How do you deal with slackers on your team?

Our reader poll today asks: How do you deal with slackers on your team?

• I immediately counsel them and put them on performance plans: 8.3%
• I try to figure out how to motivate them: 37.0%
• I ignore things and hope their performance improves: 2.3%
• I restructure their roles to make them happy: 1.7%
• I use a combination of tactics: 50.7%

It’s about motivation… and consequences. Clearly the majority of you focus on finding your slackers’ motivation. That’s the key. They often have the skills and abilities to do great work — they just choose not to. Unlocking a slacker’s motivation is the key to turning around performance. That said, sometimes it’s impossible to find a way to motivate them in their current role. In those situations, the combination approach of finding motivation but then doling out consequences, up to and including termination, are on the table. Regardless of which approach you choose, doing nothing is not an option. The rest of your team sees the slacker getting away with it, and their morale suffers as a result.

Do you agree with these poll results? Let us know in the comments below!

– Mike Figliuolo at thoughtLEADERS, LLC

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These results were originally a SmartPulse poll in SmartBrief on Leadership which tracks feedback from more than 240,000 business leaders. Get smarter on leadership and sign up for the SmartBrief on Leadership e-newsletter.