A client of mine, the President of a civil services contractor, had a project manager who was not staying on top of his projects.  He was reactive, not proactive, and this was causing a number of problems.  Among other issues, he was not documenting every change order being requested by the general contractor, and my client knew this was going to end up costing him a lot of money. 

The President liked this employee.  While he did not think he was necessarily an A-player, he felt that he was a solid B or B+ employee who could be a valuable long-term part of the team.  In addition, the President felt that he had failed this project manager by not giving him enough direction and training.

This executive needed this employee to get better or get another job.  If you have someone like this in your organization (and most companies have more than their share) here are the steps I gave my client to help his project manager improve or leave.

1. Draw a line in the sand
You have to confront poor performance directly and quickly. Most people don't like conflict and don't handle it well.  In this situation, I told the President to schedule a one-on-one session with this employee and objectively lay out where his performance had fallen short.  He needed to give this project manager specific examples of what he had done poorly.  He then needed to hear the project manager's responses.

I told him that if the project manager took personal responsibility for his shortfalls, he could move to step 2.  If he did not take responsibility for his failures, the President needed to make clear in no uncertain terms that a failure to improve his performance was grounds for termination.