How do you confront subordinates when results are unacceptable?

Difficult people present no problem if we pass them on the street, in the supermarket or in a building lobby. Nevertheless, when we have to work with them difficult people can become major irritants. It seems that some people are just born to be difficult. We have all worked with them and most of us dislike them. Difficult people are easy to recognize--they show up late, leave early, don't turn their work in on time and have an excuse for every failing. Wait, there's more. These difficult people harass you and others, ask too many self-explanatory questions, neglect details, distract you and repeatedly challenge you and others. Even worse, when they interact with customers, vendors and people lower than them on the corporate hierarchy, they can be grouchy, impolite, condescending, uninformed, misleading, inappropriate or simply wrong. Do you know anyone like this? Naturally, no one wants to work with difficult people. When dealing with problematic employees, productivity decreases, frustrations rise, morale goes down and customers and vendors get upset.

How to Handle Them1. Don't ignore the problem. Assuming that the employee provides value to the company and possesses redeeming qualities, there are ways to deal with difficult employees. Most often, managers will simply ignore problematic staffers. Managers who live by this rule hope the problem will just go away; that these people will somehow turn themselves around or stop being troublesome. Ignoring the situation is the wrong solution to what could likely become a progressive problem.2. Intervene as soon as possible. It is important to take action as soon as the negative behavior pattern becomes evident--when left untouched, this problem will only escalate. Occasionally, the difficult employee has no idea that his behavior is a problem or that others react negatively to his actions. This is because most people tend to put up with the annoying behavior and "go along to get along." At the same time, some employees just consider it a "job frustration." Just like some managers, employees want to be liked by colleagues and subordinates and are therefore reluctant to speak up when a problem arises. Ultimately, it is the manager's responsibility to take the appropriate action to correct the problem. Whether the concern exists due to the employee's lack of knowledge of the issue, lack of feedback or projecting the difficulty onto someone else, the manager has the responsibility of addressing and turning around the predicament. The manager needs to gather information from employees to discern the extent of the problem and personally observe the employee interacting with customers or vendors.3. Research the problem personally. Armed with accurate data and examples, the manager needs to then take this person into a conference room or office--away from others--and calmly address the issue. To begin, the manager needs to ask the employee if he is aware of any ongoing issues to determine if the difficult person is aware of the problems. If the employee is "unaware," the manager needs to describe the unacceptable behavior. The employee might interrupt to disagree or deny the existence of any issues. Nevertheless, the manager needs to continue by giving clear examples of the unwanted behavior. The manager also needs to allow the employee to respond to the allegations. If the difficult employee refuses to believe that the allegations exist despite the evidence, the most the manager can hope for is an intellectual acceptance of the possibility that a problem exists.4. Help the problematic employee to get back on track. Once the employee begins to understand that these negative behaviors are real and experienced by others in the organization, the manager or someone from human resources should begin to coach the difficult employee in displaying more acceptable and appropriate behaviors. The employee needs time and practice in "trying on" new, more suitable behaviors. HR and/or the manager need to provide specific feedback to this employee on the success or failure of his efforts in minimizing the negative actions and implementing ones that are more positive.5. If all else fails, termination may be necessary. If the employee continues to deny his inappropriate behavior and refuses to try to improve the situation, the manager needs to place this person on the fast track towards termination. Often this involves recording a series of well-documented verbal and then written feedback about the behavior. Strictly following company protocol, there should be a period for the employee to address the questionable behavior. If this trial period does not result in improved behavior, then the employee needs to be terminated. Most employees will recognize the negative behavior and will at least attempt to turn it around. This is especially true during tough economic times when unemployment is high and finding a new job is difficult. In any case, the manager needs to follow company guidelines in recognizing the unacceptable behavior, providing direct feedback, providing input to try to turn it around and ultimately taking action in a timely manner. Not doing so is a disservice to the problematic employee, other employees and the success of the organization.

If you politely confront they dont feel insulted and will surely work better for improving results you can point it out personally as some people take it very seriously so handling it a nice way always helps as you want to keep a healthy environment in office

Project Manager/Team Leader/Manager  all the main people who are responsible for failure of the project/task.

Firstly, they turn blind eye to the task/project and faced a failure at the end.

Secondly, If they subordinates were informed and motivated for task, then find the reason and take neccessary action as per the company policy. Change or replace the person and if warnings are not effective. Manager must do this once they see the work is not going well.

Finally, managers must track and follow the work on regular basis to avoid failure, if the project failed and did not meet objectives, then Managers must be blame , before subordinates.

first of all you can't really blame subordinates for projects that fail.look inside yourself and blame yourself before thinking of blaming them.

once you understand what went wrong ,stand tall in front of them and explain to them what really happened and why it happened.

as an informed and successfull leader donot make them feel that you donot know what went  wrong or is going wrong.

if you know what went wrong you will gain their respect and their commitment.

always be a leader they depend on and not the other way around.

Try to fully understand why the targets are not met- provide them any necessary resources- ask them to complete the tasks in a specific minimum period and if required; get a bit tough on them as well

By proper directing and use plans as measure to avoide deviations in future

First, I will discuss the issue and how to correct it. If this is a rare incedent, I will encourage him/her to use it a learning experience. If this is a recuring problem, I will discipline the staff member(s) and inform HR to implement their policies.

Depends on the attitude and temperameent of the subordinates. There are those who would respond to even a simple cold shoulder. On the other hand there are those whom a direct scolding, even an official censure would not affect. So choose your option based on what type of subordinate you are deaaling with.

The management should help their employees in focusing on right path. Therefore, management should keep the track of employees' performance and if no improvment is observed then stern actions are the only option.

In this context, the word 'confronting' itself indicates negativity.  In this situation, it is necessary to analyse the following matters:-

Is the project leader / Manager a competent person, who gave proper instructions which is clear to the subordinate who was assigned the job?

Did the Manager follow up on the assignment with him at agreeable time limits?  I don't mean, the Manager should breathe down the subordinate's neck every minute, but was a follow up done at a reasonable time?

Did the Manager ensure that his subordinates had all the resources necessary to perform the job?

Did the Manager give reasonable time limit to handle the task?

Did the Manager gauge the competence of the subordinate who he assigned the task properly?

If all the answers are yes, then it is necessary to analyse the competence of the subordinate, such as his understanding of the assignment, the speed at which he is able to handle a task and whether he is doing the task for the first time (i.e., he has a little knowledge and was doing it only because his manager assigned this job to him even though it was not his area of expertise).

Based on the above reasoning, the Manager can judge whether it is appropriate to confront a subordinate.

Generally, it is better to handle this situation gently than confrontation, unless the problem is very serious and it is actually the subordinates mistake (only if it is part of his duty and expertise).

It is the key responsibilty of a manager to "Get the things done", failure of the subordinates is basically directly linked with the failure of the manager. There can be several conrtollable and uncontrollable factors which should be properly analysed when a manager seeks some definite results. Induction of a right subordinate for a right assignment is mandatory for getting the things done properly and in defined time.

In case of failure a manager needs to analyze the reason of failure by discussing it with the assigned sub-ordinates and should use the Co-ordination approach rather than Confrontation Approach. If Sub-ordinates are not skilled enough to complete the assigned tasks than they should be provided neccessary education and training or should be replaced by the skilled people if compnany is under BMR process.