I'm a Wimp - At Least with One Employee

Submitted by jay2k
in
Management and Leadership

After a one-on-one today, I felt like a complete wimp on dealing with a difficult employee.

I currently manage a Desktop Support team, supporting about 400 associates.  One of my employee's, let's call him George, always scores the highest on our Performance Management scorecards.  Every measurable objective that I set, he adjusts and within a quarter he is scoring well above his team members.  These objectives are items like, Average Resolution Time, Customer Satisfaction scores, Average Response time, etc.

While he is a high-performer on paper, there are aspects of his performance that have real concerns about.  In between taking calls, he constantly surfs the Internet for non-work related reasons.  During meetings, team or otherwise, he rarely contributes and I usually find him playing with his phone or chasing some other distraction.

I have provided him feedback (not MT way) on these issues in the past, and everytime it becomes a fight.  George becomes very defensive, points back to his scorecard, and believes these are not affecting his performance.

Today during the 1-on-1 I wanted to tell him that while is scorecard is impeccable, his behaviors towards interactions with others and contributions to the team outside of his scorecard need improvement.  I chickened out to avoid a confrontation or heated conversation.

All of my other employee's receive feedback well and when I roll out something new, they generally adapt without much fuss.  Sure I get disagreements, but we have good dialogue around the disagreements, which yields to some really good changes to new processes. However George uses words like, "this is stupid" or "this will never work".

I'm getting ready to roll-out the MT process for Positive Feedback, and then later Negative Feedback.  I'm anticipating a lot of problems from George.  He typically voices his disagreements to the team, and then after he stews to me.

Has anyone dealt with this situation before, and where did you find success?

Submitted by Michael Thoming on Wednesday August 14th, 2013 9:23 am

I've had a couple of similar situations, and I agree with the previous comments and podcast he suggested. 
BLUF - I think your best tool in this case is to focus your attention on the true top-performers on your team (you know who they are, and it's not just based on numbers) and use the ability to withold bonuses, pay increases and promotions (depending on organizational culture) to send a message to the other guy. 
I made the mistake of focusing too much of my time and attention on employees like the one you describe, and it causes all sorts of other problems for me and my team.  I've managed phone support teams as well, and when we implement various performance metrics, some employees "Adjust" as you've said, and their numbers appear better than the rest of the team, while their overall performance is average or below.  I am still searching for a metric that cannot be manipulated this way (let me know if you find one!). 
I find these employees to be very short-sighted, which is reflected in their poor time-management, and efforts to get done with work so they can defend themselves when you find them goofing-off.  What they don't realize is that upwardly mobile people use their free time to brain-storm new solutions, streamline their processes and build professional relationships.
If you focus your attention on people who engage in these productive behaviors, and ignore the other guy, It will help you stay out of messy confrontations that don't go anywhere.  Then perhaps one day he will notice that he's missing out on raises, bonuses or promotions and wonder why.  If/when that ever happens, then maybe he's ready to understand the idea that getting rewards and moving up in the organization requires him to do MORE than is expected, even if he's doing his current job well.
He's already being paid for the job he's doing, so unless he wants to DO MORE, he will never GET MORE in terms of pay or promotions. 
This also reminds me of some MT guidance on promotions - http://www.manager-tools.com/2010/03/manager-tools-promotion-standard-150-part-1. 
Best of luck!

Submitted by Randall Sanborn on Thursday August 15th, 2013 10:49 am

Average Resolution Time, Customer Satisfaction scores, Average Response time, etc. sound like excellent performance metrics for a desktop support rep. I suspect that he is technically very capable, and probably over-qualified for his position, which is why he does so well with it. I'm assuming he is spending a large amount of time on the internet or causing distractions for others, if that's something you are trying to address. If that's the case, the distractions can be addressed with feedback. The time issue can be addressed with more work. He's got stretch, so give him something to do.
Maybe this performer is something who needs some molding to become a star performer, and needs some refinement in the "softer skills". If he's closing tickets so well, find out what his secret is. Maybe he can help do in-service training for other reps. Maybe he can act as a technical escalation before reps escalate to you.
If meeting participation is an issue, there was a recent cast to coach staff on giving input. You can delegate responsibility for recording and distributing minutes after the meetings to him. Maybe even move the responsibility to running some of those meetings to him. I hate to be presumptuous, but make sure the meetings are valuable, and on track. Part of that is having agendas and sticking to them. If they are valuable, timely, and on-track, then feedback and coaching on meeting participation are perfectly acceptable, and you can measure his meeting input.
 

Submitted by Elise Sorbo on Friday August 16th, 2013 3:44 pm

 A few things occur to me here. 
What do the performance measures and goals look like for the position and how are they weighted.? By that I mean, if the position performance goals are: 
Performance Scorecard results: 100% 
you don't have too much to stand on. 
On the other hand, if the performance goals are: (and I made these up with little thought) 
Scorecard: 60% 
Communication and cooperation outside of taking calls: 20%
Special projects: 20% 
Then you have things other than scorecard to fill his time and to give him feedback (+ and -) about. Of course, those goals should be common for all those in the same position. 
As far as the surfing goes, what's the result of the behavior? If you were using MT Feedback, what would you say?
"When you surf the Web between calls, here's what happens ..." - what happens? 
Just my thoughts.