A newsletter subscriber emailed me a few weeks ago with a really interesting challenge that they were having with one of their team. This was the key part of their challenge:
I’m struggling with an individual in my team who simply isn’t doing tasks when I ask them to do them. At best, they’ll take far too long to get something done and at worst, they simply won’t do it. I feel like my authority is being undermined and I don’t want to escalate, but it’s happening over and over again and I’m not sure how to push them to just do what I’ve asked.
In my experience, this isn’t an overly common problem, but it’s one that can be very hard to deal with as a manager. Having your authority undermined can also damage your confidence and take up a lot of headspace and time.
I sent a response to the subscriber and having had a bit more time to reflect on their challenge, I’ve expanded on my original thoughts and outlined a process below that you can use if you’re also faced with this kind of problem.
Check in as soon as things are going wrong
When it first starts to become clear that there is a problem, you need to address the problem as quickly as you can. Below are a few steps and principles to keep in mind when doing this.
Ideally, these principles (except the first one) will also naturally form part of the briefing process and conversation, so that they are clear to someone early in the process. You don’t necessarily need to make briefing someone a huge process or like a copy of War and Peace, but you should absolutely do your best to make briefs as clear as possible for your time. The principles below form a big part of that.
If someone is clearly not doing what you’ve asked, schedule a one to one with them as soon as possible and talk through the task, along with the principles below and finish by asking them if everything is clear.
If this doesn’t work, we’ll talk shortly about how to escalate things.
Don’t take it personally or become defensive
I know how easy it is to take this kind of problem personally. But you need to stay as objective as possible because if you take things personally, you’ll get defensive very quickly which isn’t a good place to be when you’re trying to fix this problem.
One tactical way to do this is to take a step away from the situation, reducing the chances that you’ll respond defensively. Take a few minutes (at least) to think about the situation and to plan what you’ll do next.
Even just a few minutes to compose your thoughts will help you here and it’s not going to have any negative consequences for you in terms of addressing and resolving the situation to take a bit of time to plan your response.
Be as clear as possible about what you’re asking
Take a step away from the situation and look again at the task that you’ve asked them to do. Be as objective as possible and ask yourself – am I being clear? You don’t want to end up in a position where you escalate the conversation and the response from the individual is along the lines of “I didn’t understand what I needed to do?”
Look at the task and if necessary, make it clearer or give more detail about how the individual needs to complete it. Ensure that you give them context, information, who the task is for and what the deadline is. Then ask if they understand the task, whether the deadline is achievable and if they need any support from you or anyone else.
Be clear that what you’re asking is part of their role and responsibilities
Sometimes, you may find yourself in a situation where the individual doesn’t believe that the task is actually something that they should be doing. Perhaps they think it’s for someone else to do, either because of their experience or seniority. Sometimes, they can think that the task is “below” them or at other times, that it’s not something that falls within their skillset.
Again, take a step back and ask yourself whether this may be true or whether it’s possible that they have the perception that it’s true.
Take the chance to connect the task to their role and responsibilities, making it clear that this is part of their role.
If the task does in fact fall out of their regular day-to-day tasks and role, be honest about that and tell them that you’re aware that you’re asking them to do something that isn’t usually part of their role. Explain why you’re doing this and how it’s still relevant and reasonable for them to work on it.
Be clear on the reason and value of what you’re asking them to do
Finally, tasks can sometimes be ignored or forgotten about if someone doesn’t believe it to be important. Whilst this clearly shouldn’t lead to a task not being done at all, it is understandable if someone isn’t prioritising a task for this reason.
As part of the brief to them and any follow up conversations, ensure that you connect the task to the output and value it’s going to drive.
For example, if the task is for a client, you should talk about the value to them and their business e.g. the paid social audit will allow them to see what budget is being wasted and where it could be spent to generate more revenue for them.
As mentioned above, all of these things should naturally form part of the brief or conversation when you ask someone to complete a task. But sometimes, you’ll need to reiterate these points if someone isn’t doing what they need to do.
Obviously, it’s much easier to reiterate these points than to think about and communicate them from scratch.
Escalating the conversation
If you speak with them and still find yourself in a situation where they’re not doing what you ask, then you will need to move to a more formal conversation and escalate the issue.
This may also apply if someone has an ongoing problem with doing what you’ve asked them to. For example, the escalation may be required if someone does get tasks done, but you’re continually having to have a conversation like the one above with them.
Deliver feedback on the task and the problem
Start the conversation by talking about the specific situation that is leading to the problem. To prepare for this feedback, I’d highly recommend the SBIA feedback method which is perfect for this kind of situation.
In summary, you structure the conversation by outlining:
- Situation – what’s the situation that you’re talking about?
- Behaviour – what is the behaviour that you’re seeing?
- Impact – what’s the impact of this behaviour?
- Ask – ask them for their perspective on what you’ve described.
This helps structure the conversation in a way where you get to the point quickly and clearly, whilst leaving the floor open for the individual to respond and explain what’s happened.
For example, you could say something like:
“Two weeks ago, I briefed you on a task for [client name] and asked you to complete a paid social account audit, with the deadline being a week later. You didn’t meet the deadline and when we spoke again, you said you’d get it done as soon as possible but we’re here today and it’s still not complete. This means that [client name] is still waiting for the audit which should have been delivered by now and it’s preventing them from improving the use of their paid social advertising spend. Can you help me understand what’s happened?”
At this point, you need to listen to their perspective and understand why they’re not doing the task that you’ve asked or why they continually need to be pushed by you (or colleagues) to complete tasks.
You should listen as carefully as you can and whilst you should certainly try to see their perspective and empathise with them, you also need to guide them towards overcoming any issues they’ve described so that they can get tasks done more efficiently in the future.
Talk about the consequences of them not getting tasks done
If this is an ongoing issue, you also need to talk about the consequences for their role and career. For example, it’s unlikely that someone who isn’t able to consistently complete tasks or needs pushing to complete tasks, will progress well in your team. It’s unlikely that they’ll get approval for more responsibilities, pay rises and promotions if they’re unable to get things done.
This may seem obvious, but it needs to be made clear that there are real consequences for relatively basic standards not being met within your team.
Wrap up and make clear what next steps and actions are
End the conversation by agreeing on a plan to move forward and ask them if they’re happy with it. After the meeting, email them notes, actions and the plan that you’ve agreed so that they have a copy of everything in writing as well. You’ll have spoken about a lot during this meeting, so it’s important that the details are written down and sent to them.
Finally, if this is an ongoing problem and despite your best efforts and feedback, the individual simply isn’t getting things done, you’ll probably need to have a far more serious conversation which may involve your own manager or your HR team. You should take advice from them if you need it because further escalation could mean things such as performance improvement plans being put in place, possibly leading to you having to let them go if things don’t improve.
Don’t do this all on your own – get support from your manager and if you have it, your HR team or advisors to ensure that you’re following the right process.
