Have you ever had a leader whose actions have negatively impacted the performance and well-being of your team?

If a leader isn’t managing a team well or causing problems, then it’s time to make a performance improvement plan (PIP) for that leader.

A performance improvement plan is typically used by Talent and HR teams to focus on improving traditional performance metrics (like sales, calls per hour, idle time, etc.) or for attendance issues.

However, with the ongoing pandemic and all the challenges we’ve had in the past two years, the performance improvement plan that we need right now to address leadership issues should be focused on people & communication skills to improve the overall employee experience.

Our employees are clamoring for a much needed change. They are constantly burned out, ignored or bored at work—an easy recipe for a high turnover. If we want to prevent voluntary turnover, we must provide training to our leaders that will help them improve their communication, interpersonal, and coaching skills.

So what should a leadership performance improvement plan consist of?

Here are five elements to add to your leadership performance improvement plans:

Inspiration
Motivation
Support
Balance
Consistency

In the rest of this article, we’ll break down each element and signs that your leader(s) need to improve their performance in each area. Don’t miss the end of this article where we’ll share how to support leaders as they improve in these key areas.

Inspiration

Do your leaders know how to inspire their teams?

Inspiration comes in many forms -- a fun atmosphere, fostering the creativity of their team members, involving their team in brainstorming sessions, genuinely listening to the ideas of others, providing their teams the chance to do exciting work.

The signs that your leaders need to improve in this area include:

Leaders who are too directive or prescriptive to their teams.
The same people on their teams complete different tasks day in and out.
The leader has too few “go to” people that get assigned to special projects.
The leader is only focused on driving high productivity through pushing, rushing, or forcing unreasonable deadlines.

Motivation

You might think this is the same as inspiration. They are linked, but not the same.

We are each motivated by different things -- money, recognition, prizes, words of affirmation, to name a few.

Leaders who excel in this area are able to identify the different ways each of their team members are motivated. Then they are able to coach and work with each team member to get out of moments where they are stuck and de-motivated to get them re-engaged in their work.

Let’s look at signs a leader needs to improve in this area:

Leaders who operate at a distance from their teams -- they are separated -- are unable to step in and motivate their team members when needed.
These leaders also expect unreasonable deadlines and use threats, yelling, or other forcing type behaviors in an attempt to drive performance in their teams.
Leaders need to improve when they see only one path to complete an activity or hit a goal.
Leaders who excel in this area are able to create diverse pathways to success for their team to hit that same goal.

Support

Support is basically the glue that holds an entire relationship together.

Support can take all shapes from supporting someone’s identity and uniqueness (inclusion & respect for diversity) to backing that person’s ideas (or failures) to other leaders in the organization.

Leaders excel in supporting their teams when they make time to meet with, get to know, and be present for their team members. They are involved in training, teaching their team members, offering coaching opportunities, nurturing the strengths of their team, and looking for solutions to their teams’ issues.

Supportive leaders create spaces and connections that are authentic and allow their teams to share vulnerably and also take chances.

Team members with supportive leaders feel safe, included, and cared for.

This is the most important trait for a leader to develop.

Leaders who struggle in this area:

Lack respect for their team’s uniqueness or the challenges they face at work, home, and in the world.
Leaders showcase their lack of support when they micromanage, or are too direct by leaving no room for ideas or creativity.
Unsupportive leaders frequently complain about their teams, cancel 1:1s or team meetings, and showcase a lack of caring for their teams’ needs, emotions, and concerns.

Balance

Deep in the meaning of the practice of wellbeing at work is the concept of balance.

Leaders are the ones who directly influence an employee’s perception of balance at work.

Leaders excel in this area when they craft clear expectations for their team, encourage breaks and time off, give an afternoon or day off when noticing someone has worked overtime, encourage time for families, and set boundaries for preserving a life outside of work.

Signs that leaders struggle in this area:

Leaders who perpetuate a “work comes first” mentality schedule all day meetings
Schedule last minute meetings (with no deference to people’s personal needs)
Send messages at all hours of the day
Place an over emphasis on one geographic area or time zone despite having team members across multiple areas.

Consistency

Leaders can also excel in certain kinds of support, inspiration, motivation, and balance, while still creating toxic relationships with their team members.

The leader who has double standards might in one moment provide someone with glowing support and encouragement. Then in a separate moment, that same leader can yell, push intensely, and even degrade the work their team members create.

A constant cycle of caring support and degrading feedback breeds a level of uncertainty and fear in their team members.

I know because I had this exact relationship with one of my last managers.

The toxicity and emotional abuse that came from the constant cycling left me always bracing for the worst, being deceived by the good moments into letting my guard down, and then another emotional landslide was right around the corner.

When employees feel this sense of inconsistency in their leader’s behavior, other members of the organization might gaslight that employee and convince them it’s a made up problem, or make excuses for the leader's negative behaviors.

Support for Leaders to Improve Performance

Now you know what good looks like and what behaviors should trigger a leadership performance plan. Let’s talk about steps to support a leader in making these improvements.

1. Feedback

We do not give enough feedback to our leaders.

There’s a heavy focus on annual reviews, but to really improve in these skills, a leader needs coaching and more intensive feedback.

The leader needs examples of both kinds of behaviors -- good and bad -- while also getting specific feedback about their typical go-to behaviors.

2. Awareness & Acceptance

We reject feedback that threatens us.

When a leader gets feedback that they are creating toxic behaviors or their teams leave because of them, they are most likely to resist.

Leaders can also feel their job and livelihood is threatened. They try to resist, won’t show up to meetings, and might justify all of their actions that were called out in the feedback.

The biggest blocker to their overall performance is helping them gain awareness of their true impact and get to a place of accepting that they need to change.

3. Coaching to Change Behavior

Once a leader has awareness of their behaviors and accepts that they have work to do, then they are ready for consistent coaching to change their behavior.

This is the area that organizations consistently fail their leaders.

Make Leadership Coaching a priority for your organization. Set aside a budget. Hire a coach, or multiple, to come in and provide the support needed for your team.