In our last post, we talked about the signs that your high potential employee might be derailing. In this post I’ll share how you can turn things around.

Getting a derailing employee back on track

Learn what’s important to your employees

Countless studies have identified what keeps employees engaged and, therefore, more likely to be productive and stay in the organization. Employee responses to surveys indicates that the top two factors are:

• Senior management’s interest in the employee’s well-being
• Challenging work

In contrast, there are four primary causes of employee derailment:

1. Manager’s management style
2. Employee successes not recognized
3. No opportunity for career growth, exciting projects or stretch goals
4. Something going on in the employee’s personal life

Whatever the reason, the first step to getting the employee back on track is to initiate dialogue. Many managers are hesitant to have this kind of conversation because they don’t want to upset the employee or risk even more discontent.

However, the risk of doing nothing is far greater than the risk of beginning a dialogue. Having a conversation with a derailing employee can demonstrate concern and appreciation for past accomplishments, which can go a long way.

Prepare for the conversation

The best way to get started is to first write down your observations. This will allow you to go into the conversation with clarity about changes that you have noticed. Regardless of what the issue is, the goal is to get the employee performing at the top of his/her game again, and find a way to retain that high potential employee in the organization.

Remain curious / let go of assumptions

Make the conversation all about them and listen attentively. Often managers will go into a discussion with preconceived notions about what could help the situation or what the employee needs in order to get re-engaged. However, it is extremely important that managers let go of any assumptions and remain open to hearing what is truly on the high-potential employee’s mind.

Follow up

The next step after a positive conversation is to follow through by addressing and remedying the situation. For example, if it’s clear that the employee is not excited or challenged by the work he/she is doing, then the manager should do everything possible to remedy the problem. If the employee expresses that he/she wants to be more autonomous in his/her work, the manager may need to adjust his/her management style. If the employee says he/she has not had career growth opportunities, then providing management training or mentoring might be the solution.

The bottom line is, solving a derailment problem requires a partnership between manager and employee, and that partnership can’t happen without dialogue.