Painless Performance Conversations

You Just Hired Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

You recruit and hire a new manager: a respected leader with terrific credentials and great recommendations. She begins with a bang, bringing solid staffers onto her project team and providing members with a well-developed strategic plan. But she quickly runs into trouble by ignoring well-established company procedures, fighting with other managers and failing to support her team members when mistakes occur. She doesn’t seem to hesitate pushing them under the bus in the face of problems.

You know you should do something about her, but other challenges demand your time and attention. Because of the new manager’s stellar record, you give her the benefit of the doubt. Also, you don’t look forward to bringing any of this up by starting a conversation with her that is bound to be painful and unpleasant; you fear that the necessary follow-up discussions will be even worse. So you look the other way, hoping the situation will somehow resolve itself.

The next time you check, you learn that everyone on the manager’s team is miserable. Some of the company’s best people became totally frustrated and unhappy, and they quit. At this point...