Question

I need help with this one. Creative problem solving.

2) You are a sales manager of a 40 member insurance sales department. Half your sales force (20) is performing exceptionally well and the remain- ing half is underperforming well below their targets. Your compensation is based on the performance of the whole team. What corrective action do you take to help the twenty who are under- performing? 3/4 page

Answer 1

As in the question, the case is about team performance and team compensation. When we talk about the team, there can be some cases where the performance of some of the team members is quite good while there may be some members who are not performing as per the expectations.

The situation for the team leader becomes very complicated when some of the members are really performing quite well while these good performers have to face lesser compensation or achievement due to the lackluster performance of some of the team members.

In order to overcome this issue, as a team leader, the first task is to have an open interaction with the team members who are not able to perform as per the expectations. In this interaction, the manager should focus on finding out the reason for their underperformance. This will provide an insight into the actual issue faced by the team members. Once these facts are cleared, and if these are related to the skills and knowledge of the team members, then the team member can initiate some training programs so that these team members can sharpen their skills.

The second method of dealing this issue could be to use non-monetary motivation such as recognizing those individuals who are performing well. This will create an urge among the non-performing members to perform well, uplift their performance so that they can also acquire and enjoy the status of good performers.

The other method can be to counsel the underperformers. Here the team leader should discuss the issues of each team member and provide him or her the possible solutions for improving the performance.