How to Address Underperformance After a Strong Year

Someone who was reliably good for two years has fallen off over the last few months. The work is late, or thinner, or they have gone quiet in meetings where they used to lead. Nothing is catastrophic yet, and everyone including you has noticed.

The critical distinction: this is a change, and changes have causes. Someone who has never performed well may lack the skill or the fit. Someone who performed well for two years demonstrably has both. So the useful question is not "why aren't you meeting the bar" but "what changed," and those two questions produce completely different conversations.

There is a strong practical reason to lead with curiosity here. The most common causes are a health issue, a family situation, burnout, a conflict you cannot see, or the early stage of someone deciding to leave. Four of those five are recoverable, and all five are things you will never hear about if you open with an accountability script.

Establish the change with specifics. Not a feeling that things have slipped. Two or three concrete examples with dates, and ideally a comparison to what the same work looked like earlier. Without that, the person can reasonably argue that nothing has changed and you are just noticing differently.

Check what changed on your side. New manager, reorganized team, a project they cared about cancelled, a promotion they did not get, a colleague who left. Small companies change fast and the cause is frequently structural rather than personal. If you find one, name it yourself in the conversation rather than waiting for them to.

Decide that this is not a disciplinary meeting. If you go in having already concluded it is an attitude problem, that will be audible in the first sentence and you will get a defensive conversation and no information.

Give it enough time and a private setting. Twenty minutes between meetings signals that you want a quick answer, and the real answer usually takes a while to arrive.

Name the change, attach the evidence, make clear you are not accusing, then ask an open question and wait.

Language that works:

• "I want to talk about something I've noticed, and I want to say up front that this isn't a warning. The last three months look different from your first two years. The Q2 analysis needed two rounds of rework, and you've been quiet in the client calls where you used to run the agenda. That's a change, and I'd rather ask you about it than guess."
• "You've been off your usual standard since roughly March, and I don't have a theory about why. I'm not here to put you on notice. I'm here because something changed and I want to understand it."

The sentence "this is not a warning" does real work when it is true, because it is the thing they are bracing for. Do not say it if it is not true.

Then wait properly. This is the conversation where the silence needs to be longest. People do not disclose burnout or a health issue in the first ten seconds.

"Everything's fine, I've just been busy." The standard first answer and rarely the real one. Do not accept it and do not challenge it aggressively. Return to the evidence once: "Maybe. What I'm seeing is different work than I saw last year, and busy doesn't quite explain it. Is there anything else going on?" If the second answer is the same, leave the door open and check back in two weeks rather than pressing.

Burnout, said directly or nearly. "I'm just exhausted." Take it seriously and immediately. Do not respond with encouragement, which reads as dismissal. Respond with load: "What's on your plate right now? Let's look at the whole list." Then actually remove something. A burnout disclosure met with sympathy and no reduction in workload is worse than no conversation at all.

A personal or health disclosure. Thank them, and shift entirely out of performance mode. Ask what would help. Depending on the situation there may be formal accommodation obligations, so involve whoever handles HR. Do not push for detail they have not volunteered.

A grievance. A promotion that went elsewhere, a decision they disagreed with, a colleague issue. Often this is the whole answer. Let them say it fully without defending yourself in the moment, even if you think they are wrong. You can address the substance later. Interrupting to correct the record ends the disclosure permanently.

"I've been thinking about whether this is still right for me." Do not panic and do not immediately counter-sell. "I'd rather know that than not. Tell me more." Someone who says this out loud has usually not decided yet, and the conversation you have next matters more than any retention offer.

What you close with depends entirely on what you learned, which is why the listening had to come first.

• If it is load or burnout: remove something specific, today, and name it. Then set a check-in for two weeks to see whether it moved.
• If it is personal: agree on a temporary adjustment with an explicit end date, and say plainly that the performance conversation is paused rather than pending.
• If it is a grievance: commit to responding to the substance by a specific date, and then do it. An unanswered grievance is what turns a dip into an exit.
• If they are considering leaving: ask what would make staying worth it, and be honest about which parts of that you can and cannot change.
• If you genuinely got nothing: state the standard plainly, without escalating. "I still need the work at the level it was. Let's talk again in two weeks." That is a fair place to leave a first conversation.

Do not let this drift. If two of these conversations pass with no change and no explanation, you are moving toward a formal plan, and having tried the humane version first is both the right sequence and the one that makes the formal step defensible.

Situation. A strong performer of two and a half years has been noticeably off for roughly four months. Two deliverables needed rework, they have stopped volunteering in meetings, and a colleague mentioned to you that they seem withdrawn. You have no theory. They did not get a promotion in the last cycle, which may or may not be relevant.

How the other person plays it. Deflects initially with "just busy, everything's fine." If the manager accepts that, closes down and the conversation ends with nothing. If the manager returns to the evidence once, without pressure, discloses partway through that they have been running on empty since the promotion decision and have been wondering whether there is a path here at all. Uncomfortable having said it.

What a good run looks like. Opens with specific evidence and an explicit statement that this is not a warning. Leaves long silences. Returns to the evidence exactly once after the deflection, then stops pressing. Recognizes the disclosure and stops running the performance script entirely. Responds to the promotion grievance without becoming defensive about the decision. Closes with something concrete rather than sympathy.

What a bad run looks like. Opening with "your performance has slipped." Accepting "I'm fine" and ending the meeting. Pressing four times after the deflection. Defending the promotion decision the moment it comes up. Or hearing the burnout and responding with "let me know if you need anything," which puts the work back on the person who just told you they have nothing left.