Could They Perform if Their Lives Depended on it?

I was recently reading an article in the Great Leadership blog: "Managing 'Bad Apples' is Key to Productivity" and enjoying the comments as well as the article. It reminded me of what I had discussed as part of my series on coaching back in June: Everyday Coaching, Part I:, Definition, Purpose, and Application.

In this first part of the series, I reflected on the thoughts of Drs. Lois Frankel and Karen Otazo who wrote:

"Could this employee do the job if his or her life depended on it?"

If the answer is "no", then you need to train your employee.

If the answer is "yes", then someone has an attitude problem and coaching might be a great way to help fix that problem.

When we start thinking about employees and how they're performing (and maybe whether any of them are "bad apples"), we need to understand our role in their performance and ensure we're setting them up for success.

If there's an issue, we need to ask ourselves the question above and either train or coach to resolve the issue. We also MUST ensure our employee knows what is expected of him or her. How can he or she perform, if the expectations aren't clear?

I'm sure there are "bad apples" out in the business world, but we need to ensure we've done everything possible to help our employee succeed before we stick him or her with that label.