Low Achievers Tend to Hide Their Lack of Drive by Criticizing Others, whether muttering under their breath against those above them or belittling out loud those further down the pecking order. If challenged, they tend to say, “I didn't mean anything by it. It was all in good fun.”

I remember a couple of wounds that went beyond deep back in my co-op days. I wanted to work in the test lab so badly, but the guy who ran it made known that he would never hire an “automatic” co-op. And I was a city boy who had never driven a car with a manual transmission. Desperate, I “borrowed” a beat-up company stick-shift pickup that was left around the complex for running errands. I'd spend a half-hour or so every day lurching around the service headquarters. A couple of weeks and one slipping clutch later, I was ready to transfer to the lab where my life made a significant turn for the better.

The first quarter in my new digs, we were testing cutouts under load when a recloser malfunctioned and the line feeding the test facility tripped. Standing on a rubber blanket, I didn't realize anything was amiss — even though I heard some tremendously loud booms — until I noticed that the bottom of a chain-link fence was glowing red. I recall thinking, “Is it supposed to do that?” followed by “This is a cool job.”

Several weeks later, I heard this same boss had told everyone that I had hightailed it across the parking lot to the safety of the repair shop when the recloser blew. Not true. I didn't even know what a recloser was. But, my reputation took a bit of a hit.

Now this one seems minor, but it provided a bit of humor to the former linemen who were now distribution installation specialists. One happened by when I was trying to loosen a bolt on a switch assembly. He gladly informed me that I was actually tightening the bolt instead. This fellow had a big laugh at my city-slicker expense and then broadcast his discovery of my ineptness to the world — at least it felt that way.

I'm sure you've run into foot-dragging naysayers who never seem to get excited about anything. Whether intentionally or subconsciously, these individuals want you to know that if you bring them work, you will get substandard results, hoping that next time you will take your assignments to someone else.

Here is a technique for ducking work my daddy told me about. He worked at Lockheed, Georgia, where he designed landing gear for the C-130 and C-141 cargo planes. He came home one day and told me about a conversation he had with a man down at the tool crib. The guy running the counter told him, “When my boss asks me to do something I don't want to do, I make sure that he is more tired at the end of the day than I am.” This guy realized that if he was a sufficient pain, the boss would likely take his next request elsewhere. Too often, this is exactly what management does.

We've all heard the comment, “If you want something done, take it to the busiest person you can find.” Why? Because these folks are compassionate, competent and responsible. Unfortunately, they are also susceptible to burnout. Those are the very people we should be nurturing and protecting. Instead, we too often set low expectations for the rest of the workforce, allowing individuals to get by. This takes the fun out of the workplace.

I find it relatively easy to turn a modest slacker into a producer. Try this. Take the nastiest job you can find and give it to him or her stating, “I'll continue to give you all of the dirtiest jobs I can find until you learn to show a little enthusiasm and appreciation.”

One day, I couldn't find a guy who was scheduled to run a vibration damper to compact soil in a trench. I hunted him down and asked him why he wasn't outside working. His response: “I don't want to get my new Gucci shoes dirty.” My response: “Get in the trench now!” At the end of the day, he and his Guccis were filthy. By the way, we ended up being friends.

I've known more than one person who couldn't pass on the opportunity to cut others down. I've found this to be a tough habit to break, but progress can be swift when you say something to this effect: “When you trash your peers, be forewarned that you are also trashing yourself and your career.”

In large corporations, we often have all sorts of tools at our disposal to get an underperforming individual's attention. And some of these tools exist for good reason. We don't want people let go just because they have a personality conflict with their boss. But problems usually can be addressed without resorting to whatever type of “Positive Discipline” program a company might have to address underperformance Save these tools for hard-core malcontents. In my experience, these tools often are misused by managers who are unwilling to be straight up with their direct reports.

Instead of resorting to impersonal tools to do our dirty work, let's share what behaviors and productivity we expect, and follow through with consequences that are proportional to the behaviors and output we've requested. The result will be less criticizing, less griping and more output.

Or, to quote my old lab buddy Tommy McKoon, “If you're busy paddling, you're probably not complaining.”