After high school my girlfriend, Terry, joined the Ice Follies.  (I went to U.C. Berkeley.)  In her second year with the show Terry earned a short solo to the music of Second Hand Rose.  

She left the show later that year, but in our 37+ years of marriage I have moved from buying her 10 dozen roses her opening night in San Francisco to a single red rose.  The single rose is a reminder of our young love.

Last Thursday I was driving through San Francisco and picked up a rose for Terry.  Days later it drooped.  I thought it was dead.  I pruned it, put it back in the vase, and went to bed for the evening.  It was full of life in the morning, but that afternoon was drooping again.

I pruned it again, and it revived again.  (Does that remind you of some employees?)  It began to bloom, but it is flawed. For some reason part of its bloom is missing.  In the lower left you can see the brown leaf that is typically only behind the rose.  The petals are missing so it shows.  

Roses are stunning.  They improve a room and brighten people's days. They have a wonderful scent.  A rose reminds you of something positive.

QUESTION

What do you do when that "rose" of an employee turns out to be flawed?

1. Thorns:  Every employee has issues, just as roses have thorns.  Period.  You can overcome or avoid their thorns when you know your employees primary motivators and preferred behavioral style (our Talent Assessments).  Then you can work with them intentionally to reinforce their positive traits and avoid their negative attributes.
2. Flawed:  Every employee is flawed like this rose.  Sometimes the flaws are very clear.  Other times weaknesses are hidden for a while... Leaders better engage employees when we focus on strengths and improve weaknesses to a competitive level.  Do NOT try to make a weakness a strength.  We achieve more with less effort, and our people are happier, when we focus on aligning job responsibilities with their strengths.
3. Surprises:  This rose is missing part of its bloom.  This flaw was hidden from me when I bought it.  Our people surprise us too.  Any leader can inspire a team when profits are high, our group/company is growing, and people are getting along.  GREAT leaders are prepared for surprises and overcome them because they know how their people prefer to work.  They help others work together in ways that balance their individual needs, the preferences of others (coworkers, clients, vendors), and the objectives of the company. This means we have to be a 3strands LEADER who is systematically engaging our people in meaningful work as we constantly reinforce sincere gratitude for their contributions in ways they appreciate.
4. Prune:  This rose needs pruning to thrive.  So do our employees.  They are not robots or a dog who will sleep 16 hours a day and be happy.  Employees need our Systematic LEADERSHIP - consistent engagement to remain focused, grow, and achieve.  We have to help them feel good about pruning dead habits, wasted time, and poor behaviors so our people love what they do as much as possible.
5. Replace:  Sometimes the rose I give Terry lasts a very long time, but at some point it is always time to get a new one.  This is not a bad thing.  The rose has served its purpose and it is time to move on.

It is a similar story with our employees.  At some point they need to move on to something else in life, maybe retirement, but in the meantime we have to work systematically to keep our team fully engaged.

This requires everyone to have clear, measurable goals and defined work behaviors.  We always gain when we inspire people as a 3strands LEADER, including having a clearly defined hiring system to hire Dr. Jekyll, not a great actor who turns out to be Mr. Hyde.

Thriving roses.  Fully engaged employees.  This is our primary responsibility as leaders.