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The Performance Management Mistake You Are Probably Making

Writer's picture: Danielle TerranovaDanielle Terranova

Red Flag

Tell me if this story sounds familiar.


You have a vacant role on your team that’s been open longer than it should be. Your team is overworked and bogged down from filling in for this open role, and you just don’t have the bandwidth to sift through a mountain of résumés, conduct proper interviews, and wait patiently for the ideal candidate to emerge. But you know you need to fill the open position as soon as humanly possible to give your team much-needed relief.

 

When you somehow manage to clear these hurdles, find a desirable candidate, and get through all the red tape that comes along with setting a start date, you begin feel almost giddy at the prospect of having a full team again.

 

The onboarding process begins, and then it happens.

 

Even though you’ve fought every instinct to throw your new hire into the fire during their first few weeks, and held their hand every step of the way, you start seeing red flags. Maybe it’s lapses in judgment, like arriving late or seeming disengaged in meetings. Or perhaps it’s mistakes you wouldn’t expect from someone with their level of experience. It usually doesn’t take long after a new hire's start date to get that sinking feeling that things aren't going to work out.

 

It's one of the worst feelings a manager can have, and if you've been around the block a time or two, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

 

Managers want to put someone out of work, manage large gaps in responsibility, and head back to the drawing board to find another hire about as much as they want to get their teeth drilled. 

 

So, instead of acknowledging and effectively addressing the evidence that a new hire is unlikely to be a long-term fit for the team, we begin an elaborate and unsustainable process of compensating for their shortcomings. It is a common performance management mistake with underperformers, one I like to call professional scaffolding.

 

While some professional scaffolding is an appropriate part of the onboarding process, it should include temporary support measures on the path to employee competence. Unfortunately, underperformers often require elaborate, long-term, and unsustainable scaffolding measures to remain employed. 

 

Too many leaders would rather commit themselves to ongoing micromanagement, beg other competent and overworked team members to help pick up the slack, and lower their performance standards, rather than admit things probably aren’t going to work out. They choose to endure every stage of professional denial by making excuses, taking the blame, and prioritizing avoiding short-term pain at the expense of getting the right person into the right role.

 

How do I know this? Because I’ve done it!

 

I’ve held on for too long, wanted an underperformer’s success more than they did, and created suffering for everyone involved because I didn’t want to admit it was time to go back to the drawing board. I prayed to the working gods that they would just quit and put all of us out of our misery.  How’s that for a leadership strategy?

 

And I know, I’m not alone.

 

Over the last week, I’ve had tough conversations about professional scaffolding with three different clients - and that’s about average. Why? Because of all the leadership mistakes we can make, holding on to underperformers too long is a big one many of us struggle with. Perhaps there is a better way than holding on and crossing our fingers for change. 

 

Here’s the advice I gave to them.

 

1️⃣ Listen to your professional instincts.

Although it’s comforting to have a mountain of evidence to support your gut feeling that someone isn’t going to work out, mountains take time to accumulate. While you wait for evidence of underperformance to grow, you are sacrificing valuable time and energy that could be devoted to getting the right person into the role.


Trust that your instincts have been refined through experience about what it takes to be successful on your team, in your company, and in your industry. If your professional antennae go up around someone, it’s probably for a good reason. Don’t ignore red flags and “paint them pink,” as a friend of mine would say. Address issues when you first notice them and don’t wait for molehills to turn into mountains before you intervene.

 

2️⃣ Remember the value of hardship.

We often learn what we’re made of through the challenges we face. Friction, difficulty, and hardship are tough teachers, but they show us the greatest opportunities to evolve our skills. When we professionally scaffold underperformers, although well-intentioned, we prevent them from learning what it takes to thrive and deprive them of a valuable opportunity to develop professional confidence.


We actually reinforce underperformance when we lower the bar because we shortcut the challenging path to professional efficacy. Perhaps this is the wake-up call you need to recognize that your ongoing support may be doing more harm than good. Challenge yourself to dismantle the scaffolding you’ve provided and see if they can stand on their own.

 

3️⃣ You never know your role in someone else’s story

Most of us project our own fears onto the decision of whether to retain an underperforming employee. We assume that getting fired would be the worst possible outcome and feel enormous guilt over the possibility of putting someone in that position. But what if it’s not the worst thing in the world to be let go? What if it’s one of the best things that could happen to someone?


If you listen to as many professional stories as I do, you’ll realize that being fired is often life’s way of initiating a course correction. Underperformers are underperforming because they aren’t in the right job, working for the right boss, on the right team, in the right company, or in the right industry. Their underperformance is a symptom of a larger problem that needs attention. While we hope they’ll rise to the occasion, they usually don’t when it’s a symptom of being in the wrong place. Getting fired can be the first step toward a professional life where they thrive instead of just surviving in a workplace that isn't a good fit.


You never know the role you’re playing in someone’s long professional story. Instead of worrying yourself sick trying to prevent unfortunate outcomes, trust that, while no one wants to be fired, sometimes it’s better than continuing to struggle where they don’t belong.

 

If you’re managing an underperformer and it’s not going well, I know what you’re going through and I feel your pain. It’s so easy to fall into the trap of professional scaffolding when you want to believe the best in someone. However, the baseline of effective leadership is getting the right people in the right roles and ensuring that both the team and the individual can succeed.


In the end, holding onto underperformers doesn’t serve anyone—not the employee, the team, or you as a leader. Letting go of someone who isn’t the right fit may feel difficult in the moment, but it opens the door to finding a person who will thrive in the role and contribute positively to the team’s success. Embrace the discomfort of tough decisions now, and your team will thank you later. You got this.

 


Photo of Danielle Terranova

 

 Danielle Terranova is the voice behind Leadership Lessons with Danielle.

She has been an executive coach since 2015 and owner of Terranova Consulting, LLC since 2019.

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