Most of you have worked with someone who doesn't do their job, shirks and then gets away with it. Especially if this is someone who is on good terms with managers, you end up with the stigma of poor performance. Holding someone accountable for their work requires you to have some critical skills . Today, I will share with you a similar complaint from an email I received and my response. I will also use a pseudonym to hide the identity of the writer.
Hello Ms. Bahar,
I work as a sales engineer in a company to support 6 people in the sales department. Among the salespeople I support, there is a person who has been working in the company for 6 months. He does not know the products he will sell and wants me to do all his work. Despite the dozens of training materials at his disposal and the 2-week online training sent to him to learn our products, he has not made any attempt to learn on his own. He spends most of his time texting his friends or doing other things. He wants me to prepare proposals for his business products and support his sales. The other day, when I was preparing a deal for a customer he was bidding for, he only wrote the customer name and asked me to do the rest. He doesn't even look at his own pricing and expects me to do that too. He says he doesn't know the abbreviations and product groups used and thinks it is my job to support him anyway. Yes, I work in sales support, but the work he asks me to do is not in my job description. He wrote an e-mail to my manager and said that I didn't help him enough, that I didn't support him. These e-mails he sends to my managers put me in a difficult situation. How can I manage this situation? I would like your advice.
Signature
Support Laborer
Dear Support Worker,
As I read your description of the problems with one of your salespeople (let's call him Bora), I thought of a plate of spaghetti. You seem to have more than one problem, each spiraling around the other. For example;
I have a warning here! If you plunge your fork into the spaghetti and shove all the hanging pasta and all the dripping sauce into your mouth at once, you will make a mess. In the same way, if you sit down with Bora and start talking to him about everything at once, you will create defensiveness and confusion. And you are likely to solve very few things.
The principle that will help you most in preparing for an accountability conversation is to be able to write your problem in one sentence. Ask yourself: "What do I expect?" and "What do I get?" The difference between what you expect and what you actually get is the simplest and most effective description of the problem you are facing. When you apply the one-sentence principle to your own situation, you have clarity and focus on what the real problems are and what the problems you are trying to solve are. You separate one piece of spaghetti, solve it, and then move on to the next one. If I were to suggest a few single problem statements that you might consider in your case, these are:
1. Bora is unable or unwilling to fulfill his responsibilities and expects me to do them for him. Concrete examples you can give while presenting this problem can be as follows:
A -Cannot prepare anoffer or contract.
B-Does not know its products.
C-Cannot make its ownpricing.
D -does not know the abbreviations needed to fill in acontract.
2. Bora sends emails to my manager saying that I am not helping or supporting him, which I think is not true.
3. Bora spends most of his time sitting at his desk texting or messaging his friends. (When I see this question written in one sentence, I realize that it is more likely to be an exaggeration than a factual statement.) If you mention this problem to Bora, the discussion will probably be about how much of his time he is wasting, rather than focusing on the problems that are important to you. I would advise you not to treat this problem, at least not as the main problem.
After separating the topics in this way, there are 2 critical conversations I recommend you to have: One with Bora and one with your manager. First, I have a few suggestions that might help you in your conversation with Bora;
To reduce Bora's defensiveness, first share your good intentions with him. For example, you could say something like this: "Bora, I want to talk to you about how we can work together more effectively." Then clearly define the difference between what you expect and what you get, based on the facts. "You expect me to do things that are part of your job, like bidding and pricing. I don't think it's my work, I think it's yours. Can you please help me understand what's going on?"
When you listen carefully to Bora's response, you are likely to get to the root of the problem. If it is clear from his response that Bora does not want to do these tasks, help him to see the consequences of this behavior, e.g. "When I have to do these tasks for you, I lose sight of other critical priorities". If Bora accepts this, great! But if not, you may need to escalate the problem to Bora's managers. If she disagrees andsays that this is not part of her job, then refer to written job descriptions or invite Bora's manager to join the conversation. If Bora says that she can't do the work on her own because she doesn't know how to do it, you can take this step again. Encourage her manager to put in place a development plan to help Bora gain the knowledge she needs. It is very important that you do not end this conversation without setting clear expectations with Bora and his manager about what you can and cannot do from now on to support Bora.
The second critical conversation is with your own managers. There is a very high probability that their opinion of your performance is based on Bora's e-mails to them. I suggest you take the opportunity to meet with your managers to review the situation in a factual way. In this conversation, focus on what you really want. For example;
Once you have identified and focused on what you really want in the conversation as above, describe the difference in expectations between what Bora does and what you expect based on the facts. Clearly describe what you understand from your own work and what you do and do not do to support Bora.
Then try to understand your bosses' expectations about the situation. Don't end the conversation without setting clear expectations about what you will and will not do to support Bora. In the meantime , please keep in mind that the Critical Accountability skills and approach will not guarantee all the results you desire. These skills are not skills of control or manipulation. However, I have witnessed time and time again that this approach has brought relationships and desired results to a very good level.
I wish you success in your critical accountability conversations.
Love
Bahar Sen