Address low performance early and apply the basics of structured interviewing and effective onboarding.
Responding early, hiring well, onboarding intentionally
Three skills that define a manager's talent pipeline
Underperformance rarely arrives as a surprise. It accumulates in small signals — missed deadlines, declining quality, quiet withdrawal — until it becomes a crisis. Research from HBS Online and CCL confirms that avoiding difficult conversations is one of the top traps for new managers. The right move is to respond early, using the same SBI frame you already know: describe the specific situation, the observable behavior, and the concrete impact. Acting early is kinder to the person, fairer to the team, and far less costly to fix than waiting until the gap is wide.
When you hire, an unstructured conversation ('tell me about yourself') feels natural but is a poor predictor of job performance. Structured interviews use the same role-relevant, behavioral questions for every candidate ('Describe a time when you had to deliver a project under a tight deadline — what did you do?'), evaluated against the same criteria. This removes the arbitrary advantage of candidates who merely 'click' with the interviewer and makes your decisions easier to explain and defend.
Onboarding is where the hire pays off — or doesn't. Effective onboarding covers four things quickly: clear expectations (what does success look like in 30/60/90 days?), key relationships (who does this person need to know?), early wins (what is a visible, achievable contribution they can make soon?), and a strong first 1:1. A first 1:1 where you share your working style, ask about the new hire's preferences, and set a clear short-term goal dramatically shortens time-to-results. These practices build on the delegation and 1:1 skills you have already developed earlier in this course.
Lesson notes
Three skills that define a manager's talent pipeline
Underperformance rarely arrives as a surprise. It accumulates in small signals — missed deadlines, declining quality, quiet withdrawal — until it becomes a crisis. Research from HBS Online and CCL confirms that avoiding difficult conversations is one of the top traps for new managers. The right move is to respond early, using the same SBI frame you already know: describe the specific situation, the observable behavior, and the concrete impact. Acting early is kinder to the person, fairer to the team, and far less costly to fix than waiting until the gap is wide.
When you hire, an unstructured conversation ('tell me about yourself') feels natural but is a poor predictor of job performance. Structured interviews use the same role-relevant, behavioral questions for every candidate ('Describe a time when you had to deliver a project under a tight deadline — what did you do?'), evaluated against the same criteria. This removes the arbitrary advantage of candidates who merely 'click' with the interviewer and makes your decisions easier to explain and defend.
Onboarding is where the hire pays off — or doesn't. Effective onboarding covers four things quickly: clear expectations (what does success look like in 30/60/90 days?), key relationships (who does this person need to know?), early wins (what is a visible, achievable contribution they can make soon?), and a strong first 1:1. A first 1:1 where you share your working style, ask about the new hire's preferences, and set a clear short-term goal dramatically shortens time-to-results. These practices build on the delegation and 1:1 skills you have already developed earlier in this course.