Managing Poor Performance - Brisbane

Managing Poor Performance - Brisbane

You know the drill. There's that one team member who's just not cutting it, and every time you think about having "the conversation," you find yourself putting it off until tomorrow. Again. Meanwhile, the rest of your team is getting frustrated, deadlines are slipping, and you're spending more time fixing problems than preventing them.

Here's the thing - most managers avoid dealing with poor performance not because they don't care, but because they've never been shown how to do it properly. You end up either being too harsh and creating a defensive employee, or too soft and nothing actually changes. Sound familiar?

This isn't about becoming the office villain or learning to fire people faster. It's about having real conversations that actually improve things. We'll walk through the messy reality of what poor performance looks like in your workplace - from the chronic procrastinator to the person who argues with every piece of feedback. You'll learn how to spot the difference between someone who can't do the job and someone who won't, and more importantly, what to do about each situation.

What You'll Learn

You'll figure out how to have those difficult conversations without your palms sweating or your voice shaking. We'll cover how to document everything properly so you're covered legally, but also how to focus on the human side of things. You'll practice giving feedback that actually sticks and creating improvement plans that people can follow. We'll also tackle the tricky stuff like dealing with excuses, managing your own emotions when someone gets defensive, and knowing when you've done everything you can.

The real game-changer is learning how to spot performance issues before they become major problems. You'll walk away knowing how to set clear expectations from day one, how to have regular check-ins that don't feel like interrogations, and how to create an environment where people want to improve rather than just survive.

You'll also discover how to protect your high performers from being dragged down by poor performers, and how to rebuild team morale after you've addressed problem areas. Plus, we'll cover the legal basics you need to know and how to work with HR when things get complicated.

The Bottom Line

After this session, you'll stop dreading those performance conversations and start seeing them as opportunities to help your team succeed. You'll have a clear process to follow, the confidence to address issues early, and the skills to support improvement rather than just point out problems. Most importantly, you'll sleep better knowing you're being fair to everyone on your team - including the difficult conversations that come with leadership.

Your team will respect you more for addressing issues head-on, and you'll finally feel like you're actually managing instead of just hoping problems will fix themselves. Because let's be honest, they never do.

When poor performance becomes a pattern, having the right strategies for dealing with difficult behaviours makes all the difference between a situation that improves and one that drags everyone down.