Hey Jeff the "secret patient" framing is smart. I've seen PIPs used as a formal way to document failure without ever examining the system that produced it. The observation that a PIP is often the first time someone has actually been managed is damning. It shifts the whole conversation from "fix this employee" to "what's broken in this relationship?"
I also love the parallel to family therapy it's a perfect analogy because it removes blame and invites curiosity instead. The question "what exactly is supposed to change if the environment stays the same?" is one every manager should sit with before drafting a PIP.
How do you approach the conversation with the manager without putting them on the defensive?
It’s a delicate situation. But my first conversation with the manager is asking them if they really want the person to succeed or do they just want to fire them.
When they say they want them to succeed (I actually don’t care if they mean it or not, that’s not the point), I then talk to them about the self-fulfilling prophecy of leadership.
I was in HR for a few years of my career. The reason I saw most PIPs fail is because performance improvement was not their true purpose. They were the necessary last step to 'manage someone out' of the company. They were seen as a formality and, because the individual was often not managed until that point, the individual read between the lines and knew that it was far better to just leave than to succeed at the PIP. It always felt like the coward's way of saying 'this isn't working out and we need to go our separate ways.' Having an honest conversation about the performance situation and then allowing the person the space to move on to what's next treats everyone as the adults that we all are.
This is exactly how I feel about PIPs, Edith. It's a way for a manager to hide behind their conflict avoidance. You said it best, a PIP is most often "the coward's way of saying 'this isn't working out'"
Hey Jeff the "secret patient" framing is smart. I've seen PIPs used as a formal way to document failure without ever examining the system that produced it. The observation that a PIP is often the first time someone has actually been managed is damning. It shifts the whole conversation from "fix this employee" to "what's broken in this relationship?"
I also love the parallel to family therapy it's a perfect analogy because it removes blame and invites curiosity instead. The question "what exactly is supposed to change if the environment stays the same?" is one every manager should sit with before drafting a PIP.
How do you approach the conversation with the manager without putting them on the defensive?
It’s a delicate situation. But my first conversation with the manager is asking them if they really want the person to succeed or do they just want to fire them.
When they say they want them to succeed (I actually don’t care if they mean it or not, that’s not the point), I then talk to them about the self-fulfilling prophecy of leadership.
https://www.thebestleadershipnewsletter.com/p/underperforming-employee
That then leads into altering the pattern environment loop.
https://www.thebestleadershipnewsletter.com/p/pattern-environment-loop
Excellent and insightful article. Bosses don’t set clear expectations.
100% accurate on that front.
I was in HR for a few years of my career. The reason I saw most PIPs fail is because performance improvement was not their true purpose. They were the necessary last step to 'manage someone out' of the company. They were seen as a formality and, because the individual was often not managed until that point, the individual read between the lines and knew that it was far better to just leave than to succeed at the PIP. It always felt like the coward's way of saying 'this isn't working out and we need to go our separate ways.' Having an honest conversation about the performance situation and then allowing the person the space to move on to what's next treats everyone as the adults that we all are.
This is exactly how I feel about PIPs, Edith. It's a way for a manager to hide behind their conflict avoidance. You said it best, a PIP is most often "the coward's way of saying 'this isn't working out'"
That frustrates me to no end.