Am I speaking a new language?

Does this sound familiar? You told an employee, associate, significant other what you wanted and how you wanted it done and they did it some other way. When you asked about it they either get defensive or say that’s what you said. Next you have an argument or worse yet someone’s job could be at risk.

Let’s rethink this. When you hire someone expectations of performance need to be set and along with that is a formula for how to develop people to achieve the desired results.

Tell, Show, Do, Feedback, Repeat

First you tell what you want in very specific terms including the level of competency.

Step 2 is to show them what is being asked.

Do, means they now do what the task is,

Feedback is a major component as it lets the individual know what they are doing right and what needs to be changed.

Repeat refers to the whole process, until they are meeting the performance expectations that were set.

Think back to when you first learned to drive a car, you had to learn each step and practice it until you had it right. Now, you don’t even think about driving, you just get in the car and go.

Whether hiring or promoting, it takes more than one time to enable someone to achieve the desired results, yet, how often do we just send a memo or give instructions and walk away? We need to be as responsible for the outcome as the individual who is doing the job. We need to make sure they not only heard us, and understand what we want, but have the skills to comply with our level of competency.

Next time you see that a task is not coming out as expected, think about the language you used to deliver it.