Photo by Shipman Northcutt on Unsplash
In most organizations, managers must inevitably have conversations with employees regarding their work.
It might be about their attire, behavior, hygiene, performance or tardiness.
Many times it’s an uncomfortable situation. Uncomfortable or not, the discussion has to take place.
Otherwise, supervisors who procrastinate or fail to hold such discussions will fail as managers.
Good management requires decisiveness and courage in coaching, counseling and in reprimands.
The C-Word is a Critical Characteristic of Effective Managers
Such employees must be confronted right away. Do this in every challenging situation and you’ll increase your chances for high employee employee morale and lessen the likelihood of any allegations of discrimination by you.
In essence, you should act to meet desired objectives – acting quickly to describe the employees’ unwanted behavior and to emphasize they must end their unproductive behavior.
Management: Coach Your Employees to Better Performance
Here are seven crucial steps:
Act quickly
Talk with your employees immediately after hearing or seeing the employees’ behavior.
Describe unwanted behavior
Be direct. Don’t “hem-haw around.”
Hem and haw became in vogue about 400 years ago in the 1630s. Hem refers to throat clearing and haw refers to a haughty British accent.
The bottom-line: It means being slow or deliberative instead of taking action. So be direct.
Provide specific examples
Point out specific behaviors. Don’t speak in generalities.
Explain how they adversely impact the team, explain the consequences to them personally as employees.
Get commitments to improve
Once you’ve explained how the behaviors are harmful – such as in service to customers, team morale or productivity – get an agreement for the employees to improve.
Don’t forget to explain the consequences, if the employees don’t improve.
Discuss solutions
Never end a meeting with employees unless you conclude it with the next needed step to take. That means identifying solutions to fix the behaviors.
Get commitments
The employees must declare what they’ll do to be more productive. Get a committed timeline on changes.
Start a paper trail
Immediately following such meetings – less than 24 hours – document the discussions. Insert accurate notations in the employees’ personnel file.
Your notations should include a summary of the problem or problems, specific behavioral examples, desired improvements, a timeline for change and plans to follow-up with the employees.
Follow these seven steps, and you’ll return to normalcy in your organization.
From the Coach’s Corner, related tips:
7 Management Tips – Communication with Difficult Employees — Multiple problems including loss of profit result from ineffectively dealing with difficult employees. Here are seven Biz Coach tips.
Management – 8 Steps to Solve Employee Incivility — Obviously, mutual respect are vital in cooperation and teamwork for performance. Clear management strategies are necessary if you have uncivil staff members.
Management – How to Improve Accountability in Your Company — If business and tepid growth have affected your outlook, take a look at your human resources and consider a couple of questions. If you don’t like your answer, here are eight solutions.
Productivity: 5 Management Tips to Motivate Your Employees — A major quandary for managers is to bring out the best in their employees. Every manager wants to do it, but it’s not always easy. What’s the reason? Usually, it’s because employees are disengaged – disconnected from their managers and companies. Here’s how to fix it.
Management – 3 Common Mistakes in Performance Reviews — Not only do most workers stress over getting performance reviews, many bosses stress over having to give them. For management solutions, see these management tips.
“Life is like a dogsled team. If you ain’t the lead dog, the scenery never changes.”
-Lewis Grizzard
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