Business owners often skip hard conversations with underperforming employees and assume they know what's expected. State the results you want, the metrics that matter, and how their work affects the business. Clarity beats mind-reading.
Most business owners don't know why the employee is failing, and they don't want to have a confrontational conversation, and at the same time, they don't want to acknowledge that it's their fault. So if you'll simply go to somebody and you'll say, I think you're great, I think you're amazing, but right now I need you to achieve this outcome, and that's not happening, so I just want to have this conversation. Do you know what we're trying to do here? Do you know the metrics that we're trying to impact, the outcome that we're trying to achieve? You'll be surprised if you'll just have a conversation. Don't turn into a confrontation or a leadership discussion. Just have a conversation about the work that they do and how it impacts the business. If you have that conversation, you'll be surprised how many people can help you achieve that outcome. The problem is most business owners don't know the outcome they want either, and we get frustrated when our people can't read our minds when we can't even read our own minds.
