Firm Guidance for More Effective Action

Through the last several posts, we’ve taken a hard look at just how important it is to have candid conversations with our team members when they’re not keeping it between the ditches rather than ducking the issue and hoping things will get better on their own. While we’ve looked at some very specific examples of what works, and some that just don’t, there’s one more thing we can do to increase the effectiveness of those often difficult conversations!

In a LinkedIn article I published recently called How THEY Want to Be Treated, I touched on how much The Platinum Rule applies in these situations. If you’ve been reading these posts for more than a few weeks, you know where that reference will lead us over the next few. If that’s not ringing any bells and you think that was just another one of my grammatical errors, put The Platinum Rule in the search box here on our blog and you’ll find all you need to get up to speed in a hurry…

Let’s dive right in by looking at how we can apply The Platinum Rule when we have to have one of those candid conversations with someone who’s Fast-Paced and Task-Oriented, one of those DRIVEN folks…

One of the most effective things we can do to treat the DOERS on our team like they really want to be treated is to make sure we’re recognizing the Results they’ve accomplished. In cases where they’re still missing the mark, we may need to dig into what’s going wrong because it’s usually a safe bet that they’re still taking enormous action. Since action doesn’t always yield the exact results we need, they may just need some redirection.

As we have this DIRECT conversation, they’ll appreciate it if we provide them with a challenge they can work toward and give them the opportunity to have some level of control over the steps they take to accomplish it. The folks with this primary behavioral style will be extremely DETERMINED to deliver on what we need from them.

Since a conversation like this may create as much stress for them as it does for us, try not to read too much into it if their tone seems overly DEFIANT. Don’t beat around the bush and be very clear about what you expect from them in order to achieve the best possible results. 

While this group only represents around 10% of the population, this is where you’ll find some of the most DECISIVE people you’ll ever see. They don’t need much fluff, but they will certainly appreciate it when we recognize their desire to help the team perform to all it’s capable of!

We’ll change gears a bit with the next blog post so we can reach our desired outcome with the group that makes up three times more of the world...