How to handle the office tortoise?

I'm sure most people have had the [strike]joy [/strike]frustration of working with someone who is flat out s...l...o...w... at work. I don't mean mentally, and I don't mean that they are bad workers, but rather they just seem to work at a different speed than everybody else. Any suggestions on how to get them to pick up the pace?

Brent: Whenever possible, I give these "slow-pokes" projects that suit their skills & speed. A lot of time, the slower person is just more analytical than the next person. Analytical approaches to work more time, as you have to pay attention to the details. In this case, I try to give them projects where details matter - and I NEED them to be slow and analyze the details.

If analytics is NOT the case, I've learned that you can't change someone's personality, and speed is on of those inherent things. Either the job works for them (and you), or you have to find them a different position that works better for them (and for you), or else it doesn't work for anyone. No one is happy at that point. You're not happy as the supervisor, as the work isn't being done timely, and they are not happy, as they KNOW they're not living up to your expectations.

It does take some time to get to the point of parting ways - i.e. this isn't work out for me OR for you. Leading up to this point, I try to spend more time with the employee, and figure out what motivates them, what is making them "slow." ALOT of times, it is not YOU (supervisor) OR the JOB. Most times it has something to do with THAT person. In that case, I try to explain to them how important it is for them to meet my expectations, as well as the team's expectations, and discuss how their speed is affecting the entire team. Then I work out a plan with them. I have found that putting a deadline on projects, and following-up with the employee about mid-way through helps - this creates a sense of urgency. It was important enough for you to have a deadline, and also important enough for you to ask about it prior to the deadline.

I hope this helps!

Brent: I should also mention that putting together a plan is a short-term fix. Ultimately, whatever is the issues that causes someone to be slow (whether its a lack of motivation, they are in the wrong job, they are distracted by issues at home, etc.) the employee needs to address THAT issue.

One of the biggest challenge we have as effective leaders is handling challenging personnel issues. This happent to be one of them. Several points can be related to this scenario, and most of them are dealing with management and leadership issues more than the employee issues.

A) Has the employee been counseled? Many times I hear managers and supervisors say, "This person is not getting the job done," only to find out they have not been told they need to improve. Many managers are either afraid to deal with conflict situations (a human charictistic), or feel they can deal with it from a documentation standpoint at review time.
The employee may have been counseled, or so it was thought by the person providing the counseling. Sometimes it is not what is said but how we say it, and most times both. Did the employee receive it as a counseling or just as discussion?
C) Was it documented? Did the employee know it was being documented? Were there specific goals related to correction and a specific time period for correction? In my experience it is usually found none of these questions were answered with a "yes."

We teach managers how to read financials, market our communities, understand risks, budget effectively, and completed reporting. What we fail to do is teach them how to deal with employee issues and how to be an effective and efficient manager or leader.

There are some key factors to dealing with employee issues such as this and open the discussion to identifying those factors. I challenge each of you to throw on our discussion wall what you believe are the principle sticking points to dealing with these types of challenges.

Thanks for the feedback, Larry and Daisy. And I agree that open communication is key. Often, I've found that slow workers simply don't know the expectations of the process. (i.e., If you tell someone it usually takes an hour to do something, they will probably get it done in an hour. But if you tell them it usually takes 15 minutes, they will often finish in 15 minutes, assuming that was a reasonable assumption.)

But the difficult situations in my opinion are the ones who just seem to move slower by default. And maybe you are right Daisy, that it's just a personality situation. And I see that discussing the expectations of the job is important, but I wonder if there is anything else that can be done motivational-wise beyond telling them that it is part of their job and the implication that they might lose it if they can't speed up...

1) Align them on strategy.
2) Give deadlines.
3) Create an ownership culture: People take care of what they own!
4) Build 2-way communications. They might be slow because they don't understand the task at hand...make sure your door is open for questions and clarifications.
5) Engage turtle in teams...peer pressure might work!
6) Provide Skills Development!

Otherwise, slip a red bull in their morning coffee...

Kellie, great feedback and key points. All of them hit home on addressing opportunities we face. Excellent thoughts from Daisy as well. One of the focus points both of you have hit on seems to be communication. Looking forward to others entering the discussion and adding to the topic.

I have been in the business for 20 years and I have seen about every scenerio when it comes to employees. One of the things that I have learned is that we need to make sure we first of all hire the right person for the job. Sometimes we do our best to hire the right person, but need to wait out the probationary period (usually 3 months) to definitely know if the person we hire is going to fit amoungst our high performance team. It is important that employees are trained properly from the moment they walk through the door. They must be given positive feedback on any areas that need addressing right away. Alot of us like to wait because it is painful for us not to hurt feelings. At this point we as managers become part of the problem.

Each employee is different with strengths and weaknesses. Identify this with your people so they will be able to succeed also in their positions. The tortoise does have its place in this world. Remember the tortoise can end up in first place. Sometimes they are steady, accurate and produce an overall excellent end product. Take a look and see if this person is analytical in nature and perhaps will be great at things that need detail analysis.

A slower worker is a source of frustration if the tasks don't fit the person. I read a quote not long a ago that said:

If you need someone to climb a tree, would rather hire a squirrel or teach a horse?

The hiring process is absolutely critical, we often see the interviewer be too nice and not set proper expectations. It can be remedied if you have a large enough organization where the individual can be reassigned. If it is a small community management team this option may not exist. So the hiring process and setting expectations are key to avoid the issue.

If the employee is hired and it is not working I always believe that asking for their view of their performance is the best place to start. This allows you to manage your speech around their belief. The challenge is when they say; "I think I am doing awesome" at that point there are 3 possible issues

The person is not being honest with you
The person is oblivious
The person does not have a sense of what was expected

The later is where you have to be very careful to set an expectation of speed and give it more time. In the first two issues a reassignment or reintroduction to the market place may be your only option. A clean termination is always better than a bad work experience, for the employee, you and your customers!

Wow - lots of GREAT information in this discussion! What I have found is that people don't meet our expectations for one of the following reasons (yes, yes, I know I'm generalizing, and this is true for most people I've worked with AND as has been mentioned above several times, applies to the "right hire"):

1. They don't know what our expectations are. This is pretty easy to resolve, yes?

2. They know what we want but they don't know how to do it. Again, relatively simple to address: training, supervision, feedback, coaching.

3. They know what we want, they know how to do it, and they don't think we care. OK - I guess this is the simplicity hat trick! Sorry to say, though, that much goes unacknoleged and much of what is acknowledged is not specific - "Nice job, Doug!" Nice job on what? When? Have you got the right Doug? We don't need to regularly shower our team with gifts or cash (once in a while is nice, though) and we do have to be specific and immediate in our recognition - oh, and most of all, sincere!

And fnally,

4. They know what we want, they know how to do it, they know that we care, and we allow someone who is not performing (usually glaringly not performing) to stay employed. People who are really great at what they do have two speeds: 100% and asleep. They can't "throttle back" - "Oh, well I guess I can just slow down and still keep my job . . ." isn't a thought they have. But, since the underperformer is so painful to be around, they only have one option - to leave.

So, make sure they know what to do, how to do it, get specific, positive acknowledgement when they do it, and are working with other top performers. Simple? Of course. Easy to do, every day, with everyone? No, but worth the effort.

Make it a WONDERFUL weekend! D

To say that there is a 100% performer and asleep really bothers me as a manager for many years. It appears that when a manager responds in this fashion that they are infact asleep at the wheel. There are all types of employees in this world.

Great message and points Daisy!

I have a pet peeve when it comes to team members I have led...

I have run into 2 types of people; 1) the kind that see a problem, and walk away from it, for whatever reason, saying 'It's not my job to fix it; and 2) those that see the same problem, and DO SOMETHING ABOUT it, even if it is to seek advice on how to best approach it.

If you are on MY team, and fall into that first group, your days are numbered, I simply don't have the time, nor the tolerance; for you.


Another thing I try to teach my teams stems from what I learned from the Army. This was taught by Retired General Hal Moore (you may recall his character from the movie 'We Were Soldiers' as played by Mel Gibson). What he taught his men, was that they were to learn the job of the person above them in rank, and teach their job to the man below them in rank. This translates into the business world in that; all team members know the job; even if it is on a cursory level, of everyone else on their team. This is important in the event that a team member needs to be absent and a task needs immediate attention.

Wow - I am amazed at all the responses! Thank you everybody for your input. It just goes to show that no matter how much we improve and evolve our different operational processes, employee management will still be the most important and the biggest challenge. Have a great weekend everybody!