Blame.

That’s what we do when people on our team are not performing.

 

We look at them and wonder why in the world they are not following through…or why they are not prioritizing well…or why they are not doing their work well. We look for reasons to blame them for their lack of performance. Our brains want closure so we search for the answers. And sadly, we often tear people apart in our analyses.

What is the issue?

Lack of commitment?

I have heard many business owners complain, saying, “My employees do not care as much as I do. They are just not committed.”

Lack of ownership?

Other business owners say, “They don’t seem to take ownership and get the job done.”

Laziness?

Alas, we judge ourselves by our intentions (we work hardest because it is our business) and we judge others by their actions (we observe others not performing to our standards). Many business owners attribute to their employees a perceived lack of effort, although employees often times feel otherwise.

 

So what is going on exactly? Do we have the wrong people on our team?

 

Sometimes. However, more often than not, we have “systems” issues at the core, prompting people to behave in ways we simply do not desire.

Many times when we start to dissect a situation, we are starting with the business owners expressing massive frustration about their people—feeling they have the wrong people on the bus. After some initial analysis, we usually discover multiple ways in which the systems flow of the business is creating undesirable results.

For example, it’s not uncommon that business owners expect employees to “figure things out” and then get frustrated when the solutions do not match the desired outcomes. Or, frequently business owners fail to set deadlines and when projects are suddenly not complete, business owners feel frustrated and blame employees for not pushing hard enough.

What can you do as a business owner to assess how your systems are creating the deliverables you need?

1. Explain what DONE looks like. Describe it in a detailed manner so your team member understands what to create or accomplish.
2. Set deadlines. Break projects down into milestones.
3. Clarify with your team members what realistic timeframes really are, as often a business owner’s idea of realistic is quite different from reality.
4. Ask questions to seek comprehension. In other words, ask your team members to reflect back to you what you have requested and by when you would like it complete.
5. Clarify priorities daily. Start each morning with a 10-minute check-in to assess what may have changed in the last 24 hours.
6. Examine the workflow for everyone. If your team members are constantly interrupted to accommodate your workflow, this is a common system error in regard to productivity. People need to be able to concentrate and think. Constant interruptions are the usual system nemesis to incredible performance.
7. Assess job responsibilities monthly. Scope creep reduces team member performance. Often we are handing more and more tasks/responsibilities to people without assessing realistic workloads.
8. Check in on your team members’ emotions regularly. If this is part of your system of leadership, it can have profound effects on the normal coping mechanisms everyone has in regard to the challenging work everyone is doing. If you are not checking in with people, they often feel that you as the leader/business owner do not care…and overall productivity goes down.

These are just a few tips on how our systems in business create workflow that lends to productivity or slows down productivity. There are many ways that we either inhibit or support performance. The work of coaching is to help you identify these triggers that create your systems. Essentially, your beliefs are the beginning of every system. This is always where we start. Ask yourself today…

 

how are my beliefs creating the performance of my team members?