Managing the Third Shell

As a manager you must have the tools in your arsenal to manage a member of your team out of the Lying Shell. The Lying Shell is destructive for the individual whether they know it or not and destructive to the performance and morale of your team. There is an art and science to the process and often this art and science takes place like a chess game with the consummate 3rd Shell expert.

Here are the steps:
1. Art: Use "I Feel" statements. This allows you to share what you are seeing initially without having to do a ton of research around the lack of performance. It also allows you to state some fairly direct blows on a Lying Shell person without it being an attach. "I Feel" is exactly that. You are not saying it is fact, you are not accusing your employee, you are simply stating what you feel is happening. You want to do this with empathy and tact.

2. Science: You can set SMART objectives and get an agreement from the Third Shell employee so you can measure against a new performance standard to create accountability in the relationship. So often as managers we allow 3rd Shell behavior in people because we get lax in our management to objectives. People that want to move into Shell 2 the Learning Shell will use the objectives to launch their work into a whole new level. Con-Artists (see Shell Game Blog 2) will use objectives as point of contention and confusion and make a manager feel crazy in the process.

All in when you use Art and Science around a Third Shell employee and make your expectations known, that employee will quickly get the picture that they can no longer play the Shell Game in your group and they will opt out and leave town or you will build the case you need, fire the under performer and learn how to better hire Learners and Leaders from now on.