Leading Companies Online Magazine Archives
The Bad Apple
By Ray Smilor, Beyster Institute Staff
A friend recently sent me an email about a problem he was having. A salesman who had been with him for a number of years had stopped performing. He had become lackadaisical, irritable and difficult to be around. Worse than this, his negative attitude—about his job, his clients and his co-workers—was beginning to infect others in the organization. The salesman had become the proverbial bad apple.
My friend had had several conversations with him to try to find the root of the problem. Was there some personal issue that was bothering him? Had something happened at home? Was there an issue with his health? None of these seemed to apply. He just didn’t care any longer about his work. He had tuned out.
What to do?
My friend was torn. On the one hand, he cared about his employee. On the other hand, he had a business to run. He wanted to help the salesman, but he also needed to keep up the spirits, high performance and motivation of his other employees.
I understood his situation. A few years ago, we hired a person whom we thought would be a productive contributor to our organization. But we were wrong. She seemed dissatisfied with her role, did not interact with team members, and was uncooperative. Others in our organization began to avoid her, and her presence had a detrimental effect on how everyone behaved around the office. Her supervisor and I both talked with her, but we came to recognize that we had clearly made a mistake in our hiring process. Neither she nor we were happy. The good part was that we addressed this after a month in the job. We agreed that this was a mismatch on both our parts, and she left.
So for me, it was important to address a problem with an unhappy employee as soon as possible.
I told my friend that all the other employees in the company already knew that the salesman was not performing his job and that they were wondering what my friend would do about that. My friend’s actions would thus influence the performance of all others in the company.
I suggested to my friend one last effort to work with his disgruntled salesman. My recommendation was to meet again with the salesman, clearly delineate his sales goals and targets, and provide a specific and concrete timeframe in which to achieve those goals and targets. He should tell the salesman that if he does not meet his goals within the timeframe, then he would lose his job. And I urged my friend to put all this in writing.
So one of two things will happen:
Either the salesman will perform to my friend’s requirements, or he will be fired. In either case, my friend has a clear path of action and has put the responsibility for the salesman’s job back where it belongs…on the salesman.
I’ve come to believe that the bad apple does indeed spoil the barrel. The positive chemistry of a team is critical to its success. Ignoring the problem or hoping that things will resolve themselves just doesn’t work.
The only way to avoid spoiling the barrel is to make sure there is no bad apple.
©2008 The Beyster Institute and its authors and their entities. All rights reserved.
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