Responsibility and Leadership

Over the last five years, many leaders have told me stories about performance issues with a colleague.  In essence, the person isn’t performing well and the leader is unhappy about it.  I’ll usually ask them what they’ve already tried and they’ll either tell me they haven’t raised the issue, or they have, but they’ve used vague language and not said what they really wanted to say.  Either way, the underperformance continues because they’ve avoided the problem.

When I ask why they typically say, “I can’t do or say so-and-so because he/she will feel hurt or they will lose confidence.”  When I probe further, the truth eventually emerges: