Bad Employees

Incl. Bonus – Motivation dismissal & new start for underperformers, efficient communication in human resource & job interview, solve problems & use crises as a chance for change

Simone Janson

• Publisher: Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®
• Year: 2025
• eBook ISBN: 9783965963177
• Edition: 7
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Corporate Finance
• Index: Business

Also in the 7th revised and improved edition, published by a government-funded publisher involved in EU programs and a partner of the Federal Ministry of Education, you receive the concentrated expertise of renowned experts (overview in the book preview), embedded in an integrated knowledge system with premium content and 75% advantage. At the same time, you do good and support sustainable projects.

Because every manager and every HR manager knows the problem: weak employees who simply do not bring the necessary performance, who lack motivation or who are simply not up to the tasks. Such a situation is never easy and raises various questions: How can you recognize such employees, if possible, as early as the application or interview stage, and how can you deal with them? How do you conduct a good appraisal interview? How do you manage to motivate the so-called underperformers after all? How do you set achievable target agreements? How can you terminate an employee's contract as smoothly as possible? What do you do when your employee suddenly flips out? And how do you ask the right questions during a job interview in order to recognize such applicants right away? This book shows you how to overcome the challenges.

With its integrated knowledge system and "Info on Demand" concept, the publisher not only participated in an EU-funded program but was also awarded the Global Business Award as Publisher of the Year. Therefore, by purchasing this book, you are also doing good: The publisher is financially and personally involved in socially relevant projects such as tree planting campaigns, the establishment of scholarships, sustainable innovations, and many other ideas.

The goal of providing you with the best possible content on topics such as career, finance, management, recruiting, or psychology goes far beyond the static nature of traditional books: The interactive book not only imparts expert knowledge but also allows you to ask individual questions and receive personal advice.

In doing so, expertise and technical innovation go hand in hand, as we take the responsibility of delivering well-researched and reliable content, as well as the trust you place in us, very seriously. Therefore, all texts are written by experts in their field. Only for better accessibility of information do we rely on AI-supported data analysis, which assists you in your search for knowledge.

You also gain extensive premium services: Each book includes detailed explanations and examples, making it easier for you to successfully use the consultation services, freeky available only to book buyers. Additionally, you can download e-courses, work with workbooks, or engage with an active community. This way, you gain valuable resources that enhance your knowledge, stimulate creativity, and make your personal and professional goals achievable and successes tangible.

That's why, as part of the reader community, you have the unique opportunity to make your journey to personal success even more unforgettable with travel deals of up to 75% off. Because we know that true success is not just a matter of the mind, but is primarily the result of personal impressions and experiences.

Publisher and editor Simone Janson is also a bestselling author and one of the 10 most important German bloggers according to the Blogger Relevance Index. Additionally, she has been a columnist and author for renowned media such as WELT, Wirtschaftswoche, and ZEIT - you can learn more about her on Wikipedia.

Bad managers, good leaders: With personality and empathy
// By Simon O. Sinek

Successful companies are often led and rarely managed by great leaders. There are reasons for that.

Won the battle but lost the war

On the morning of January 30, 1968, North Vietnam launched a surprise offensive against the Americans and their allied forces. Over the next 24 hours, over 85.000 North Vietnamese soldiers and Viet Cong units attacked over 125 targets across the country. The American troops were completely unprepared. Some of the commanding officers were not even in their posts when the attack began. They celebrated Tết in the nearest town. The so-called Tết offensive took its course. Tết marks the beginning of the Lunar New Year and is as important a holiday for the Vietnamese as Christmas is in the Western Hemisphere. And like the Christmas peace in World War I, there was a decade-old tradition in Vietnam that there was no fighting on that day. But seeing an opportunity to take the American forces by surprise and end the war quickly, the North Vietnamese leadership decided to break with tradition and plan their surprise offensive.

The amazing thing about it: The United States was able to repel every single attack. Each. What's more, they noticeably decimated the attackers. By the time the biggest onslaught was over - about a week after the first attack - America had not even lost 1000 soldiers. North Vietnam, on the other hand, had more than 35.000 dead. In the city of Huế, where the fighting dragged on for almost a month, 150 American Marines died, but an estimated 5.000 North Vietnamese. An in-depth analysis of the entire Vietnam War paints a remarkable picture. In fact, the Americans won the vast majority of the battles. 58.000 Americans fell over the decade that US forces fought in the Vietnam War. North Vietnam, on the other hand, lost over three million people. Transferred to America in 1968, that would have resulted in 27 million deaths. The question arises: How can it be that a country decides almost every battle for itself, decimates the enemy and still loses the war?

Why are managers so popular?

I don't know of a single case in which an organization was led out of a crisis by its management. Without exception, all of them were rescued by leaders. Even so, a large part of our training facilities and courses are still focused on training effective managers instead of developing people into leaders. Short term gains are the measure of success, long term growth and viability of an organization fall by the wayside.

This is not meant to be some new theory about proper leadership and its rationale. My goal goes far beyond that. I want to make the world better. I have a clear vision: to bring up a new generation of women and men who understand that the success or failure of an organization depends on great leaders, not good managers.

Employees come first

Executive staff must have absolute priority. In armed forces like the US Marine Corps, there is a strong organizational culture, shared values, and a clear understanding of the importance of teamwork, mutual trust, and focus on one goal; Most importantly, the armed forces understand that people and human relationships are essential to the success of the mission. You have also taken on a task where failure can lead to disaster. The failure of the mission is unthinkable. There can be no doubt, it is people who make our military successful.

As you watch Marines gather food together, you will find that candidate officers are served first, and senior officers last. As you follow this ritual you will also see that no orders are given. Marines just do it that way. And this behavior shows us what leadership means in the Marine Corps. Marines officers are expected to eat last, because the price of leadership is a willingness to subordinate one's needs to the needs of others. Great leaders have a sincere interest in the well-being of those they are allowed to lead and recognize that the price for the privilege of leadership is to put one's interests aside.

Managers need to know the purpose

An organization is only successful if its leaders understand the real purpose of the organization - "the why". This realization is important to understand the phenomenon that some organizations are more successful than others. But what exactly does lead mean? It is not enough to know "the why"; You need to know the people in your organization and realize that they are more than expandable resources. Professional skills alone do not make a leader; good leaders need to have a real interest in the people who are entrusted to them.

Good management is clearly not enough to secure an organization in the long term. Because there are well-founded reasons why some organizations are successful in the short term, but ultimately fail: The management has not managed to create a corporate climate in which the human factor really counts. As Simon points out, organizations are long-term successful in both good and bad times when their people share values ​​and are valued.

Protection from above

A thick layer of cloud shielded any light source. There was no moon or stars to be seen. Everything was black. The unit worked its way slowly down the valley, the rocky ground making it impossible to move faster than a snail's pace. What was worse, they knew they were being watched. Everyone was nervous. It was not a year since the September 11th terrorist attacks. The Taliban government was only recently overthrown after a massive attack by US forces following the Taliban's refusal to extradite the leader of al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden. At that time, many commando operations were carried out in the combat area, which are still kept secret today. The unit was one of those special forces on a secret mission. We only know that the 22-man unit operated deep in enemy territory and recently captured a target that the government called a "high-value target." They now worked their way through a deep valley in a mountainous part of Afghanistan to bring the high-quality target to a safe shelter.

That night, Captain Mike Drowley, also known as Johnny Bravo after his call signal and nickname, circled above the thick cloud cover. Apart from the buzzing machines, it was completely quiet and peaceful up there. Thousands of stars twinkled in the sky, and the moon lit the top layer of the cloud so brightly that it looked as if snow had fallen. It was nice.

No other choice

Johnny Bravo and the pilot of the escort plane circled in their A-10s, ready to intervene when needed on the ground. The A-10, affectionately known as the warthog, is technically not a fighter pilot; she is a ground attack aircraft. It is a relatively slow, armored single-seater designed to provide close air support to the ground forces. It's not as fast or as sexy as other jet fighter (hence its nickname), but it does its job efficiently. The two A-10 pilots in the air and the ground forces would have preferred to stay in visual contact. It builds the soldiers' self-confidence when they see the planes in the sky and know that they are protecting them. And it gives the pilots the assurance that they will be able to help when necessary.

But given the thick cloud cover and the mountainous terrain, the only way they could ascertain the other's position was through occasional radio contact. Without visual contact, Johnny Bravo couldn't see what the troops were seeing, but he could tell from what he heard over the radio how they were feeling. And that was enough for him to take action. He followed his instincts and decided to take a dive, that is, to drop down through the cloud cover to see what was going on on the ground. It was a daring maneuver. The thick, low cloud cover, the storms in the area, and the fact that Johnny Bravo would descend into a valley even though his field of vision was restricted by the night vision device made flying blind through the clouds a highly dangerous undertaking for even the most experienced pilot . Nobody had ordered Johnny Bravo to perform this risky maneuver. At most, he would have been ordered to follow events closely and to intervene when he was called for help. But Johnny Bravo is not like most other pilots. Though he was in a safe cockpit thousands of meters above them, he could feel the great restlessness of the men below. Despite the danger he was putting himself in, he knew the dive was necessary. For Johnny Bravo that meant he had no choice.

What makes real leaders

And then, just as he was preparing to dive down through the clouds into the valley, his vague instincts were confirmed. Three words came through the radio. Three little words that make a pilot's blood curdle: "Troops have contact with the enemy." "Troops have contact with the enemy" means that someone is in trouble down there on the ground. It is the radio call that the ground forces use when attacked. Although Johnny Bravo had heard these words many times during training, he heard "Troops are in contact with the enemy" that night, August 16, 2002, for the first time in a combat situation. Johnny had found a way to empathize with the men on the ground. To feel what they felt. On every training flight over the combat area, he played the scene from the film Saving Private Ryan, in which the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy on a stormy night. He imagined the landing craft's ramp falling and the men wading to the beach under German fire.

The bullets whistled around them. Stray bullets struck the steel hull of the boats. There were the screams of those who were hit. Johnny Bravo was calibrated to remember this scene every time he heard the radio call, "Troops are in contact with the enemy." With this image vividly before his eyes, Johnny Bravo responded to the call for help. He instructed the escort aircraft to fly close to the cloud cover, announced his plans to the flight controllers and the troops on the ground, and dived his aircraft into the darkness. As he passed the layer of cloud he was tossed wildly back and forth. A hard push to the left. A sudden air hole. A jerk to the right. In contrast to the civil aviation aircraft with which we fly, the A-10s do not take into account the comfort of the occupants, so the aircraft jumped in the air and was shaken strongly as it dived through the cloud cover.

How to deal with unfamiliar situations

When Johnny Bravo plunged into the unknown, not knowing what to expect, he c...

Table of contents

• Imprint
• Introduction: How this book supports you
• Avoid applicant standard answers and socially desirable behavior in the job interview // By Uta Rohrschneider
• Error culture in companies: remedy damage limitation [+ checklist] // By Dr. Gabriele Cerwinka, Gabriele Schranz
• The secret method of HR & recruiters: Cultural Fit // By Petra Barsch
• How to find the right employer branding strategy: 4 steps to the perfect employee // By Gunther Wolf
• Prevent employee turnover: loss prevention instead of recruiting [4 tips] // By Anne M. Schüller
• Employee loyalty Leadership and motivation with SMART goals: 4 X 5 Steps to a perfect target agreement discussion // By Michael Lorenz
• Recruiting and Cultural Fit: The Top 10 interview questions // By Marco De Micheli
• Cultural Fit and Leadership: Finding suitable employees with values // By Dr. Anke Nienkerke-Springer
• Cultural fit in the recruiting process: motives and personality of the applicants decoded // By Benjamin Schulz
• Leadership in organizational development and change: How do change projects fail? // By Anne M. Schüller
• Onboarding and employer branding reality check: How applicants recognize bad employers // By Simone Janson
• Bad managers, good leaders: With personality and empathy // By Simon O. Sinek
• Closing Remarks
• Authors Overview
• About the publisher Best of HR - Berufebilder.de®
• Notes on translation