{"id":237,"date":"2012-07-11T15:25:40","date_gmt":"2012-07-11T15:25:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/?p=237"},"modified":"2012-07-11T15:25:40","modified_gmt":"2012-07-11T15:25:40","slug":"what-do-you-do-when-your-go-to-person-gets-off-track","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/what-do-you-do-when-your-go-to-person-gets-off-track\/","title":{"rendered":"What do you do when your go-to person gets off track?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Even amongst a team of stellar performers, there probably are one or two employees that you count on more than the others. Maybe it\u2019s because you have similar experiences and so share the same views or your skills complement each other. Whatever the reason, these people are invaluable to you and your organization. When one of them starts slipping and you feel you can\u2019t rely on them anymore, it\u2019s frustrating and can be a risk to your business.<\/p>\n<p>Speaker and consultant Tom Searcy addresses this problem in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.inc.com\/tom-searcy\/when-smart-people-get-stupid.html\">\u201cWhen Smart People Get Stupid<\/a>\u201d\u00a0 in Inc. magazine. It could be that your go-to person is suffering from a medical, psychological or even chemical problem. Find out first. If none of them are causing the problem, dig deeper. In Searcy\u2019s experience, \u201c\u2026when smart people get stupid, they are either overwhelmed or underwhelmed.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/feeling-stressed.jpg\"><img class=\"alignleft  wp-image-238\" title=\"Thoughtful man in the living room\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/07\/feeling-stressed-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"268\" height=\"183\" \/><\/a>It can be something outside work that is causing a person to feel overwhelmed. Worry over a serious problem at home can throw off someone&#8217;s performance. Also some people can\u2019t say no \u2013 especially the high achievers. They take on\u00a0 too much and get snowed under.<\/p>\n<p>While you can spot the overwhelmed, are you giving enough attention to someone who may be underwhelmed? Searcy says that it took him some time to realize he needed to watch for people who were underwhelmed because they were underutilized. Maybe the job is not challenging enough to the person you count on or they don\u2019t have enough to do so they become distracted and bored.<\/p>\n<p>Searcy offers some suggestions for fixing the problem. Here are a few of them:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Be direct. You should talk about past successes and talent, but ask what\u2019s going on that is affecting performance. Get the issue out in the open.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Talk through options:Try to accommodate personal issues by changing the workload or schedule. You also may be able to provide a better work\/life balance through a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.plantronics.com\/us\/solutions\/small-medium-business\/tech-trends\/\">teleworking arrangement. <\/a>Separation may need to be on the table; but it should never used as a threat, only as an outcome of continued under performance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Set a timeframe: You have to get the person back on track. Once you agree to a game plan set a timeframe.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>How have you dealt with a valued employee whose underlying problems are affecting performance?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Even amongst a team of stellar performers, there probably are [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[510],"tags":[648,637],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.poly.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}