Dear Cindy – Decline in Work Quality

I supervise someone whose performance has dropped significantly over the past few months. This person ("Donna") used to be my top performer. Her work now is comparable to what her average coworkers can do. I want to motivate Donna (and to be honest, I've gotten used the extra work that she used to do around here), but I'm not quite sure how to approach this. Any suggestions?

Sincerely,

What's Up?

Why should one employee be expected to continue to give 200% when no one else is? Why do you want to motivate, thus boost the output of one employee, rather than motivate and boost the output of the larger group of less stellar employees? (Are you looking for an easy target?)

There could be a few things going on. Maybe Donna began to feel abused – that she was working far harder than her coworkers and got sick of it. Maybe Donna likes the extra work and effort, but went too far and burnt herself out. Maybe she's an overachiever and has now gotten bored with the work itself.

Ask Donna what's up, then decide who needs fixing – Donna, the other employees, and/or you. After all: average doesn't mean poor – it's just where you find most of the world's population.