About “Low Performer”

intro

I wanted to deal with the topic of team performance today. If you have a team of different people, there is usually a distribution: from “geniuses” to “normal” to real brakes. You can’t escape the normal distribution here. The decisive factor, however, is the overall result, often not the result of the individual, to which everyone contributes.

Low Performer (?)

What exactly is a “low performer”? For me, these are project members who do not deliver frequently expected results. This is often coupled with recriminations and reasons for not delivering. What is important here is that I am not necessarily talking about “shortfalls” in the legal sense, but about people who disturb the team. I personally find the caste of those who refuse to accept change particularly difficult (“We have never done this before”, “Actually, we have to do it first…”).

What to do?

For me, the decisive factor is always the team, not the manager in the first place (that one, too, but that one further on): Is the team prepared to support the work of the person in question or are there already many refuseniks here? If the team stands behind the member, the manager is challenged to relieve and support the person.

If the team does not stand behind the person, which is more often the case, it becomes more difficult: At this moment the leader is also in demand. A way must be found for this person to establish himself or herself. Here it is helpful to look at the overall result, which can only be achieved if everyone is present. Here you can also make it clear that not everyone has an equal share in the result, and that this is not bad either. Team building must be driven forward significantly.

The team must be sensitized to the extent that all team members are accepted, regardless of their individual performance. Especially these low performers need a lot of support and even praise (perhaps proportionally more than they deserve).

However, there will be an end to this at some point. A central question: When is this point reached? Usually much later than most people are able to believe. Nevertheless, I don’t want to rule out the possibility that in a few individual cases the point of separation will be reached.

Different was yesterday – the german petition for equal opportunities!

Intro

Recently I came across a good and worthy petition from Elke Benning-Rohnke and the FidAR Süddeutschland (the german non Profit Organisation for more women in boards): “Unequal was yesterday“. Time not only to deal with it, but also to set an example.

Different was yesterday

The last celebrations of 100 years of women’s suffrage are just fading away. A lot has happened in the last 100 years. But enough? A change in society does not happen overnight. Not even in a year. But a lot can be achieved in one generation. But it also means that the conviction is carried out externally by everyone.

The FidAR has set itself the goal of diversifying the supervision of companies, better to achieve an equal number of men and women. A quota here can only be a means of achieving promotion in the short term. But a long-term approach is more likely to be achieved through other values. And we must all carry these values forward.
But these values can only apply if all of them carry them on: #Diversity does not have to disappear again as a buzzword and be replaced by self-evidence. I would therefore be delighted if individuals, companies, organisations and/or other institutions would all take part in the (german) Petition.

Diversity is done, when we don`t have to talk About it

The Basic Law, Article 2, in the German Constitution:

Everyone has the right to the free development of his personality.

However, this sentence does not refer exclusively to women, but extends to all perspectives of life: religion, sexual orientation, physical characteristics, personal and political views (okay: limited to constitutional conformity), all aspects that should no longer have any influence on career in the future. Diversity is achieved when all these aspects simply don’t matter. According to normal reason a matter of course, unfortunately not the rule. And this will only get better if we all communicate these values to the outside world and to our children. But that also means strengthening the community and trying to discard old paradigms. If the child is ill, it should be taken for granted that not only the mother stays at home and that nobody turns up their nose at it.