Carol opened the door of Mike's Restaurant and stepped inside. It was good to come in out of the heat, and the lunchtime smells inside Mike's were even better. Andy was waving to her from a booth, and she walked back and slid onto the seat opposite him.
"So?" Andy began. "Something wrong?" He was a little worried — Carol had asked him to meet at Mike's with no real explanation.
"Just a little," she said. "I've had it with Geoff. I've had it."
"Oh that," Andy said. "You sound ready to do it."
"I'm teetering," she said. "Give me a push."
"Well," said Andy, "remember two things. One, nobody is ever really ready to fire somebody. And Two, Geoff will probably do something he thinks is just brilliant enough to save himself."
Geoff's performance has been troubling Carol for almost two years. Whenever Carol moves close to acting, Geoff does something good enough to make that action difficult. He's kept Carol on the knife-edge, but Andy has just given Carol the encouragement she was seeking.
Terminating knife-edge
performers is especially
tricky, because they
do perform, if only
episodicallyDo you supervise someone whose performance keeps you on the knife-edge of taking action? Here are some tips for detecting knife-edge performers.
- Performance is episodic
- Stellar contributions that alternate with barely-adequate or unacceptable performance, and correlate with your level of frustration, are hallmarks of knife-edge performers. They tend to deliver not when it's needed, but when they sense that you're about to act.
- Your own level of performance is suffering
- Your own edginess or nervousness can be an indicator of a troubled subordinate. Knife-edge performance is a distraction. Supervisors who spend too much time managing a problem subordinate tend to let other issues slide.
- The subordinate has transferred into your domain
- Sometimes managers deal with problem subordinates by transferring them elsewhere. This is especially tempting with knife-edge performers, because the episodes of high performance make termination tricky.
What can you do about knife-edge performers?
- Consult with your HR representative
- The procedures for termination, probation, or transfer are usually specific, because law and regulation constrain your choices. Since you'll probably need detailed documentation, get started on that immediately. Documenting will also help you gain perspective.
- Choose a solution that's actually a solution
- Unless the problem is specifically job-related, transferring someone just shifts the burden elsewhere. And probation often just defers the problem to a later date. Termination is the best choice, if it's possible and within the guidelines.
- Transfer yourself
- Some groups are actually parking lots for troubled employees. They might contain several knife-edge performers. If this describes your situation, move on — rarely is such a job helpful to your career.
As a manager, how you deal with a knife-edge performer is part of your own performance. Do your best not to become a knife-edge performer yourself. Top Next Issue
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Related articles
More articles on Workplace Politics:
- Ten Tactics for Tough Times: II
- When you find yourself in a tough spot politically, what can you do? Most of us obsess about the situation
for a while, and then if we still have time to act, we do what seems best. Here's Part II of a set of
approaches that can organize your thinking and shorten the obsessing.
- The Attributes of Political Opportunity: The Finer Points
- Opportunities come along even in tough times. But in tough times like these, it's especially important
to sniff out true opportunities and avoid high-risk adventures. Here are some of the finer points to
assist you in your detective work.
- Why Don't They Believe Me?
- When we want people to believe us, and they don't, it just might be a result of our own actions or demeanor.
How does this happen?
- Gratuitous Complexity as a Type III Error
- Some of the technological assets we build — whether hardware, software, or procedures —
are gratuitously complex. That's an error, but an error of a special kind: it can be the correct solution
to the wrong problem.
- Cassandra at Work
- When a team makes a wrong choice, and only a tiny minority advocated for what turned out to have been
the right choice, trouble can arise when the error at last becomes evident. Maintaining team cohesion
can be a difficult challenge for team leaders.
See also Workplace Politics and Conflict Management for more related articles.
Forthcoming issues of Point Lookout
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- And on May 8: Antipatterns for Time-Constrained Communication: 3
- Recognizing just a few patterns that can lead to miscommunication can reduce the incidence of problems. Here is Part 3 of a collection of antipatterns that arise in technical communication under time pressure, emphasizing past experiences of participants. Available here and by RSS on May 8.
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Beware any resource that speaks of "winning" at workplace politics or "defeating" it. You can benefit or not, but there is no score-keeping, and it isn't a game.
- Wikipedia has a nice article with a list of additional resources
- Some public libraries offer collections. Here's an example from Saskatoon.
- Check my own links collection
- LinkedIn's Office Politics discussion group