Before you try to fix someone, make sure they actually need fixing.

There is a difference between being lost and being broken.

I was thinking about that because we tend to confuse the two, especially at work.

You can have somebody who was once engaged, confident and contributing. Then something changes. They become quieter. They stop volunteering ideas. They start escalating decisions they used to make themselves. Their performance might even start slipping.

And immediately we start asking: What happened to this person?

Maybe that's the wrong question.

Maybe nothing happened to the person. Maybe something happened around them.

Think about someone working on a Service Desk. They're experienced. They know the environment. They know how to troubleshoot. They know when to escalate and when they can solve something themselves.

Then slowly the environment changes.

Processes keep changing. Knowledge articles aren't maintained. One manager tells them to use their judgment while another tells them to follow the procedure exactly. They're told to improve First Contact Resolution, but they're also told to keep Average Handle Time down. They're encouraged to take ownership, but when something goes wrong, they're questioned about why they didn't escalate.

After a while, what do you think happens?

They become cautious.

They escalate more. They take fewer risks. They stop suggesting improvements. They start asking for approval on decisions they used to make confidently.

Then management looks at the behaviour and says, “We need to coach this person.”

So now we add more monitoring. More ticket reviews. More performance discussions.

The person was already uncertain, and our answer is to put them under even greater scrutiny.

We give a lost employee a microscope when what they really needed was a compass.

That's where engagement, enablement and empowerment come into this.

Do I still want to contribute?

Am I properly equipped so I can contribute?

And when I know what needs to be done, am I actually allowed to contribute?

Those are very different questions from, “What's wrong with this employee?”

There's a human behaviour component here as well. If exercising judgment repeatedly gets you criticized, while asking permission keeps you safe, eventually you learn to ask permission.

That's not necessarily incompetence.

That's adaptation.

And sometimes we then punish people for adapting to the very environment we created.

So when a previously capable employee starts struggling, don't immediately try to fix them.

Ask what changed. Ask what became unclear. Ask where they're getting conflicting direction. Ask what happened the last few times they took initiative.

Because sometimes the person sitting across from you isn't broken at all.

They're lost.

And lost people don't need to be fixed.

They need someone to help them find their way again.