Help That Struggling Team Member

Are you dealing with one or more struggling team members? Does it seem like nothing works to improve their performance? Have they been struggling long enough to try your patience?

Any leader with a large enough team (and sometimes, that's only two people) will be faced with struggling team members. Maybe they don't keep their promises. Maybe they miss their deadlines. Maybe they seem disengaged.

Centered leaders find out why a team member is struggling and then help them to improve -- or move on.

As tough as that may be, sometimes the best thing that a struggling team member can be helped to do is to move on. But that is not the default strategy. Start by helping. Start by listening. Start by focusing on the struggling team member's goals.

Those goals may need to be re-calibrated. Deadlines might be moved. Additional team members may be brought in to help. When centered leaders stay curious and flexible a struggling team member can navigate thru that struggle. Sometimes (I've seen it happen often) they even become star performers.

Haven't we all struggled at one time or another? Isn't it better to offer help than criticism?

It's worth a try, isn't it?

-- Douglas Brent Smith

Comments

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High Performance Leadership

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