Lead Inside the Box by Mike Figliuolo

Author:Mike Figliuolo
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Career Press
Published: 2015-09-27T04:00:00+00:00

Approaches for Leading a Joyrider

The approach to take with Joyriders to get them to produce the results they were hired to deliver is to “Refocus” them. Deliberately or not, Joyriders are masters of avoiding their assigned duties. Make sure the shirking of their responsibilities and their involvement in “extracurricular activities” ends.

Assess why your Joyrider isn’t focused on the right things. Perhaps he lacks the knowledge or skills he needs and he’s hiding those gaps through distraction. Compare his job description to his résumé. See if there are gaps between the role’s requirements and the Joyrider’s skills. Ask him if he needs training or coaching to fill skill gaps he might have.

More likely, the problem isn’t that the Joyrider is unable to perform his duties but that he doesn’t want to perform them. His responsibilities are less interesting than the “special projects” he enjoys. Some Joyriders are great at crafting their dream jobs that pay them to do what they want to do, not what you need them to do. When you identify this dynamic, put boundaries around their work and eliminate self-initiated distractions.

When a Joyrider creates a self-directed work environment, be systematic in dismantling it. The reason you’re facing this situation is because the Joyrider didn’t have structure. She was able to run amok due to a lack of supervision. Create structure and eliminate the possibility of pursuing distractions to correct her behavior. Start with her job description and core responsibilities. Review those with the Joyrider to ensure you have a common understanding of what she’s expected to deliver.

Have her inventory where she spends her time and map her time allocations to her expected results. If she’s said something is her top priority but she’s spending little time on it, have her explain the logic behind that mismatch. There might be an acceptable reason for the inconsistency—maybe the project is winding down so she’s spending her time on her next big project. More often than not, however, there’s not a good explanation. This insight should focus the Joyrider’s efforts where they will deliver the results you expect.

For activities Joyriders say are focused on their core responsibilities, get a clear explanation of what the Joyrider does versus what others in similar roles do. Discreetly validate the Joyrider’s view of all the work he does. Ask his colleagues and key stakeholders if the activities the Joyrider is claiming he’s performing are actually getting done. Assess how his actual workload compares to that of his peers. Keep the Joyrider’s workload equal to the workload of your other team members. For the Joyrider’s extracurricular activities that aren’t mapped to their responsibilities, make him justify those activities. Have him explain the benefits of those activities and who the “customer” is. Have him cease work on ones he can’t make a compelling case for. Even for activities that have merit, have him cease work on those too. Explore reassigning those tasks to someone else to see if others value them. If nobody else is excited about

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