But she’s so nice.

When a good person is a bad employee.

It is in times of personal or professional crisis that people realize there needs to be a change. Carol was at this point when we began working together. Like many of my clients, Carol is a business owner who works in the high-stakes, high-stress industry. She loves her work in the mortgage industry and the clients she serves. Her company has a great reputation, and she is well known for a personal touch. She truly cares about her clients and has a clear mission & vision for her business that her employees believe in and follow.

The mortgage industry has had a lot of changes in the last decade making her work more difficult, but she knows her craft well. Business is booming. Over the past year she has hired two new employees with an eye toward a third in Q1 of next year. And yet, she was more stressed and anxious than ever.

So where were all these anxious feelings coming from? Why all the stress? Things are going great, so why did she have a nagging feeling that the other shoe was about to drop?

As we worked together, it became clear that the stressful feelings and those anxious thoughts were her intuition warning her that she had a problem, and that problem was an employee, Sarah.

“But she is so nice, she has a ton of potential and she can pick up the skills with the right training and motivation.” She knew it was an excuse as the words came tumbling out of her mouth. Sarah was indeed a very nice woman; her personality and attitude were some of the reasons Carol had hired her, but her skills were not up to par. She and her office manager had been picking up Sarah’s slack and fixing minor problems with her work, and it was really beginning to tax them. Sarah was not learning fast enough and had some real barriers that led to Carol’s vision veering off-mission.

Just because your employee is nice, kind, or funny, does not mean that they are a good fit for you and your company. By implementing a few simple metrics, Carol was able to see how much time, money and energy Sarah was truly costing her. Here are the metric’s Carol used;

1. Clearly defined job position requirements – By determining clearly defined roles and expectations of the position, Carol was able to track where Sarah was falling short.

1. Adherence to company values and mission – Her mission and company values were clear. Although Sarah aligned with the company’s mission, she fell short in fulfilling them.

3. Quality of work – With expectations set, Carol saw where Sarah’s work fell short, and she gave clear feedback on weekly goals. When these goals were not met, the consequences were clearly defined.

Setting the parameters and deliverables you expect before hiring a new employee will help you avoid the uncertainty around when, and why, to let an employee go without feeling like you are blindsiding them. With these metrics in place, Sarah saw where she was falling short and Carol was able to end their working relationship with a recommendation that spoke to what her strengths were and hire the right person for the position.

Are you stuck and need some help finding a path forward? Book a free Breakthrough Strategy Session with me today.