The challenge called employee

One of the hardest parts of being in an organisation is getting things done from others. Especially in a start-up, where you are most likely racing against time, neither can you, nor should you do everything by yourself. Inevitably, you have to delegate some of your duties. People often complain about their subordinates being inefficient and dumb, and not performing duties as instructed. Something might seem very simple to you and yet your subordinate might get it wrong even after several attempts.

It might be very simple to you because you have talked to a couple of people about it, have had the time to think it over (consciously or sub-consciously) and because you know the reasoning behind particular actions or decisions. But your subordinate might not have had the luxury (or pain!) of living through that. The most important part of this process is 'understanding', which is rooted in 'clear communication'. Make sure that when you are communicating to your subordinates, you are extremely clear about every minute detail.

Do discuss some possibilities and appropriate courses of actions to be taken in those possibilities. The core point here being to make him/her understand the reason behind every action. Every subordinate is a human and even most competent humans can, will and should commit mistakes. Try to be nice, reason it out, make him/her understand what had to be done and why, discuss in detail if required and set him/her on the path again.

In addition to reasoning it out, try to make the subordinate understand the inconvenience and inefficiency s/he is bringing to the organisation. The point is to make him/her feel guilty about his carelessness or mistake. Oh boy! If someone commits the same mistake thrice, 'it's time to talk'. But it is important to remember that no one wants to not perform well.Either the person committing the same mistake thrice is not motivated or interested enough, or he is just not competent enough for that position.

Employee motivation is obviously one of the biggest challenges organisations face but not something that cannot be tackled..The point being that your behaviour and response to your subordinates should be expected and based on a certain standard. To ensure a smooth functioning of the team, one should not let one's emotions handle one's employees.