The harsh truth that few people want to publicly acknowledge is that not everyone on your team is a rockstar. You want that to be the case, but it’s just statistically unlikely.
In today’s corporate culture, it is exceedingly difficult to fire people for incompetency. We aren’t here to debate whether that’s a good or bad thing. Or even discuss how our world became like this. We are here to acknowledge that as a constraint and talk about how to deal with workplace incompetence.
Invoke a Leadership Mentality
Let’s assume that you are a rockstar (who doesn’t think she or he is?) and you encounter a colleague who simply cannot consistently deliver results. The numbers and facts point to it, and we are not making assumptions here.
The managerial mentality is: ok let’s go build a case to get this guy or gal out of our team or terminated. This is a very lazy and terrible attitude. It means you’re trying to remove the problem rather than solve it. Termination or removal is a mechanical task and doesn’t require leadership thinking. It’s like firing your employees to reduce cost because you can’t figure out a way to grow profits via revenue improvement.
Instead, adopt a leadership mentality. Treat this as an opportunity to coach, educate, and encourage. Do you think that this colleague is…
