The only two reasons people underperform

A follower named Cass asked me how I deal with people who are basically non-performers. Cass, this is something we deal with all the time as business people, so let me give you the whole framework, because it is simpler than you think.

Water finds its mark. The tide comes up and it hits its level, every time. The difference with human beings is that we are not limited to the pull of the moon. We get to decide who we are, what we do, and what we get to have. That is the whole opportunity, and it is also why underperformance is never just weather. It has a cause, and the cause is always one of two things.

Why you need performers at all

Start with why this matters. If you want to move yourself up, and I do, I want to be more, do more, have more, then you need help. You need people to assist you, people to pull up, people who push you up in return. Nobody builds anything worth building alone.

And quite frankly, some of the people around you will do that, and some will not. So you have to be able to look at the ones who are not helping and understand what is actually happening.

The two reasons

There are only two reasons someone will not get the job done. One: they do not want to. Two: they do not know how. I will give that to you again, because it is the whole lesson. They do not want to, or they do not know how.

Your job is to get in there and figure out which one it is, because you can correct either one, and the corrections are completely different. Diagnose wrong and you will train someone who needed a talking-to, or threaten someone who needed a teacher. Most managers never make the diagnosis at all. They just feel vaguely disappointed at the person for months, which fixes exactly nothing.

When they don't want to

If they do not want to, you have a plain, honest, heart-to-heart conversation, and you make it crystal clear: look, if you do not change your ways, one of us is going to have to leave. And I own the company, so I am not allowed to. You get the idea. It will have to be you.

I will tell you something straight: handling people for their own shortcomings is the worst part of our job. I hate it. I hate it, and I do it all the time, because you cannot let it go unchecked. Unhandled unwillingness spreads. The rest of the team watches what you tolerate, and what you tolerate becomes your real company policy, whatever the binder says.

When they don't know how

The second reason is everywhere, and it is far more common than bad intent. There is plenty I do not know how to do either. So find out: read a book, search it, watch a video, ask someone who knows.

And here is the most important thing I can tell you about not knowing: at least say it. The first step to finding out is the statement, well, I do not know. It might be the wisest sentence a person can say. Build a team where I do not know is safe to say out loud, and the second reason starts fixing itself, because willing people who admit the gap can be trained across it.

So there is the framework, Cass. Two characters: I do not want to, and I do not know how. Break every case down to one of the two, act accordingly, and do not get lax on it. If you want to be surrounded by people who really perform, this is the maintenance that keeps them that way.