Managing Employees

You have mounds of projects that fall under your responsibility with fewer people to help you move forward and do the work. It seems that each day your desk grows with additional never-ending paperwork. You job is not only the projects and paperwork…how about the increasing demands and issues from the people you manage. Where should you focus your energies?

Managing employees requires tenacity if you want to be effective in your role. You are required to manage the daily operations of the department as well as manage the people who handle the work. The balance between the two, and sometimes opposing functions of your role, is a constant battle. Here are some questions to ask:

Managing the Performance

The previous blog entry (Part 1) evolved around questions to ask when facing a performance problem with an employee. The questions are there so you can better understand the context for the performance issue.

Communication between you and your team is critical to your success and your employee’s success. Most employees are eager to perform at a higher level and your early intervention will guide them to being more productive.

A major daily function for you as a manager is to handle employee performance. This is a challenging aspect of your role, especially since you have business deliverables demanding your attention.

I’ve broken down how to handle poor performance with your employees into three sections and each one will be handled in separate blog entries:

-Part 1: Organizing the Discussion
-Part 2: Managing the Performance
-Part 3: Final Decision

If your job as manager is to coach and motivate your team for high performance levels, how do you deal with the poor performer? Performance revolves around two distinct issues: