Having a disciplinary meeting with a team member should NOT feel like war! Take a deep breath, and be YOURSELF.
You are a kind, compassionate, caring and inspiring leader and that is the person who needs to show up to that disciplinary meeting. Your employee needs you to be who you are, especially during times of applying progressive discipline or corrective measures.
I like to tell my clients to “use their stick” or “use their tools” to do the heavy lifting, instead of becoming a mean or strict or stern person.
The results of staying YOU AND using the tools are awesome! The results of going in with a negative, mean, or stern attitude are NOT GOOD. This can be likened to “fear leadership” whereby someone scares an employee (temporarily) into doing what they want. This never lasts, it destroys trust, and is all around bad for you, your employee, and your team.
So what are the tools? Your progressive discipline policy, which usually looks something like this:
1. Verbal warning
2. Written warning
3. Written warning
4. Termination
It is important to be very specific in these meetings and to give the employee very clear instructions on how to improve. The fact that termination is imminent if they do not improve is all the “stick” you’ll ever need, trust me!
It’s MOST important to show up in a kind and caring way. You have to be compassionate—this is difficult for your employee and you want them to improve, right? They can’t improve unless they trust that you REALLY WANT THEM TO IMPROVE! Many employees will be frightened by the mention of discipline and/or termination. Help them through this by showing up as your authentic, kind, amazing self. They WILL improve if you do things this way.
If you feel you’re ready to make the changes to your business that will make it more successful and more enjoyable, contact TMH Business Coaching today for a confidential, free, no-obligation consultation to propel you forward. Also, please feel free to add yourself to our weekly coaching tips email!
