How to Coach an Employee Who’s Struggling to Perform

Do you have a difficult employee on your team— someone who might be underperforming or resistant to taking feedback? Do you know how to help them?

Melvin Smith says that coaching can be harder than you realize. First you must figure out which approach will work well for that specific employee. But you also need to know how to measure the success of your coaching and when it’s time to move on to other options—like performance management.

In this episode, he takes questions from listeners who are struggling to coach some of their employees. He offers advice for what to do when your new employee is slacking off, or when they’re struggling to adjust to your organization’s culture and communication style. He also has suggestions for coaching two direct reports who are in conflict with each other.

Smith is a professor at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University and coauthor of the book Helping People Change: Coaching with Compassion for Lifelong Learning and Growth.

Key episode topics include: leadership, careers, career coaching, managing people, organizational culture, difficult conversations.

HBR On Leadership curates the best case studies and conversations with the world’s top business and management experts, to help you unlock the best in those around you. New episodes every week.

• Listen to the original Dear HBR episode: Coaching Problem Employees (2020)
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