Two instances, in two different companies that I can share.
In one case the developer was hostile to working with anyone else. This was a project that involved close co-operation with teams across three countries, so his attitude was a no-go.
In another case, the engineer was constantly slacking off, dumping his work on the other devs in the team.
In both cases I'd have several 1:1's with the engineers, and first try and understand what was going on.
I usually trust people, and when something like this turns up, there are often other serious problems, for example at home with family or with the developer's health. We settle these issues quickly through flexi-time, reduced workloads, sabbaticals, coaching, changing their scope of work, etc, and things turn around very nicely. However the engineers I wrote about above didn't fall into this category.
In both cases I had extensive 1:1's with them, to help both of us understand what was going on. In this process I'd get insights into the nature of each person, and that helped define the right approach to resolve the problems. I then set clear expectations that we would review each week. We unfortunately got no progress for both the devs after 4 weeks, and at this point I had to involve HR and turn this into a probation. Both flunked and were asked to leave the companies.
There's no set formula here. If faced with this situation today, I'd handle it slightly differently and more quickly.
In one case the developer was hostile to working with anyone else. This was a project that involved close co-operation with teams across three countries, so his attitude was a no-go.
In another case, the engineer was constantly slacking off, dumping his work on the other devs in the team.
In both cases I'd have several 1:1's with the engineers, and first try and understand what was going on.
I usually trust people, and when something like this turns up, there are often other serious problems, for example at home with family or with the developer's health. We settle these issues quickly through flexi-time, reduced workloads, sabbaticals, coaching, changing their scope of work, etc, and things turn around very nicely. However the engineers I wrote about above didn't fall into this category.
In both cases I had extensive 1:1's with them, to help both of us understand what was going on. In this process I'd get insights into the nature of each person, and that helped define the right approach to resolve the problems. I then set clear expectations that we would review each week. We unfortunately got no progress for both the devs after 4 weeks, and at this point I had to involve HR and turn this into a probation. Both flunked and were asked to leave the companies.
There's no set formula here. If faced with this situation today, I'd handle it slightly differently and more quickly.