管理难题：遭遇力不从心的“好员工”

    还记得皮特•贝斯特吗？他曾经是甲壳虫乐队的鼓手。之后，林戈•斯塔尔接替了他的位子，甲壳虫乐队也自此获得了“披头四”（Fab Four）的美誉。

    1960年，应约翰•列侬、保罗•麦卡特尼和乔治•哈里森的邀请，贝斯特加盟甲壳虫乐队，当时，他们准备前往德国北部的汉堡市，去当地俱乐部进行一系列演出。据说，正是在汉堡夜复一夜的现场演出奠定了披头士的演出风格和表演技巧，使他们在几年后成为举世闻名的乐队。

    乐队其他成员继续名利双收，惟有贝斯特中途折戟。原因何在？他的表现确实不错，但还不足以好到能让他一直留在乐队的程度，所以在与乐队合作两年之后，他被乐队解雇。

    1962年初，为了获得迪卡唱片公司（Decca Records）的唱片合同，甲壳虫乐队（当时贝斯特还在）进行了试唱，却遭到了唱片公司的拒绝。几个月以后，他们去帕洛风唱片公司（Parlophone）试唱，该公司的制作人同意与他们签约，但是坚持在录音期间使用一位经验丰富的鼓手，而不是贝斯特（很显然，这是当时的一个行业惯例）。

    听了制作人的要求，列侬、麦卡特尼和哈里森他们决定解雇贝斯特，另寻他人。之后，他们选择了林戈•斯塔尔，接下来发生的事，就众所周知了。显然，他们觉得如果贝斯特不够优秀，不适合录音，那他肯定也没法与乐队共同实现更高的音乐抱负。

    音乐圈与大多数公司高管们的日常关心的工作焦点隔了十万八千里。但是，几乎我们遇到的每个经理人都遇到过类似“皮特•贝斯特”的问题——某个成员的表现不错，但还是不够好。

    一个人“表现不错，却又不够好”，怎么会这样呢？如果经理人希望自己的团队有所改善或与众不同时，他就会遇到这种情况。如果团队成员都希望能有所变化或提高，经理人就要弄清楚，是否所有团队成员（顺便说一句，也包括经理人本人）都能帮助团队实现和维持更高的业绩水平。

    遗憾的是，答案并不总是肯定的。总会有一个人能胜任目前的工作——如皮特•贝斯特能够胜任酒吧演出的乐队鼓手——但要想提升表现，他却有些力不从心。在这种情况下，该如何对待这类员工呢？

    Remember Pete Best? Best was the Beatles drummer before Ringo Starr took the job and the group went on to become the Fab Four.

    Best was invited by John Lennon, Paul McCartney, and George Harrison -- the original Beatles -- to join them in 1960 just as they went to Hamburg in northern Germany to play a series of club dates. According to Beatles lore, it was in Hamburg, playing night after night in front of a live audience, that the group developed the seasoning and skills that would make them world-famous only a few years later.

    Why didn't Best go on to fame and fortune with the others? He was considered good, but not good enough, and so he was dismissed after spending two years with the group.

    In early 1962, the Beatles (with Best) auditioned for a recording contract with Decca Records and they were turned down. Months later, they auditioned for Parlophone. The producer there agreed to sign them but insisted on using an experienced session drummer instead of Best for the recordings (apparently, this was common practice at the time).

    When Lennon, McCartney, and Harrison heard what the producer wanted, they decided to let Best go entirely and find someone else. They chose Ringo Starr and the rest is history. Apparently, they felt if Best wasn't good enough for the recording sessions, he wasn't good enough for what they aspired to become.

    The music world may seem like a universe away from the daily concerns of most bosses, but almost every manager we've encountered has had a "Pete Best" problem -- someone on staff who was good, but not good enough.

    How can someone be "good but not good enough"? It happens when you want your group to become better or somehow different. And when you and the group aspire to change and improve, you need to ask everyone involved (including yourself, by the way) if they are capable of helping the group attain and sustain that higher level of performance.

    Unfortunately, the answer isn't always "yes." There's often someone who's perfectly capable in the current scenario -- like Pete Best as a club band drummer -- but isn't capable of doing his part to lift performance. What do you do with this person?