So your team members have an ego problem…
They seem to walk around the office acting like they’re God’s gift to your firm, but when you look at their performance and results, you’re dumbfounded about where this ego comes from; their output leaves a lot to be desired.
There are a couple of ways to deal with this issue, and all come down to clear communication of standards.
Start by understanding if the team member is aware they’re underperforming in the first place. Have you been crystal clear about their performance level? And more importantly, do they know it’s not on par with your expectations at present? Too many people get a big win once or twice and months or even years later still expect it to carry sizable weight. But success isn’t a one-stop destination. It’s an endless journey where the finish line keeps moving up as soon as you cross it. Maybe your big-headed employee needs a reminder of that.
But on top of being clear about their standing in the company, you have to be clear about the expected standard, especially as it changes and evolves.
Maybe the team member in question is still operating under the assumption that the standard they were hired to meet is the standard the company still operates under. They joined the firm and were told they were expected to bring in X number of cases, or an X amount of fees, or an X average case value. They did it. And they have been doing it since. But the new standard is two, three, or five times higher than the numbers they think they’re required to hit.
They won’t necessarily know that unless you communicate it clearly. People build their understanding of what “good” looks like based on the standards they’ve experienced. Your job as a leader isn’t to humble your team members, but to make sure they all understand where the organization is going and what it will take to get there.
Look at your communication. You might find that you need to gather some people together and tell them: “What got us here was great. But what got us here isn’t going to get us to the next level.” People can’t keep operating by the standards that were acceptable when the company was half its current size.
As you communicate it, explain the vision behind the shift and how it ties back to them.
Where are you going? What are you trying to accomplish? How many more people can you serve? What does the organization look like when you get there? And, importantly, what does that mean for them? Maybe there are greater financial rewards as a result of these changes; more leadership opportunities, or being a part of building something they couldn’t have imagined five years ago.
Give them something bigger to run toward.
Plenty of people are happy with the way things are and don’t want more responsibility, pressure, or expectation, so not everyone will want to embark on the journey with you. That’s perfectly fine for them, but you can’t scale your organization with someone else’s desire to remain in the past.
The standard has to evolve as the vision evolves. If you want to reach the next level, you have to make sure your team understands that the game has changed and that yesterday’s definition of great isn’t necessarily good enough for tomorrow.
That’s how you keep unfounded egos in check and your team working towards a larger goal.
