leadership
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In order for an organization to stay successful, it needs a variety of performing parts. Board members and C-suite executives must consistently collaborate and ensure that their desired outcomes trickle down to department managers and entry-level employees. Higher-ups commonly know what level of performance they're looking for in their workforce.

However, there are times when they don't. Senior leaders aim to have efficient and effective workplaces, meaning that they're constantly ensuring underperforming employees are correcting their behavior or being replaced by more suitable candidates. While senior leaders believe they have a system in place to identify and address underperforming employees, the current system is damaging to employees and supervisors.

Most commonly, senior leaders will terminate an employee for not meeting cultural, leadership or communication expectations that are never clearly defined. These unfortunate employees rarely receive feedback on expectations they are unaware of, leaving them frustrated and confused at the sudden layoff.

Without a clear standard of expectations, employees assume they are pleasing their supervisors. This is understandable, as employees have only been told a slim number of responsibilities via their job description. According to research from Transforming Leadership, an executive coaching and leadership development company, the average job description has 14 specific responsibilities. Yet, performance is only measured on four metrics. This has led Transforming Leadership to witness that over 80% of terminations or resignations are caused by inadequate performance based on those four undisclosed metrics.

Dr. Steve Steff, founder and president of Transforming Leadership, is experienced in entrepreneurship, public speaking, counseling and psychology. From his experience of coaching thousands of executives and understanding their specific career circumstances, he believes that senior leaders are falling short.

"When candidates apply for a job, they understand the expectations and culture of a job and a company because of the description provided," says Steve. "Later on, when an employee is still operating with those same expectations in mind, supervisors throw them a curveball. They tell them that they're going to be let go because they're not performing well enough. Naturally, the employee is confused because no one has given them feedback about how they're not meeting expectations. So, they start to wonder if they're not fulfilling their job duties. But in reality, the senior leaders are actually judging them on metrics that they were never told they were being measured on. This subjectivity of success creates heated conflicts for supervisors and makes employees feel undervalued and taken advantage of."

Not only are senior leaders looking for employees to handle their job description responsibilities, but they also want to see behaviors in communication, culture and leadership that conform with the company and its goals. However, Steve believes that most employers don't explain these desires past "leadership and effective communication skills" in the job description. To avoid the consequences that come for supervisors and employees, Steve suggests that senior leaders establish a standard and measure performance consistently.

In the area of cultural fits, companies envision an employee who speaks, behaves and believes certain things that align with the organization's principles. Steve says these expectations can be met if a company outlines the dos and don'ts of its culture. For example, if the company values initiative, it should ensure an employee knows that slacking off is deemed unacceptable in the workplace. If a company wants these behaviors to stick, regardless of the natural disposition of an employee, they have to keep them accountable daily. Supervisors should be measuring performance based on these cultural behaviors and initiating discussions where feedback and opportunities to improve are given.

If an employee is underperforming in their communication or leadership skills, Steve encourages supervisors to follow a similar framework and make tweaks where necessary. Communication and leadership problems are often tied to confidence and personality type, meaning that a company should understand relevant ways they can train an employee to feel more comfortable in these situations.

Based on his expertise, Steve notes that employee engagement surveys are the best way to measure and understand gaps in performance. Since these surveys are frequently anonymized and can be completed on specific departments, senior leaders get a better look into why employees may be bringing in revenue but not delivering on cultural, leadership or communication standards.

Steve says it's crucial to compare the different ways success is measured across departments, too. Sometimes a sales or finance leader can be a top performer in their own department, but their popularity and success decline as other individuals become involved. For example, Steve once had a client who was an experienced salesman. He was known for his talent in speaking with clients and closing deals, but he struggled with presenting in front of groups. Clearly, this task wasn't part of his job description, but leadership was judging him on it. Due to the senior leadership's dissatisfaction with this one skill, the client didn't receive the promotion he was hoping to get. If it wasn't for Steve's insight and suggestion to attend a weekly group for writing and performing presentations, the client would have never been chosen for the role he wanted.

Steve knows this can be difficult to implement across the board in an organization, but it would eliminate hostility and confusion and drive engagement for employees, resulting in organizational success.