When a reorganization puts you in charge of employees who scored poorly on their most recent performance review, navigating the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) can be a challenge.
Success depends on treating each person as an individual human being.
Here are three different examples I’ve faced in my career:
1️⃣ The Culture Clash
A recent college graduate had come from another country. His behavior came across as disrespectful and unacceptable in our company culture of respect and value for all people. He was about to complete his PIP when I was placed over his team.
I was encouraged to consider “coaching him out” of the organization. But to me, the PIP appeared to have worked. It took time and effort to repair damaged relationships with senior leaders, but eventually he became a respected member of the team, even earning high scores on performance reviews.
2️⃣ The Temporary Trauma
As part of a reorganization knowledge transfer, I was told that one of my new team members had recently become disengaged. He wasn’t contributing or meeting his obligations to the team. He was in the middle of a PIP.
In our weekly one-on-ones, I learned that his only living parent had recently died, and he was the only one of his siblings who was still alive at the time. He had taken time for bereavement, but things were certainly not back to normal.
If we had had an Employee Assistance Program at the time, I would have offered that, but I had no experience with those. Instead, I just gave him space to grieve and encouraged him the best I could.
Both of those two individuals were still there and thriving years later when I left the company.
3️⃣ The Wake-up Call
Not every low performer can be salvaged. I inherited a team with one member who was regularly absent from our daily stand-up meetings, regularly showing up at noon or later.
His reason was simply that he had a hard time getting out of bed when his alarm went off. After six months of repeated promises with no lasting change, I had to let him go.
He eventually found a new job. I went to visit him some months later, and he was thriving there.
Being fired was exactly what he needed to trigger the personal change that would help him succeed.
When you become a new manager, the responsibility to do the right thing with low performers is yours, not the previous manager’s. Resist the temptation to simply finish what they started. Take the time to understand the situation before making your decision.
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