Deal with 'Poor Performers' A.S.A.P

In a Cause-and-effect Universe, there is no such thing as an employee performing poorly without others paying for it. Poor performers reduce the morale of better performers, who either drop back their own performance and/or leave. Poor performance grows like a cancer and needs excising ASAP. The reason managers avoid dealing with this issue is because their fear of confronting the situation is greater than the problem. What about the fear of losing business and star employees? Fears of challenging others blind managers from thinking about what will happen if they don't prevent things sliding further downhill. I challenge you to challenge your fears on this subject and open your eyes to the actions you need to take to get people back on track.
On the positive side, let’s look at the benefits of dealing with the poor performer:-
1 – The ‘poor performer’ improves or they make way for somebody else that is willing to perform at the required level.
2- You get increased respect of your leadership coming from all 360 degrees of your work environment.
3- The rest of the team lifts their performance, knowing that the standards are real.
4- Your own confidence grows because you have broken through a fear, making it easier to do next time. This also has a kick-on effect for challenging your other fears.
5- You become a role model for your direct reports to follow suit with their poorly performing staff.
If the ‘poor performer’ leaves, don’t worry about covering the gap because the team will pull together to keep things moving, knowing the future will be brighter with a new person pulling their weight.