purpose is to get a better understanding, so that subsequently you can improve together.
By asking questions aiming to understand, rather than giving answers and guidelines, you create ability for the coworker to gain insight and then being able to change and improve. After all, it is the change and improvement that is the end target.
Do you want to get started with short one-to-one meetings?
Download our guide here (in Swedish)
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Why does Puls Solutions exist?
Puls Solutions exists because we want to develop teams and leaders to feel and perform better.
We offer an AI-based employee engagement platform to create the right conditions for a good work environment and high employee engagement. A platform that is the team´s best friend.
Our platform involves the employees, relieves the managers and helps them to prioritize and implement improvements that leads to increased employee engagement and increased business results. For real.
