Yes, it's true: Most managers spend 80 percent of their time with 20 percent of their employees. Employee performance problems require a tremendous amount of time, accompanied by sleepless nights. Hopefully, the following management medication will help ease the pain.

INTERVENTION
When you begin to notice a performance problem, the first step is to decide when to intervene. Too many managers wait until it's too late to rectify the situation. They think, "Let's see if the employee is able to improve performance with a little more time."

Most employees want to perform well. They are motivated by self-pride in what they do. If they are not performing, then likely they do not know what to do, how to do it or cannot do it. So it's the manager's job to give employees immediate feedback when performance needs improving.

ANALYSIS
Step back and analyze the performance problem. Answer the following questions to determine the source of the problem:

• What is the employee not doing that I want him/her to do?
• Does the employee know the problem exists? (Sometimes it resolves itself when brought to attention.)
• Have I clearly communicated the job expectations to the employee?
• Did the employee clearly understand my expectations? (Ask the employee to state his/her interpretation.)
• Did the employee receive adequate job training?
• Does the employee possess the necessary abilities, knowledge and skills to do the job?
• Has the employee performed the task successfully in the past?
• Are there barriers outside the employee's control that are affecting the performance, such as lack of resources, time, authority or conflicting directions?

POSITIVE DISCUSSIONS
Engage the employee in a discussion regarding his/her performance. First give the employee positive feedback on several aspects of performance. Indicate that you want to help the employee be successful in the job. Then state the performance weakness and ask the employee for input on what he/she feels is the source of the problem.

Explore the above questions with the employee. In coaching the employee, it's important that you ensure the employee has ownership in finding the solution. It may not be the solution that you had in mind, but there is a better chance of the employee changing the performance if it is his/her solution.

You can accomplish this by asking open-ended questions like these:

• What areas do you like best about your performance?
• What parts of your job do you like the least?
• What could you do more of, better or differently to improve your performance?
• What could I as your manager do more of, better or differently to help you?
• What other obstacles are negatively affecting your performance? What do you feel you can do about these?

DEALING WITH DIFFICULT SITUATIONS
Together, design an action plan and how often you want to meet to discuss the progress. Then document the discussions and action plan objectively.

Of course, this is not always easy. Here's an example of how to deal with one difficult scenario: The employee is technically capable and comes to work everyday, but is abrupt and rude with peers and patients. In the past, his behavior was tolerated because he is very technically proficient. Previous managers did not deal with the problem. It's up to you to provide him feedback on his behavior.

Specifically identify examples of the undesirable behavior, describe the impact of the behavior and outline the suggested improved behavior. You may not be able to totally change his behavior because of ingrained past actions, but you will be able to help the employee modify his behavior on the job.

While there are many other difficult employee attitudes, most managers say the following situations are the most challenging.

• Employees who are unmotivated to do the job
• Employees who are motivated to listen, but not committed to alter their performance
• Employees who become angry or cry
• Employees who disagree with what you're saying about their performance.

Try the following tools in handling these tough situations:

1. Problem: Unmotivated employee. These employees are not interested in receiving constructive feedback and give the impression they don't care. They are unresponsive and not willing to listen.

Solution: Use a skill called "contracting": "John, I was thinking about the way we work together. It would be great if I would feel more comfortable giving you feedback about how you can do your job better. I want you to feel comfortable in giving me feedback about anything I could do better. Does this sound OK with you?" And then proceed by communicating the performance problem: "I have recently noticed that you have not met the time deadlines in ordering the new laboratory equipment. As a result, the lab technicians are delayed in performing their tests. Let's discuss what you think would work to resolve this concern."

2. Problem: Uncommitted employee. Since this employee is not committed in changing his/her performance, you have to help the employee commit to action. Giving feedback alone is not sufficient at times.

Solution: You have to link his/her performance to department or company goals so the employee sees the value in improving performance. Employee involvement in setting goals and measuring performance against these goals strengthens commitment.

3. Problem: Emotional employee. As with any emotional situation, acknowledge the feelings of the employee. "I can see that our discussing this performance concern is upsetting to you." This will diffuse a lot of the emotion. However, if the employee continues to be angry, he/she is trying to find someone or something to blame and wants you to take responsibility for it. While it's inaccurate to do this and thus not appropriate, there might a small part that you can acknowledge. One employee may angrily be expressing all the excuses for her lack of performance including minimal training. You could say, "You're right, Tina, I didn't give you sufficient training on this, and I want to discuss how training can be improved." And then continue to communicate your concerns with the employee's performance.

Solution: When coaching an employee who is crying, the following techniques will help:

• Give permission. "It is all right to cry."
• Give time and space. "That's OK, take your time." But don't end the conversation. Eventually they will stop crying. Male supervisors of female employees often make the mistake of letting the employee leave the office before discussing the issue. This creates more pent-up emotion and gives the perception that the issue has been dismissed.
• Proceed gradually. "Why don't we talk about this so we can sort out the issues."

4. Problem: Disagreeable employee. Determine if the employee is disagreeing about the facts you are presenting or whether his/her performance is a problem or not.

Solution: If the employee is disagreeing about the facts, be prepared to site more examples and lack of performance evidence. If the employee is disagreeing whether the performance is a problem or not, describe the consequences of the performance on peers, customers or other departments.

HANDLING WITH CARE
Let's face it, all employee performance problems cannot be resolved. If you have tried to coach and counsel an employee and performance is still not improving, you need to follow your progressive discipline policy to fairly and legally bring the performance up to standard or move to termination.

Try not to beat yourself up in the process. Most ill-performing employees are relieved when they no longer have to perform the job. Always make sure that the employee leaves with self-esteem. Never attack the employee's personality or value system. Discussions should always focus on job-related performance. It is those employees who feel that they have been personally attacked who file lawsuits against the company.

By handling difficult employee performance problems with care, your job as a manager should be less painful and you can feel more productive.

Sue Romero is a human resources consultant specializing in employee relations issues, manager coaching and management training. She has over 20 years experience coaching managers on enhancing their effectiveness. Visit her website at www.romeroconsulting.com.