“We’re going to have to let Sarah go. Unless you can help get her performance back up to speed.”

And with that comment, another client gets assigned to work with me for “remedial coaching.”

It didn’t need to come to this. And it shouldn’t. Coaching can be expensive (average rates for an executive coach range from about $150 to $600 an hour in the United States), and it won’t always fix an individual’s productivity issues. But according to research done a couple of years ago by Leadership IQ in Washington DC, only about 14% of senior executives believe their companies do a decent job of dealing with poor performers.

Most companies let productivity issues build. They typically say it’s because they don’t know how to deal with these issues. Fair enough. But before you reach for the phone book to call the Worldwide Association of Business Coaches, here are a few actions to try.

#1: Accept that you should be the one to handle the problem
As the supervisor, you’re the best person to deal with this situation. Not the HR Department or the lawyers. In most cases, they don’t know the situation or individual as well as you.

#2: Address the issue directly
Tell the underachiever that his or her performance isn’t up to standard. Ask if something is wrong. If there’s an issue outside of work, your team member may have been reluctant to talk about it. But whatever is affecting the person’s job contributions, you need to know about it. If it’s a long-term problem, how you want to deal with the employee is probably different (scaling back the job, for example) than if it’s a short-term issue.

Read the rest at TechRepublic.