Houston, we have a problem

[HunterD]

This scenario familiar to you?

We have this guy at our company, greatest and nicest guy you could hope to meet. Always a smile on his face, polite, would do anything for you. The only problem is he is a knucklehead to manage/coach. I've really been torn with what to do because of the "nice guy" side to him but he's really costing us a lot of blown budget money...constantly.

I know he's had a tough time recently on the family side as well which makes it all the more tough to demote or axe him completely (yes, it has gotten that bad).

Anyone else had to deal with a similar situation?

[MarkB]

What exactly is he being a knucklehead about? Is it that he's not meeting deadlines, or is producing sloppy work?

Or is he just being generally flakey?

It's an interesting scenario; I've found that putting a fire under them can often wake people up if they seem to be slipping. It's the one who start falling back again that need to be cut loose!

We have one staff member who, while not necessarily an important member of the team (as in doing mission-critical work that nobody else could do), is a genuinely good worker for the most part, but was slipping for a while. It was obvious his mind wasn't on the job 100% and needed someone to provide guidance. We all have our times of perhaps having our thoughts elsewhere. Anyway, we had a good sit down with him and explained to him he needed to get straightened out, and he's back to his old form now.

[Deepak.Alambara]

If he's a knucklehead it means he doesn't fit the role he is playing
Fit him into a role that he enjoys doing or shows aptitude in...if he's such a nice guy..maybe he can do a good job answering phones and taking messages for you...or a light customer service role...there must be something that he can do...

Maybe you should ask him what he enjoys doing the most...

And if you don't have that kind of job available, do him and yourself a favor, point him in the right direction, let him go with a good reference about his cherful attitude.

Thanks
Deepak