Written by Nicola Richardson, Founder of The People Mentor. The People Mentor helps small employers, managers and leaders handle difficult conversations, strengthen accountability and lead with calm, practical confidence.
This article is for managers dealing with an underperforming employee right now, and for the SME owners and HR leads trying to put the right process around them. It covers how to spot underperformance early, the conversation that needs to happen before any formal process starts, and how to build an improvement plan that actually gets someone back on track.
Key takeaways from The People Mentor
- Underperformance almost never appears overnight. By the time most managers act, it has been building for weeks.
- There are two ways managers get this wrong: ignoring it too long, or jumping straight to a formal process without an honest conversation first.
- Underperformance and a bad attitude are not the same problem, and treating them the same way makes things worse.
- A good improvement plan is built with the employee, not handed down to them.
- Sometimes the honest outcome is that the role is not right for the person, and managing that well matters as much as trying to fix it.
Why Underperformance Gets Missed (Or Ignored) For Too Long
I see the same two patterns again and again with new managers, and they sit at opposite ends of the same problem.
The first is avoidance. A manager notices the dip, a missed deadline, work that is not quite up to standard, but says nothing. They tell themselves it is a one-off, or that raising it will feel awkward, or that the person is going through something and it will pass. Weeks go by. The problem does not pass. It just becomes normal, until one day it is too big to ignore and the manager reacts with far more frustration than the situation would have needed if they had spoken up early. I have written before about why managing an underperformer feels so exhausting and what actually helps, and this pattern is exactly why it wears people down.
The second pattern is the opposite extreme. A manager notices the same dip and goes straight to a formal written warning, skipping the conversation entirely. This usually comes from a wish to do it properly or protect the business, but it lands as sudden and harsh to someone who had no idea there was even a problem. Trust breaks immediately, and the working relationship rarely recovers from there.
Neither path serves anyone well. What sits between them, an honest, early, specific conversation, is the piece most managers were never shown how to do.
The Difference Between Underperformance and a Bad Attitude
Before any conversation happens, it is worth being honest with yourself about what you are actually dealing with. Underperformance and a poor attitude look similar on the surface, but they need completely different responses.
Underperformance is usually a capability or clarity problem. The person wants to do well, but something is getting in the way: unclear expectations, a skills gap, personal circumstances, or simply not knowing what good looks like in this specific role. This responds well to support, training and a clear plan.
A bad attitude is a willingness problem. The person understands what is expected and can do it, but chooses not to, whether through disengagement, resentment or a mismatch with the role. This needs a much more direct conversation about expectations and consequences, not more training.
Getting this distinction wrong wastes time. Treating a willingness problem as a skills gap means endless training that never changes behaviour. Treating a genuine skills gap as an attitude problem damages trust with someone who was actually trying. If you want a structured way to work through that first conversation once you have worked out which one you are looking at, the COMPASS model I use with managers on the Making Difficult Conversations Easier programme covers exactly this.
The Conversation That Comes Before Any Formal Process
Once you have identified genuine underperformance, the next step is a conversation, not a document. This should happen as soon as you notice the pattern, not weeks later once you have built up frustration.
Start with the specific, factual behaviour. Not “you have not been performing well lately,” but “I have noticed the last three client reports had errors that needed fixing before they went out.” Specific and factual is much easier to respond to than vague and general, and it removes the sting of feeling personally attacked.
Then ask, and actually listen to the answer. “What is going on with these reports?” opens space for the person to explain what is getting in the way, whether that is unclear instructions, workload, a personal issue, or simply not knowing where they went wrong. You might learn something that changes the whole picture. Sometimes what looks like underperformance is actually a manager who never explained the task properly in the first place.
Close the conversation with clarity about what needs to happen next, and by when. Vague endings, such as “let’s keep an eye on it,” give the person nothing concrete to work towards, and nothing for you to measure against later.
Here is what I look for when I am helping a manager work out where things have gone wrong in a performance conversation, and what to do instead.
| What you may notice | What it could mean | What to do next |
|---|---|---|
| The same issue keeps coming back after you have raised it | Your message was not as clear as you thought, or there was no agreed next step | State the specific behaviour, the impact, and one concrete change, then write it down together |
| The employee seems genuinely surprised by the feedback | The problem has been building silently with no earlier signal given | Address issues within days, not weeks, so nothing arrives as a shock |
| The person becomes defensive as soon as you start | You may have led with a judgement rather than an observable fact | Open with what you saw or heard, not with your view of who they are |
| Improvement happens briefly, then slips back | The plan lacked a clear review point or ongoing check-in | Set a fixed review date and follow up on it without fail |
| You are not sure if this is capability or attitude | The two problems look similar but need different responses | Separate what the person can do from what they are choosing to do before deciding your approach |
Building a Simple Improvement Plan Together
If the conversation confirms there is a genuine gap to close, the next step is a plan, built with the employee rather than handed to them.
A good improvement plan is specific and measurable. Rather than “improve report accuracy,” it might say “no more than one factual error per report, checked before submission, reviewed weekly for four weeks.” Specific targets remove ambiguity about whether things are actually improving.
It is also time bound. Open ended plans drift. Four to six weeks is usually enough to see a genuine change in behaviour, with a clear review point built in from the start.
Involving the employee in shaping the plan matters more than it might seem. Someone who has helped design their own targets is far more likely to buy into them than someone who has simply been told what to do. Ask what support they think they need, whether that is more feedback, clearer instructions, or training on a specific skill, and build that into the plan alongside your expectations.
When It Genuinely Is Not Working Out
Sometimes, even with a clear conversation and a fair plan, things do not improve. This is the point where many new managers feel guilty, as though they have somehow failed the person by reaching this stage.
That guilt usually is not warranted. If you have had the honest conversation early, built a fair plan together, and given genuine time and support, you have done the job properly. Some roles simply are not the right fit for some people, and no amount of extra coaching changes that. Recognising this is not harsh. Keeping someone in a role that is not working, for either of you, rarely does anyone any favours.
At this stage, the process moves into more formal territory, and that is often where getting proper HR or legal guidance becomes genuinely useful, since the specifics matter and get complicated quickly. For independent guidance on managing performance fairly, ACAS provides free resources for UK employers. What matters most from a leadership standpoint is that the person can look back and see they were treated fairly and honestly throughout, not blindsided by a process they never saw coming.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long should I give someone to improve before deciding it is not working? Four to six weeks is usually enough to see a genuine shift, provided the plan was specific and the check-ins actually happened. If nothing has moved by then, that is useful information in itself.
What if the employee blames workload or another team member? Listen properly before deciding whether that is deflection or a genuine factor. Sometimes it is both. Either way, note it, and keep the plan focused on what is within their control to change.
Should HR be involved from the first conversation? Not usually. The first conversation is meant to be informal and fact based. HR becomes more relevant once you move towards a formal improvement plan or if the situation risks escalating.
What if I have already let this go on for months? Start the honest conversation now rather than waiting for the perfect moment. It will feel harder because of the delay, but it still matters far more than continuing to say nothing.
A Final Thought
Underperformance handled well rarely looks dramatic. It looks like a manager who noticed something early, said something specific and kind, built a fair plan together, and followed through consistently. Most of the time, that is genuinely enough to turn things around.
If you are managing someone through this right now and it feels harder than it should, that is usually a sign you are missing a framework, not that you are bad at this. The Manager’s Academy gives new and developing managers ongoing, practical coaching on exactly this kind of situation, difficult conversations, performance management and everything in between, at a pace that fits alongside a busy job.
