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Post by mparrish on Jul 28, 2013 21:46:17 GMT -6
Weakness in a single person can mean many things, the least likely of which is a bad system. When there are multiple people dragging the work down, that can be a big indicator of a bad system. When there is just one person failing, its usually more efficient to just replace them, but when there is a bigger problem, the manager should focus on finding solutions to the root cause, not the symptoms.
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Post by lakeishabrooks on Jul 29, 2013 8:17:26 GMT -6
INSTANT MBA: Don't Spend All Your Time Fixing Your Worst Employee
I do believe that you should give your weakest employee time to catch up because sometimes your weakest employee can become your best employee in the future. You have to figure out why they are weak. It might be because they have never worked in that line of business so give it a little time. But I agree that you should not spend all your time on them because it then becomes an distraction.
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Post by brianbrewer on Jul 29, 2013 9:01:13 GMT -6
INSTANT MBA: Don't Spend All Your Time Fixing Your Worst Employee
Col. Thomas Kolditz brings up a crucial act that most managers have issues with. The manager focuses on the weakest link which does help that member of the organization, but by doing that you put the rest of the organization in a stand still. When looking to improve a group's productivity, focus on the whole group not just the weakest people.
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Post by meganbahm91 on Jul 29, 2013 10:49:24 GMT -6
As a business owner you are going to have great employees and you are going to have terrible employees. Do not spend all your time fixing the terrible employees. Instead you can do two things. The first thing simply just let them go for the company. But if you do see that they can succeed in the company, pair them up with the mentor. Let the mentor help them become a successful employee. Give the mentor a certain amount of time to help this employee. At the end of the given amount of time you and the mentor sit with each other and discuss the employee. Together decide if you all think that the employee can make it.
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Post by robertnicholson on Jul 29, 2013 11:54:53 GMT -6
When you only focus on working on the worst employee of the business, you lose insight of the whole picture. One employee does not make up your whole corporation. Instead of working on just one employee, try to work on your corporation as a whole. It’s important to address the things that that certain employee is doing amongst everyone instead of focusing on one employee. Don’t lose your focus on the whole thing.
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Post by ahrield on Jul 29, 2013 14:20:50 GMT -6
Trying to fix a broken employee can be a real hassle. Only real business manager would say just to fire him and find somebody else because in a business they want nothing but winners. Why try to fix the broken employee when you can just hire a new one that may know as much already and bring less stress on the manager.
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Post by stephaniemeyer on Oct 13, 2013 20:23:53 GMT -6
It's sad to say but this article immediately made me think of a student my mom is having trouble with. I immediately emailed her the article and she then turned around and emailed it to two of her colleagues who also teach this particular student. It seems as if these teachers have been struggling since the first day of school to manage this child's discipline issues----without success. He takes a great deal of their time and energy every day, and takes a lot of time away from the other students in the class as well. I think these teachers need to follow this author's advice and put more energy on all of the others who are there to learn and care about their education/show respect to their teachers, etc... instead of focusing so much energy on this one child who doesn't and whose parents don't seem to be able to handle him either. Yes, it would be wonderful if we, as teachers, could "fix" every child with problems, but sometimes we cannot. This article, in my opinion, applies to the business world and education world as well as to humans in general. It is one of my favorites!
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Post by brentgruber on Oct 15, 2013 9:25:25 GMT -6
If you focuse too much on a particular weak employee, you run the risk of endangering your other employees. Instead of focusing all your attention on that employee make sure you are able to allocate time to other employees as well. You need to focus on the employees as a whole in order to be able to effectively mange and let the business grow accordingly. There are many things one could do as a manager to help out that particular employee while still focusing on the business as a whole.
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Post by chrmichall on Oct 22, 2013 14:31:33 GMT -6
INSTANT MBA: Don't Spend All Your Time Fixing Your Worst Employee
Focusing on the weakest link in an organization can be time consuming. I agree that focusing on the team as a whole is the most important thing. this will also help that weakest link or they will leave the organization due to not keeping up. It is important as a manager that you not waste your time with things that are close to impossible to change. Changing a person is something that takes time and sometimes time is not exactly on your side.
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Post by ernestmajoue on Oct 22, 2013 19:39:22 GMT -6
Sticking to your goals and plans for your company should be top priority. Getting distracted because one of more employees are not doing as well as other can lead to you losing focus. In life and business you will always have someone at the top and someone at the bottom, someone who comes in first and someone who comes in last and this should keep your mind focused on everything and everyone between. Stay focused on improvement as a whole for your company.
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Post by Holland Bussell on Oct 25, 2013 21:43:15 GMT -6
Of course there is going to be a difference in skills between employees and there is always someone who is the best and another who is the weakest. I believe in the saying "You are as strong as your weakest link". Therefore I would spend time trying to help that employee, but definitely not a lot of time which would neglect the rest of the team. It is important for everyone to at least be able to carry themselves or pull their own weight so they aren't completely dependent on someone else.
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Post by heatherlaurent on Oct 29, 2013 11:07:39 GMT -6
Instant MBA: Don’t Spend All Your Time Fixing Your Worst Employee
Focusing on one employee can drag your whole team down. Although you want to make sure the problem is addressed, make sure that you are not obsessing over these issues because the others that are doing what they are supposed to be doing can become distracted and bored. When employees are doing the same thing day in and day out, some become annoyed with their job. If you are constantly working one step back because of a single employee, your team will be working at a slower pace than it should be. Therefore you are not extending your potential.
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Post by katiesnyder on Oct 30, 2013 20:35:04 GMT -6
Instant MBA: Don’t spend all your time fixing your worst employee
This was an interesting article because I always thought that a business was only as strong as its worst employee but I can see where this would be an untrue belief after reading this article. It pointed out that even if one member of the group is a bad employee that if you focus all your effort on improving the bad employee the other employees will not get any better themselves. Tis is crucial because if the group as a whole is able to make up for the bad employee then there is no need to focus entirely on the bad employee but gradually work to get them better while still focusing on the improvement of the group as a whole.
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Post by tyancey on Oct 31, 2013 21:59:38 GMT -6
INSTANT MBA: Don't Spend All Your Time Fixing Your Worst Employee
I somewhat agree with this article, however, I feel that it is important to try to analyze why your employee is not doing well. For instance, if you have an employee that is doing terrible work and it is because they are poorly trained, then it is your fault. As a result, you should turn around and properly train the employee so that they have to opportunity to succeed. However, if you have a terrible employee that have been properly trained and has been worked with by several other employees and is still not showing improvement in their performance, then you need to think that maybe they are not in the right job or profession.
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Post by lana.guay on Nov 6, 2013 18:20:53 GMT -6
If an employee isn't pulling their weight in the workplace, I think the best thing you can do is simply to inform them about it. Maybe they do not know they are not working as hard as they should be. If nothing changes, let them go. It causes much more stress and time to try to build up a weak employee. I also think that there are many other who may love to have the position they have and would go beyond expectations if they had their place, so it can be crucial to do what the article says in those situations.
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