Comments on: Employee Engagement Kiss of Death – Ignoring Performance Issues

By: Michelle Malay Carter

Michelle Malay Carter — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:28:10 +0000

Hi Karen,

Thanks for the comment. Nothing turns up the pressure cooker more than dysfunctional systems. I think developing emotional intelligence is an important thing to do. I think we could get by with much lower thresholds of emotional intelligence if we stepped back, observed, and corrected the inherent conflicts of interests embedded in most workplaces. Thanks for stopping by.

Regards,

Michelle

By: Michelle Malay Carter

Michelle Malay Carter — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:21:46 +0000

Hi Deborah,

Thanks for stopping by. You are absolutely right. When you violate trust, it smells, and it smells quickly. High potentials tend to have the most options so they will leave first. Thanks for the comment.

Regards,

Michelle

By: Michelle Malay Carter

Michelle Malay Carter — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:19:55 +0000

Hi Jan,

Thanks for the comment. Yes, it takes courage to address issues. If this expectation is implemented within a broad, requisite organization system, managers are accountable to address these issues. If they do not, now they become the performance issue. We’ve got to move from pieces and parts to a system.

Regards,

Michelle

By: Karen Owens Drake

Karen Owens Drake — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 14:46:49 +0000

Michelle, as the mother of two sons, I love your analogy. I have coached numerous leaders and marveled at the lengths that some will go through to avoid “hurting the poor performer’s feelings.” That infamous “rescuer-victim-persecutor” triangle really plays out with the most well-meaning managers. Coaching for Emotional Intelligence is critical, now, more than ever. I’d like to continue conversation with practitioners working with leaders around EI and Social Intelligence.

By: Deborah Exo

Deborah Exo — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 17:02:05 +0000

Michelle, agree with everything you have posted. Addressing performance issues is even more important now because staffs are so lean and everyone is doing “more more with less less”. And corporations can lose their best talent when mediocre performance and/or non-performance are not dealt with…top talent watches and immediately recognizes that their talent and hard work will not be recognized and rewarded so they go elsewhere.

By: Jan Brockway

Jan Brockway — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 17:59:00 +0000

Michelle, I think you hit the nail on the head with this post. For several years, I mentored managers at a Fortune 500 company and would discuss with them performance and engagement issues. In so many cases, they knew the issue but were afraid of addressing it. Overcoming that fear and realizing the impact of doing nothing is worse than any result of the conversation is eye-opening to managers.

By: Michelle Malay Carter

Michelle Malay Carter — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 16:34:25 +0000

Hi Rodney and Jack,

Thank you for your comments. Jack, yes I think you are on to something with the not tolerated train of thought, and yes, I agree about the courage comment. I would add self-discipline as well. This is the one I’m more likey to lack.

Michelle

By: Jack Fallow

Jack Fallow — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 21:50:55 +0000

Michelle,

Often, we understand our leaders best when we know what they will NOT tolerate. This problem also rolls into our thinking about culture. In my experience, the definition of culture as ‘How we do things around here’ is highly misleading. I find it more accurately stated as ‘How we do things and how we DONT do things around here’.
CS Lewis called ‘courage’ – the master virtue. In its absence, we have all the problems that you highlight

By: Rodney Cooley

Rodney Cooley — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 02:15:13 +0000

This is so true. As a supervisor, I’ve had to work with employees on performance issues, and I had to be sure that everyone was treated the same. Having that in place helped to build a better team in the long run.

By: Michelle Malay Carter

Michelle Malay Carter — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 11:10:26 +0000

Hi Marcelino,

Thanks for visiting and for the comment. I agree.

Michelle