Are your team members aligned with the current needs of your business?
My kiddo was so excited to go to the bouncy house birthday party. It had been a few months since she had been invited to one and she could not wait to conquer the “floor is lava” inflatable. You bounce from one giant mushroom to another to get across the obstacle and she was confident she would avoid the lava. When we got there, that inflatable had been replaced.
Fortunately, the replacement inflatable also required big bounces to get to a slide. Upon her first big jump, she sank so deep she slid off, at which point she had to exit the space. She tried it a second time, using a different approach, and again she went too deep. Much to her dismay she was too big for this specific inflatable obstacle. She was devastated.
We have been going to these bouncy house birthday parties since the world opened post-pandemic. (If you are unfamiliar, send me a message and I will tell you all about them). For three plus years these birthday parties were always met with great excitement. Now, it appears, she is starting to phase out of fully enjoying the experience. The party’s target audience and my kiddo are no longer aligned.
Like growing kids and bouncy houses, businesses deal with this issue. What you needed from your team members three years ago may be quite different from what you need now.
Often as the business grows and needs new tasks to be completed, the owner asks the current team to take on those tasks. It is common to hand off whole functions to someone because they do not have as much on their plate - not because they have the skills. If you find yourself in the position to offload work or the needs of the business have expanded beyond what is currently being done, consider which of these scenarios your team member aligns with.
You have a strong employee who is a valuable contributor to the team. They are eager to take on more and learn, bringing a growth mindset to any task you give them. Handing off new and challenging tasks to this team member is a great investment. Training and development opportunities strengthen retention. The key to remember is even when eager, you still need to provide a timetable for learning the new skills and hold them accountable for meeting your expectations.
You have a capable employee who does their current role well. They do not volunteer to take on more work and are less than eager when a new system or process is rolled out. Handing off new tasks to this team member comes with risk. If they lack a growth mindset, they may be unwilling to learn the new skills required or try to use what skills they do have to complete the new tasks. The key to remember in this scenario is that you need to ensure the work is done is at the level you expect across all tasks on this team members’ plate and that mistakes are not made because of unwillingness to learn new things.
You have an underperforming employee. You see these new tasks as an opportunity to find a space for them to do better. The risk here is providing more work to them does not guarantee they will be able to perform at the level you need while also improving their performance within their current function. Unless you are going through a performance improvement process and have been able to hone in on what this employee would be best at, you are likely avoiding an inevitable separation. The key to remember is adding more work to someone already not working out is not going to improve the business’ situation and could lead to more frustration on your part.
Regardless of which employee you are dealing with, adding more to their plate does not come without required training and holding them accountable. You are responsible for ensuring what is needed to be done for your business is done to your expectations.
Your business needs change over the years. Sometimes your team needs to change too. Just like the bouncy house party is no longer aligned with my kiddo; your business may no longer align with a team member. It is not easy to say goodbye to a team member, or to “floor is lava” bouncing, but ultimately it is in everyone’s best interest. When there is alignment between a team member and a business, everyone can thrive.