357 Human-Centered Leadership Skills When the Job Outgrows a Valued Employee

Speaker A: In this episode, you'll get the specific steps to take when an employee you value is no longer getting the job done because the job has changed. Welcome to Leadership without losing your Soul, a podcast helping human centered leaders master communication to accelerate your team's performance, reduce stress, and build a career with the respect and influence you deserve. I'm your host, David Dye, president of let's grow Leaders. Uh, welcome to the show. Today we're exploring what to do when the job has outgrown your employee. With these tools from today's episode, you'll be able to have a conversation that preserves the person's dignity, gives them an opportunity to grow, and you'll build your reputation as a leader who both cares for people and achieves those critical outcomes and results. And this question came up again during a client's recent executive workshop. One of the vice presidents pulled me aside with a question. She said, listen, I've got a team member who's very experienced and, but does most of their job well. But the job is evolving. It's going from a highly technical, responsive role to a more proactive management type role. And honestly, I don't think they're going to be able to grow into the new job requirements. But the thing is, they're a valuable member of our team. There's a lot of other work to do on our team. A lot of what they do is still valuable and needed. But this job that they're in, uh, these are critical requirements now. And it's going to be difficult to transition them to something else without making them feel like they're getting demoted, which, you know, I don't feel like they are, but I understand where somebody would take it that way. Okay, so what do we do with this? The first place you want to begin is that conversation with yourself. This is starting with confident humility. You have to navigate your own emotions. And part of the way to do this is remember that when a job shifts, evolves, changes, and potentially outgrows a person. That potentially is important here. We'll come back to that later. But potentially outgrows a person. You aren't doing this to the employee. Life has happened. Circumstances have changed, okay? That is a normal part of life. And now your role, your job is, is to help your employee and the team navigate that change in a way that helps everyone succeed. They need you to lead here. You're not doing anything to them. Circumstances, life happened. That is the reality of being alive, is things are going to shift and change and we have to respond to those. But to do that in a healthy way, they need your leadership. So navigating your own emotions, starting with confident humility, that's where we're going to begin. Then when you sit down for the conversation, number two is we want to connect. Share that you care. Be sure your team member knows you care about them, their career, and that you want them to be successful now and in the future. It's so important they know that you really value them, which you do, or you wouldn't be thinking through this so carefully. So as in many of our critical conversations like this, you can start with something like, hey, my intent for this conversation is to discuss your role and how it's changed so that you can be successful now in the future. All right, we're going to be real clear about what we're talking about and connecting to them as a human being and that you're on their side, you're trying to support them here. And then the third step, it's time to clarify what success looks like. This is an investment in clarity. So if we started with connection, now we're moving to clarity, going around those four dimensions of high performing teams and productive collaboration. So we started with connection, now it's time for clarity. And then we get some curiosity and move to commitment. So with clarity, change often happens incrementally and it's hard to see from moment to moment. This is why it's super important to ditch any of the diaper drama, diaper genie stuff. Have that honest conversation. You don't want to shrink wrap this. Want to be avoidant, you don't want to play it safe. You've got to have an honest conversation about how things are changing and why. Write that new job description based on the evolved role. Be clear and specific that the old role, as it existed, no longer does and that this is the new role. This is what the new position requires. Be upfront that the evolved position requires different competencies and behaviors from the previous role. Talking about them in terms of the new versus the old also helps to clarify options going forward. You're not making any judgments here. Okay. They may or may not have the skills. They may or may not have the desire to do the new role. None of that matters right now. First step after we've connected is to get super clear about what was and what is. So this is what was, this is what is, and that specifically, like in the case of the question that this vice president asked, there are really specific skills that are critical to success in this job. So we introduce the clarity. Now, step four, we're going to get curious. We move to curiosity by inviting their perspective. You don't want to assume the other person's response. They may surprise you. Someone who looks like they could succeed in the new role may not want to go there. And an employee who you suspect couldn't do the new role may be really interested and self aware enough to acknowledge where they need to grow and willing to do that work. So if they're interested in the evolved role and you still have concerns about their ability to succeed, you can share those. Especially if you've got specific observations that you've noticed and maybe you've spoken with them about it before. You know, so listen, I'm hearing that you want to do this and that is great. And you know, we have previously discussed some of these challenges in having those conversations or in getting this technical, uh, data correct or whatever the concerns have been. How do you see yourself succeeding in those? Because we'll need to get that where it needs to be really quickly. Reinforce what it will take to succeed. Ask them if that's what they want to do. Now, once you've had that conversation up to this point, you've connected to the person, to your intent for the conversation, you've introduced the clarity that they need about the new role versus the old rule, what it requires. You've gotten curious for their perspective. What do they want given this new reality? Now it's time to move to commitment. And this is step five. We're going to prepare a plan. Recognize the growth and change are happening to your employee, to you and the rest of the team. How will you help the employee transition either to their new role or to a different one. And there are many different options here in terms of what that transition looks like. The employee may want to try the new role. So if so, create a clear plan with the time frames and the skills they need to master, the behaviors they need to show, be specific about what support they can expect, what they shouldn't expect, and with those time frames so that you've got that all spelled out really clearly, the performance is there or it isn't by certain time, the benchmarks that need to be met, all of that sort of thing. And so that gives you the framework you need. And if it isn't happening, then you can make the changes you need to make. And they were a party to that plan. If they aren't interested in the new role, how will you help them move to a role that's better suited for them? If they need to move to a different role, they'll likely have concerns about the future if it feels like moving backwards. So you want to consider asking about areas that they want to develop and build a plan for their continued growth. Is there an ability to put some challenging work into the new role that really leverages their strengths? And of course, sometimes a person may even choose to leave the organization rather than, uh, continue into the new role or move somewhere else. Sometimes it's just uncomfortable and people don't want to do that, and that of course is their choice. But whatever plan you create, be sure to implement and follow through. Finishing strong is vital to help your employee feel confident, and making that a celebration for them of who they are and working in alignment with those things is critical. Growth can challenge you as a leader, it can challenge your teams, and it certainly can challenge employee uh, when their role has evolved and changed beyond their current skills. And that gives you an excellent opportunity to help your team members continue to grow and expand your capacity as well. When the job outgrows the employee, stay grounded in your concern for doing what's important for the team and your concern for the employee. Let both of those shine through and you'll do well. And if you want to equip the leaders in your organization with human centered leadership tools to stay focused on what matters most, collaborate better together and achieve breakthrough results, give me a shout@david dyedyt'sgrowleaders.com and let's see what would make sense for you. And if you enjoyed this episode, make sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of these practical communication skills to to help you accelerate your team's performance, reduce stress, and build a career with the respect and influence you deserve. Thanks as always to our producer and sound engineer, Brooke Bradford at Sheep and Space Digital Business Services and Laura at Bruck Marketing for their work on this episode. Until next time, I'm your host, David Dye, reminding you when the job has outgrown the employee. They need you to lead. They need you to be the leader you'd want your boss to be.