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We at Lombard Accountants understand that workforce performance niggles in your company often fall into one of the following categories: Attitude, Skill, Knowledge, or Support. This is also known as The Performance Matrix and it’s up to us as leaders to develop an individual member of our team’s knowledge through training, coaching, and to support an employee as they undertake their work. But knowledge and support are no substitute for an individual’s natural skill or attitude, which we can’t influence.

If you’re concerned about the performance of a team member, it’s critical to establish the underlying cause, to understand where they need to take ownership in order to improve. 

Here’s a guide by the Lombard Accountants team to help you determine where the issues lie.

Knowledge (up to you).

This is the first thing that you, as a leader, can control. It’s also your duty to provide the required knowledge through training, coaching, systems and policies to your team. Remember, your employee doesn’t know what they don’t know, so don’t rely on them to ask you questions.

Review your induction and training processes to identify any knowledge gaps which you can fill with more dedicated training, mentoring and procedure development.

Support (up to you).

It may be that the knowledge is available to team members, but they need support to access it or implement it into their role.

Ask yourself, ‘Have our procedures been stress tested properly? Are our employee expectations clear for each team member? Review the support you currently provide and identify if you could do more to help them improve their performance.

Attitude (up to them).

Only they can control their attitude. Do they come to work with passion and positivity, living into your Core Values and enjoying their work? You can’t teach a good attitude; however, you can look at factors that may affect it.

If there’s recently been a change in their attitude, chat to them about why, ask them if they’re ok, and then remind them of your Core Values and expected team culture.

Skill (up to them).

The team member must be capable of applying the knowledge, training and coaching you provide them to perform their job well. Encourage a growth mindset amongst your team; that learning is continuous and skills can constantly be refined.

That said, ultimately, the team member may not be up to the job. It may be beyond their natural skill level or not the kind of work that is best suited to their skills, motivators, stressors, and overall working style.

If this is the case, it’s important to follow the correct Performance Management Process in order to open the door of opportunity. And hey, if their attitude is great then this may be a different position within your business.

If you would like to discuss your business needs. Call Lombard Accountants on (01) 678 9960 or email hello@la.ie

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