Do you have an underperforming employee who has been falling short of expectations recently? Have they missed deadlines or negatively impacted the team dynamics? You might want to consider implementing a Performance Improvement Plan, writes the Harvard Business Review.  A formal approach to address performance gaps, a PIP can address both failures to meet job goals or behavior-related concerns. The plan outlines issues as well as defines and outlines what new outputs are needed and by when.  While PIPs sometimes have a bad reputation with leaders and HR professionals who can see them as adversarial, punitive and controlling, there are preconditions that should be considered to make a PIP successful, author Liane Davey writes. It’s important that you and the employee can both see a clear path to improved performance.  To make the plan more effective, Davey suggests it should address root causes for the slips in meeting previous expectations and should be future-focused.  Read the full article. A subscription may be required.