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There are two key words that all managers must consider when it comes to
assessing individual staff members. These two key words are:
'COMMITTED' and
'COMPETENT'
Let's
examine these words in more detail.
COMMITMENT
Committed staff members have the best interests of the
business at heart. They want the business and/or the business owner/s to
succeed. In other words, they have an interest level beyond that of a
job.
Uncommitted staff members, on the other hand, have no
real, strong allegiance to the business and/or owners. In short, the job
is a "stepping stone" to a better opportunity, or a "resting house"
where they wait and pray for the knock-off whistle to blow.
Naturally, a person cannot be both committed and uncommitted ... a person
is either committed or uncommitted.
COMPETENT
The
dictionary definition of "competent" is: "properly
qualified, capable and/or sufficient for the purpose".
Competent staff members fulfil the job
functions to a level that you expect.
Incompetent staff members work outputs do not
match the reasonable expectations of the owner/manager and
the other staff members. Perhaps they require extra
supervision. They might have a higher-than-expected mistake
rate. They might use more material than expected, or they
just might take longer to do things. Put simply, their value
to the business, as measured in terms of productivity, comes
up short of reasonable expectations.
Again, the terminology of competent and incompetent must be
viewed as being mutually exclusive.
RATING YOUR STAFF MEMBERS
Straight up, I should point out that the following is not a scientific
test that will give you a quantifiable result. Rather, it relies upon
your "gut feeling" on the matter. But, as you would know, very often
this is a good yardstick.
You will rate each staff member on just these two concepts - commitment
and competency. When you think about it, there are four possibilities:
The Committed Competent. These staff members are the rock
upon which you can build your business. Alas, they are rare. Should you
have them in your midst, look after them because they are almost
impossible to replace.
The Uncommitted Competent. Now, this individual is just
about the most dangerous staff member you can have. Their level of
competency will have other staff looking up to them, yet their attitude
will be non-committal, even negative. These individuals can de-stabilise
situations very easily, and they can also be the lynchpin for the gossip
vine.
The difficulty with this person is that it is not easy to instil
commitment. It is something that must come from within.
More than a few businesses have found that the ultimate solution
(parting company) is never in doubt, though it often takes time to
arrive at that decision and then to execute it. While you "dilly dally",
the cancer of malcontent continues to grow.
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The Committed Incompetent. For these people, you have two
choices - train them so that their levels of competency rises to meet
reasonable expectations, or deploy them elsewhere within the company
where the new job functions will be in line with their demonstrated
competencies.
Of course, should they not respond to any training and/or job
re-positioning, the final solution is, unfortunately, to part company.
The Uncommitted Incompetent. Really, the end result is
known here, isn't it?
Now, it's over to you to make the assessment.
Click here for an easy to use work sheet. |
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