Andrea Escobar, Co-founder & Director, Fundación Soydoy

Underperformance is a super sensitive and complex issue.

My vision and my way of leading is quite human and understanding of the person.

Starting from there, how do we realize that there is underperformance? I feel the organic and natural way of the [work] culture, if a person is poorly performing, the first switch that to turns on is their direct colleaguepartner. It's like that same area pushing the person, and kind of understanding.

But the nice thing that happens is that there's no searching out of the person for their underperformance, but "what is happening to you and how are you doing?"

And usually what we find is that there is something going on with the person in their personal life, and to understand how I can accompany the person so that they can overcome what they are going through.

So, the question I ask myself is: How would I like to be treated if that were to happen to me, if I were in an organization?

Accompanying the person, I feel, is always the best decision.

David Salas, Founder and President, Disruptia

There is something very important here, and that is that normally being in a social enterprise or in the social sector, it is expected that, or there's a perception that not everything has to be so rigorous, and that we tread carefully with one another, like everything should be love, everything should be affection.

But real life is not like that. To really have a social transformation requires much more than getting along with one another. And it takes a lot of pushing and hugging at the same time.

What would poor performance look like? 

In our particular case, we are very attentive of each member of the team, thinking about how each is meeting their objectives. We have a general weekly meeting where we cover what those indicators are that we are going to accomplish during the week, how we are going to accomplish them, and we have a lot of information in common. This allows us to know where everyone is going.

However, not everyone goes at the same speed. So, what we have been looking for is to have goals that go at the speed of each one, but that they are very constant and they keep growing, with great rigor.

Although, there are moments where not everything works well. And that is the reality. And tough decisions have to be made. After doing all this, pedagogical, accompaniment, daily follow-up, there are people who definitely, suddenly, do not belong to this institutional culture we have, particularly with Disruptia, because we have the intention to change the world in an honest way and that requires a lot of effort. They have a hard time with our culture.

And that's where we have to say, unfortunately, I think this is not your place. You could function in another place much better, and we look for that other place for that person.

But we do believe that decisions have to be made and that is part of my role as well, where I have to decide who stays, and sometimes, and who does not.

Key takeaways 

• Poor performance is a sensitive and complex issue. Accompany with empathy by exploring the roots of the problem. Offer personalized support to guide people toward growth and success.

• Set goals aligned with each person's speed, using metrics to monitor progress. Make a decision when cultural fit remains a problem despite support, and offer a constructive exit plan.