Too often, managers avoid giving honest evaluations. Maybe they fear causing hurt feelings or maybe they don’t know what to do, but the result is the same—a lost lawsuit. The solution? The two Cs—Clarify and Coach.
You know you should be coaching Terry, but you’re busy, and Terry’s doing OK. Well, OK is overstating it, but what a hassle to get someone new, right? So you give Terry a small raise and a “satisfactory” rating and life goes on.
Unfortunately, this all too common scenario is a lawsuit waiting to happen. Here’s how it’s going to unfold:
Eventually, you’re going to let Terry go. Either there’s pressure to cut positions, or you just can’t stand the poor performance one more minute. “It’s because of poor performance,” you say, as Terry heads out the door.
Your problems are just beginning, however, because Terry’s not going home, but to the attorney’s office.
Later, in court, Terry says, “You fired me because I am … [choose one or more: disabled, black, white, old, female, male, enter nationality].” “No,” you protest, “it was performance. Terry’s performance has been terrible for years.”
Think that answers it? Think again … because here come the questions:
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Did Terry get a raise each year?
“Well … yes, but …”
Did Terry get a bonus each year?
“Well … yes, but …”
Is this your signature on these appraisal forms that say Terry’s work was satisfactory?
“Well … yes, but …”
At this point, it’s too late for “buts.” The jury is just wondering how many zeros to add.
Clarify and Coach
The cautionary tale above should help you convince your managers to get their heads out of the sand and address performance issues. You can present the task as a simple “two-C” process—Clarify and Coach.
1. Clarify. First, clarify with employees what you expect of them and how you will measure their efforts. As a basic element of fairness, juries won’t hold employees to expectations they didn’t know about or that were too vague to be measured.
2. Coach. We’ll talk more about coaching in our next issue, but the main thing is that coaching is frequent, immediate, and specific. It’s a helping role, but it’s a performance management role as well.
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Follow the Two Cs and guess what? Come appraisal time, your work is already done.
The combination of regular coaching and clearly defined goals lets the performance management system be the messenger of any bad news. The employee knows what’s coming—there’s no surprise.
Should termination ultimately result, that will be no surprise either, because you’ll have a string of coaching sessions and honestly-written appraisals to back you up.
If an employee still tries to sue, it’s unlikely that an attorney will take the case. But if you do ever get into court, you will be able to show convincingly that expectations were clear, that the employee failed to meet them, and that you gave frequent assistance and guidance—every chance of success.
Next Advisor, more on coaching and how you can get coaching on coaching.