"While I haven't yet had experience motivating a struggling employee in a managerial role, I have had experience motivating my co-workers and my team. My motto is to play on everyone's strengths and never exploit their weaknesses. Every weakness is a growth opportunity, and the way to get them to seize that growth opportunity is by playing on their strengths, assigning tasks they are good at, and giving them a sense of accomplishment and confidence. Then offer training to get them to develop. You have to ensure they don't take on more work than they can handle, which just sets them up for failure. It's a marathon, not a race. Then, if you have another employee whose growth opportunity is training others or assisting their fellow teammates, pair them up with that employee who you're developing. The more perspectives they have to help them overachieve, the better."