How to Handle Poor Performers

Overview

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This course gives you a practical, step-by-step framework for identifying and addressing poor performance before it damages your team. You'll learn how to assess employee potential, understand the environmental and cultural factors behind underperformance, and take decisive action using the Three T's: train, transfer, or terminate. From recognizing early warning signs to engaging disengaged employees, the course covers how to protect team morale while holding individuals accountable. You'll also gain the skills to build performance improvement plans, navigate difficult conversations, and — when necessary — handle terminations legally and with compassion. Using these approaches, you'll be equipped to make confident, fair decisions that strengthen your team and your credibility as a leader. If you're managing a struggling employee right now, this course gives you the tools to act. If you haven't faced this challenge yet, it prepares you for when you do. Whatever stage you're at as a manager, this course will help you build one of the most critical — and often avoided — skills in leadership.

Syllabus

Understanding Performance

Poor performance doesn't manage itself — and the longer it goes unaddressed, the more damage it does. In this module, you'll gain a clear sense of what this course will cover and why taking swift, confident action on poor performance is one of the most important things you can do as a manager.

All Workers Are Not Created Equal

Not every employee contributes equally — and as a manager, it's your job to know the difference. In this module, you'll build the skills to assess whether your team members are creating genuine value for the organization and develop an honest, objective picture of where your team stands so you can coach with clarity and confidence.

Understanding Your Team

A team's output is shaped by far more than skills and effort — it's driven by how engaged, valued, and connected your people feel every day. In this module, you'll identify the three levels of employee engagement, apply targeted strategies to boost morale across your team, and use the six cultural principles from the OC Tanner Institute to build an environment where high performance can take root and thrive.

Taking Action

When coaching and patience have reached their limit, the real work of management begins. In this module, you'll apply the Three T's framework to decide the right path forward for any poor performer, build the skills to have difficult conversations with confidence, and learn how to create a Performance Improvement Plan, navigate a termination with compassion and legal care, and lead your team through the aftermath with clarity and grace.

Conclusion

You've reached the end of the course — but not the end of the work. In this module, you'll consolidate what you've learned, revisit the course's central ideas, and leave with a clear sense of the resources and mindset you'll need to keep growing as a manager.