How to deliver a performance improvement plan

When I ask aspiring engineering managers how they feel about delivering a bad performance review to a future report, the answers I typically get are variations of, 'Yes, it is a necessary thing, and I have no problem doing it', 'Yeah, it will be tough, but I will figure it out' etc.

Most managers severely underestimate how mentally exhausting delivering a poor performance review will be. 

Most people attach the measure of their self-worth to how their company views them, which is sad, but that's the reality. A bad performance review directly affects their sense of self-worth; unsurprisingly, their reaction will be very negative. Imagine telling a child that they suck at <insert_favorite_sport_or_subject>. How do you think they will react? Now imagine telling this to a grown-up who typically has a smaller support system than most children do. Children respond to this with sadness and look for comfort from adults. Adults usually react to events like this with panic and anger and will want to lash out at the person delivering the message. There is no way to ultimately make this event an unemotional event, but there are a few things that you, as their manager, can do to reduce the emotional drain on both parties.

The common advice given to managers is to build emotional intelligence. However, an equally important skill to sharpen is compartmentalization. In your career as a manager, you will be attacked, accused, ridiculed, critiqued, and, in rare cases, flat-out yelled at by various people in various situations as you deliver bad news. To survive as a manager, you must develop your ability to compartmentalize events and feedback. You can’t let it ‘get’ to you. Easy to say, very hard to achieve in practice. I don’t consider myself particularly good at it, but I will get into the details of some techniques in a future post.

Typically the road that leads to the tough conversation goes through two major milestones. The first milestone is the verbal warning, and the second is the official written warning, a.k.a; the notorious performance improvement plan, infamously known as the PIP. So let's walk through this rocky road.

Verbal Warning

Managers rarely can detect performance issues directly because they are not in the day-to-day, or at least they shouldn't be. The best way to get wind of potential performance issues in your team is to stay close to the people who care most about delivering the outcomes your team is driving towards. In most cases, they are the engineers on your team and stakeholders outside your team who are typically product managers. Staying close means regular 1:1s with everyone on your team and every one your team is directly working with. The key question you should ask in those 1:1s is, 'What potential risks or roadblocks can you think of?' Most people won't tell you upfront that person X is not pulling their weight. However, if you continually work to build trust with your team and stakeholders, at some point, somebody will give a gentle hint about somebody not pulling their weight.

Performance issues typically come in two sour flavors, not competent in skills required for the job or not competent in the company's culture. 

If it's a skills issue, the signals to look for are consistently falling behind schedule and needing more than usual help from the team to finish tasks. If you do regular 1:1s with your extended team, you will likely be able to suss this out easily. It is also OK to ask variations of, 'How is person X doing? I noticed they were behind schedule.' If you do this enough (asking everyone about everyone and everything), you will notice patterns emerging. 

The key thing to remember while collecting feedback is never explicitly ‘out’ someone at this stage. When collecting feedback, ask about everyone. Don’t make it look like you are explicitly trying to determine if person X has a performance issue. However, if this person gets past this stage into the next stage, then yes, you have to ask if their performance is getting better explicitly.

If it's a culture fit issue, the signal to look for are not taking feedback well, not being willing to disagree and commit, publicly berating peers or stakeholders, and the strongest signal of all, not showing up. Culture fit issues take longer to manifest themselves, but they are hard to miss when they do. If you are plugged into regular meetings where the team exchanges ideas and statuses, you should be able to suss out who is having a tough time fitting in.

OK, so now you are fairly sure Bob (yeap, I just made up a name) is having performance issues. Before you say anything to him, write down these three things in a document:

1. Where he is falling short (missing deadlines, being a dick, etc.).

2. Who else has noticed this behavior?

3. Things he needs to do to get better.

This document is not for Bob, at least for now. For now, this is more for you to prepare yourself for the first tough conversation and to make sure you have the conviction that there is, in fact, a problem that needs to be dealt with. To put it simply, If most of the people around Bob don't like working with him, you have a problem.

OK, so now you are ready for the first tough conversation. DO NOT schedule a separate meeting for this conversation. All this will do is drive up Bob's anxiety leading up to it and potential background chatter within your team. Instead, use one of your regular 1:1s to have this conversation. Most of my 1:1s are scheduled for either 30 minutes or 45 minutes. I recommend not going beyond 45 minutes for any 1:1. The action starts and ends in the first thirty. 

Once the meeting starts, DO NOT spend the first 15 minutes exchanging pleasantries. Start it along the lines of

"Hey, Bob. I wanted to share some not-so-great feedback about your recent work performance. Now, before we get going, I want you to know that this is not a 'let's fire Bob' conversation. I still firmly believe that you can succeed here long term if you fix some of the issues we are about to discuss now."

You, as a manager, HAVE to convince Bob that you believe in his long-term success in your team. I recommend you say it multiple times during the conversation. You, as a manager, HAVE to believe that Bob can turn it around. Then get into the details of the issue itself. Be as specific as possible. 'You have consistently missed deadlines. For e.g., here, here, and here, 'Your teammates feel they can't give you honest feedback because you become defensive,' 'Your teammates feel they have to help you out more than needed for someone in your role and level,' etc. Invariably Bob will ask about the specifics of who gave the feedback. DO NOT share the specifics of who gave the feedback. Most of the time, when managers share specifics, conversations veer into whataboutisms that are not productive. 

At this point, one of two things can happen. Either Bob says, 'Oh man, I didn't realize that my performance was slipping. How can I get better? Or he starts becoming defensive and tries to justify his poor performance (usually by blaming others) or by not accepting the feedback completely. 

If the person accepts the feedback, you are golden for now. Let them know what changes you want to see, how you will evaluate the results, and a timeframe around it.

If the person starts to become defensive and blame others, quickly interrupt with something like this,

"Bob, this conversation is about you, not the rest of your team. We can dig into the specifics of each situation in subsequent conversations. Still, I want you to understand that multiple people in your team and outside your team have shared the same feedback about you, and I expect you to work on it and fix it.'

As a manager, there is a natural power imbalance between you and your employees, and 99.9% of the time, you shouldn't lean into that imbalance, but in situations like these, it is completely appropriate to lean into that and make it clear to the employee what they need to fix if they hope to continue working in your team.

In some cases, there will be situations where a person might be culturally a great fit but not a great fit from a skills standpoint (for, e.g., backend dev in a mostly front-end product team), so in those cases, it is OK to explore moving them (and the employee should also be aligned with the move) to a different team. However, if you end up taking that route, I highly recommend a mini-interview with the other team to assess the skills match before officially moving that person. 

There will also be situations when the person is going through a tough patch in life, and their work is taking a hit because of it. In those situations, make it clear to them that you empathize with them. Give them time off, a lighter workload, special mental health support, or anything else you think will help them navigate the situation. However, you do have to put a timeline around it. If you don't, your boss will.

But if they continue to reject your feedback and point blame at everyone else besides themselves, then end the conversation with something like this.

'Clearly, your team and I disagree with your assessment of what is happening. I believe in the team around you, and I can't fire them all to accommodate your needs. Let's stop this conversation now, but think seriously about what you want to do next. Next time we meet, if you still believe that there is nothing you could have done better or differently, then we should start discussing your exit from the company. I also understand that this is an extremely stressful situation for you, and if you want to take some time to reflect on things and have a follow-up conversation, it is totally all right.'

This is the end of the first conversation. After the meeting, recap the conversation in an email and send it to the employee. If the employee has accepted the feedback, then schedule regular syncs to explicitly align about the employee's progress towards their performance goals. 

If the meeting ended with the employee not fully accepting the feedback and the next steps, explicitly call it out in the email and pencil in a date for a follow-up. In the follow-up, if the employee is still not convinced that anything is wrong with their performance, then you need to collectively start figuring out an exit (from the company) date for that employee.

Lastly, document all of this with your HR person. In this phase, the only time you need to include the HR person in your conversation is when/if the employee rejects the feedback and is convinced that they are right and everyone else is wrong. In general, try to keep out HR from the meeting itself primarily because it will increase the anxiety level in the room, but keep them in the loop at all times.

A quick recap of what to keep in mind in this phase

1. Spend time with EVERYONE to suss out performance issues earlier

2. Repurpose a 1:1 meeting to share feedback with the employee

3. Keep the anxiety level low in that meeting

4. Reiterate to the employee that you still believe that they can succeed in your team

5. Lean into your authority when needed (if the employee doesn't want to change)

6. Keep HR out of the meetings, but keep them informed

7. Remember that the situation is definitely salvageable at this phase

8. Time-box all activities

9. DOCUMENT EVERYTHING

Celebrate with a beverage of choice, and let's move on to the next rocky milestone.

Written Warning (Performance Improvement Plan)

After the verbal warning, I recommend monitoring the employee's performance for about 60 days. If you consistently see better performance, you never enter the next phase. The only way to determine if an employee is consistently improving is to collect quantitative and qualitative feedback from everybody in the employee's orbit. Are they hitting all their time commitments? Are they showing up? Are their colleagues sharing positive feedback about them? If most of the answers to those questions are true, congratulate the employee on the performance and remove them from under your microscope. However, if you don't see meaningful improvement in the first 30 days, you must go to the written warning phase. 

As a manager, I typically see 50% of employees who go through the first phase (Verbal Warning) enter the written warning phase, and it becomes progressively worse. Much worse. This is when you should prepare to manage the employee out of the company. Sorry to break it to you, but those are the facts!

So you have decided that Bob is not improving. Set up a meeting to explicitly discuss his performance, and this time you need HR in the room. Before the meeting, document where you expected better performance from him and are not seeing it as evidenced by X (pull requests, teammate feedback, stakeholder feedback etc.). Review your document with HR and send the document to the employee for review before the meeting. Lastly, give yourself enough time to mentally prepare for this meeting, as it will be tough.

Once the meeting kicks off, explain the agenda to the employee. I recommend the agenda to be along the lines of-’Hey Bob. I haven't seen a consistent change in your behavior. The document I sent you has all the details about your inconsistent performance. We can discuss the document's details in this meeting if you have questions. We will also discuss the next steps.'

Most employees who enter this phase do not make it through. This is why I typically give the employee a peaceful and easy way out of the company at this stage. Before I get into the written document, I ask them if they really want to go through with this or if they want to leave the company with severance. In most cases, I offer employees two months of severance pay, including health insurance coverage for those months. If the person is in a leadership role, I typically offer them 3 months of paid severance and 6 months of paid health insurance. Because I am offering severance, HR needs to be in the room to answer any employee questions. Also, whatever you are planning on offering, discuss it with HR before the meeting to make sure you are generally aligned on the size of the severance package.

Note that I only offer this option to employees who are not actively poisoning the well. If the employee is actively causing disruption, you must move quickly and get them out of the company without severance.

90% of employees take the exit package if given the option, and the rest 10% will negotiate the severance terms after the meeting. Be more flexible on the health insurance than the cash component. Your HR partner will likely be able to guide you through this. However, don't be afraid to say, 'Sorry, we can't do anything more than this.' Your goal at this stage is not to save the employee but give them a soft landing outside the company.

As you discuss all this with the employee, make it abundantly clear that this improvement plan reflects not their overall skills or attitude but a mismatch between their skills and personality with the company. Make it clear to them that they will be successful in another company. You will not get this part right on your first attempt, but over time you will.

If the employee doesn't want to take the exit offer, walk them through the document you prepared and the outcomes you are looking for. Also, let them know that if you don't see a dramatic change in the next 30 days, they will have to exit the company without severance. You will have to monitor their output almost daily, document it, and share it regularly with the employee and the HR person. So I recommend clearing your calendar as much as possible for the next 30 days.

If an employee has made it through to this stage, then there is very little hope that things will improve, and you should start preparing for an exit.

A quick recap of what to keep in mind in this phase

1. Most employees don't make it through the process if they have reached this stage.

2. Keep your HR partner in the loop and in all meetings with the employee.

3. Write a concise document that captures the expected outcomes, lack of progress, and supporting evidence from teammates and stakeholders.

4. Set up a meeting with the employee to walk through the document. This time your HR person should be in the room.

5. Offer a severance package (along with health coverage) early on in the meeting and give the employee an easy way out.

6. Be open to negotiating the terms of the severance package.

7. Reiterate to them that everything happening is not an overall reflection of their competency but rather a mismatch between their skills and your company's needs.

8. If the employee still insists on going through with the process, let them know that they have thirty days to show a dramatic behavior change, monitor output daily, and make it clear that if their performance doesn't improve in thirty days, they will have to exit the company without a severance.

9. If the employee has chosen #7, clear your calendar and mentally prepare yourself to document outputs and behaviors daily.

Your goal in this phase is to convince the employee to take the severance, which most people will do without needing a lot of convincing, but fully expect an emotionally draining back and forth with the employee during this phase.

The Exit

This is when everything has failed. Ominous, for sure, but thankfully, this is also the shortest phase of this journey. 

Most employees who get to this phase will not show a sudden unexpected jump in performance. Miracles do happen once in a while, and it hasn’t happened to me even once, and my career is not over yet, so maybe one day it will.

Assuming a miracle hasn’t happened, set up a meeting with the employee on the thirty-day mark with HR in the room. Keep the meeting to thirty minutes and deliver the bad news to the employee straight. Something along the lines of - 

‘Based on your documented performance that I have been sharing with you regularly, I have decided that you are not a good fit for the company, and I have decided to let you go. Your last date will be X, and HR will walk you through the logistics after this conversation. As I shared with you before, just because you are not a good fit for this company doesn’t mean you won’t excel in a different company with a different team. I am also willing to be your reference as you look for future job opportunities.’

Pause briefly for questions and end the meeting. Once the employee officially agrees on an exit date, also work out the details of who will announce the departure to the team. If the employee is an individual contributor, you, as a manager, should make all the announcements. If the employee is in a leadership role, allow them to break the news to their team, but you need to be aligned on what they will share with their team, and if possible, you should be in the room when they make the announcement to their team. 

When individuals on your team ask about what happened, share as little as possible. Say something along the lines of

“Bob and I decided that his skills weren’t a great match for the company, so he has decided to pursue external opportunities.”

The reason behind sharing very little is to give the employee a clean break. It would be best if you weren’t trash-talking the employee in front of anyone because the tech world is small, and there is a distinct possibility that Bob might end up working with some of his ex-teammates in a different company. In that company, Bob might actually be doing well. 

AND that’s it, you are done. At this point, if you feel like a small part of your soul has died in the process, congratulations, you are a normal person. However, If you think the employee deserved everything that happened to them, find a good therapist.

Coaching people through performance issues is hard, but letting people go is harder. Always remember that your employees are real people. They have feelings, families, dreams, and aspirations. So always be kind, fair, helpful, and objective as much as possible.

A quick recap of what to keep in mind in this phase

1. At this stage, the employee’s performance usually won’t change that dramatically 

2. If you have decided to let the employee go, do it in a 30-minute meeting

3. Keep the meeting short and to the point

4. Own the message and the decision

5. Don’t trash talk about the employee in front of the broader team

6. Be kind

Personal Anecdote

It was 2012, and I was working in Back Bay for a publishing company, whose office was in a squat, nondescript tan colored building a few blocks away from the Boston Public Library. I remember it was an unusually warm fall morning in Boston. Looking at the people outside, It felt like most of Back Bay had decided to do an impromptu giant picnic to celebrate the unusually nice weather at that time of the year. It seemed like even the birds had paused their migration south to take in the fall glow. It should have been a perfect day, except it wasn’t, at least for me. My stomach felt like it was full of lead. I was about to give one of my employees a verbal performance warning for the very first time as an engineering manager. I felt like I was the one about to be given a warning.

Since the time I decided to become an engineering manager, I had decided that I was going to do all my 1:1s outside as much as possible. I had decided to break this news to the employee in this 1:1.

Bob (yeap, same Bob, get used to fake names) and I stepped out into the Boston sun and started going down our regular 1:1 route. We typically walked to the Boston Public Library, looped around the Prudential Mall and made our way back to work. We had looped around the Pru, but I still hadn’t mustered the courage to tell Bob the bad news. When we were only a block away from our office building, I finally blurted out the bad news to him in a spectacularly unprofessional manner. I said something along the lines of, ‘Your tech lead told me that you are not showing up to the scrum meetings, so I have decided to put you in a performance improvement plan’. After I said those words, I realized how terrible it was and I just wanted to fold into myself and disappear from existence. 

This was mistake number one. I had skipped the formal verbal warning part and had gone straight to the written warning, which was unfair to Bob. I had given Bob some feedback about his performance, but I never emphasized the seriousness of the issue, because I was too chicken to say the right words. 

Bob stopped dead in his tracks and looked at me with his brows scrunched in confusion and anger. “You are putting me on a performance improvement plan for not showing up to a couple of meetings?”, asked Bob

Mistake number two was not leading with the most important area of improvement. There were a lot more issues with Bob besides not showing up to meetings. I simply hadn’t taken the time to write down all my talking points, and I hadn’t practiced my script. So what I delivered was some of the feedback, but not all, and certainly not the most important one. 

I then backtracked and started talking about the bigger performance issues,  which were all centered around not hitting commitments.

Bob then started pointing blame at others in the team, including his tech lead and neighboring teams. This time I did the right thing and pulled the conversation back to him and his areas of improvement, not the teams.

“Why did you not mention this to me before!!! I want to talk to HR, this doesn’t make any sense to me”, said Bob angrily and stormed away, leaving me looking at the October sky and wondering how I had managed to mangle this conversation this badly.

I walked back slowly to my cube, making sure I didn't accidentally run into Bob, and sat down. I was extremely thankful for the high walls of my cube.