What to do If you have a smart resource , but is productive only under pressure?

Folks!

It is very hard to judge that resource is lazy. To me all resources are good. It all depends on, what is our leadership style. If we are leader by example, we can motivate our resources. I believe on "Collective Intelligence" this way we can give option to all resources for contribution as per their interest & knowledge. Once they understand that they are contributors and will be rewarded accordingly….will be top producers.

On other hand we have to get all of our resources involved with ownership in project.

Thanks

Motivate him.  Replacing might be unjust. Find out how you can trigger his smart mind to do work without a whip.

Replacing is the last option.

In modern day's job nature never allows sit idle. Standard job objectives are very stressed. Means, acheving100% on given job objectives should keep ones busy daily8 hours. We have to fix our mindset first, what we expect from our reportee? Accordingly we have to set job objectives for every individuals of our team. Even after all these one could be free more and sit idle. That means, either our objective setting was not proper or he/she is smarter than average end users. In such situation, we may have to readjust his/her job objectives in mid year or assign him/her additional complex job responsibility for next12 months. If he is found convenient with additional complex job responsibility, he/she deserves promotion following year. But if he/she is found not interested to take additional complex job responsibility, we have to assign or delicate more and more repetitive tasks by revising his/her job objectives. Finally, We have to Change him/her, if he/she is not willing to accept the revise job objectives of repetitive jobs.

Basm Allah Alrahman Alrahim

 

That can't Be True , If he is a productive under pressure so he is talent , I know Some one Thay made him under pressure for5 years and he didnt give any thing and when thay leave him alone for6 months he give all his talent , some times when get in troubles you became talant but not under bosses pressure may be under work pressure when some one give you a problem and tell you that it is dangers problem and you must handel it , you may feel responsible so when you give some good person the feeling of responsablity he will give you a lot of production but when you give him nothing he give you nothing and when you treat him bad he give you bad ( if he can and if he cant he will wait for the right time ) , so give this person something to make him work  

Just yesterday, I shared my opinion about the skill issue and will issue. This question can relate to this. I agree with Mr.Amer. Replacing him is not the best resolution.  As a manager, you may have issues as well in  handling this of type of workers. Since from the start you know this person smart and gets the job done even under pressure. You need to be strategic in assigning the task by categorising urgent and important things. From there, adjust your self according to his accomplishments.

Who knows, maybe you might be appreciated in return because he feels involvely valuable to your team.

1) You should retain the employee.

2) Give him additional responsibilities (job enrichment) through maybe team management responsibilities.

3) Change his role and shift him to another department where he can be utilized better, as he might be stuck in the same position and same job for a number of years and might have lost interest / motivation. Job enlargement always motivates and brings back energy in an employee.

4) Give him training and Organizational development . Professional training courses usually bring back spark in employees.

5) Give periodic encouragement for his achievements and highlight them to team members and involve him in decision making at higher management levels.

This style is a perfect style can make a difficult mission. In any organization we need this style of resources to do the hard and difficult  missions. 

Do not let him go. But put him in good position that let him help you in a difficult mission. 

Am currentlty in operations, and on the factory floor am aware of a smart resource that needs 'pushing' but as much as I may find that approach appropriate at times it falls short when am not around. The approach that favours productivity, even when am not around, has been 'involvement' and 'acknowledgement' and setting of deliverables within a specified period. 

 

Set deliverables, attainable and agreed by the smart resource, becomes the measure of performance and usually the resource and failure are not good friends. It is from there you can know what action to take. You could even find out that there is a level of competence that maybe lacking and hence the slack in the performance. That can be solved by offering tips/hints or may simply need to boost self confidence and ensure that it is not some fear of failure and not necessary formal training - afterall this is a smart resource. I have found involving the resourse in some decision making process from time to time to be a motivating factor. The realisation that one of a senior position involves one of junior ranking creates a sense of importance and he/she will feel your appreciation of their skills and knowledge - they tend be always striving to avoid failing you and show initiative where necessary so as to deliver on time.

 

Sometimes instilling in your worksforce, especially a smart resource, the notion that you believe in them can go a long way more than 'pushing' as it may be read as though your conclusion is that without the 'push' they will not deliver. This creates a trend where your absence is always felt because he/she thinks that is what you not only expect but have come to accept.

A simple recognition may motivate him to be more productive in "non" stressful time (if any, lol). There are plenty of online gamified recognition systems out there to improve productivity & team playing. A kanban, also can do magic. A board on which all this employee's colleagues & his manager share what there is in their plan & what they are doing & what they have done, can definitely improve the sense of productivity of this employee.

In such cases you have to identify his backup and make sure there is no dependancies in your project. All roles should have Primary and Backup resource assigned. Complete documentation is needed. Provide technical trainings to all your resources and try to fill out the knowledge gaps.

All resources are important to run the show so I am agaist Option #1. You can give senior resource to write technical documents and validate all the work performed by juniors.

This laziness is due to attitude of the employee since he is good in pressure you can direct his energies through planned and objective oriented work so he always get a clear duration to complete the task.