Leadership Lessons: Effective Discipline

Busting the Discipline Myths...

Most managers and team leaders don't like the idea of having to discipline employees. Even when they know it is desperately needed, they often can't bring themselves to do it. They operate in the world of the Five Myths of discipline.

• Myth 1: Ignore it until later; it might go away.
• Myth 2: Focus first on the positive and dance around the real issue. (This is known as the "Criticism Sandwich.")
• Myth 3: Give the bad news quickly, and get them out the door; it will be easier for both of you.
• Myth 4: Don't document the disciplinary action so it won't be on their record - you don't want them to get in trouble.
• Myth 5: Once you've talked to the employee, breathe a sigh of relief as your work is done.

Some Perspective

The truth is that you can't dance around discipline. It is also important to treat employees with respect when it comes to discipline. For discipline to be effective, the manager and employee need to be fully engaged in recognizing the issues and being a part of the solution.

Performance professionals should know that engaged employees can make a dramatic impact on their company's bottom-line. Employees can't do that if concerns about their work behavior are ignored. There is no way that they can be fully involved with the team.

A recent study conducted by ISR, an employee research consulting firm, showed that there was a significant relationship between business results and the extent to which employees (a) stayed committed in company values, (b) felt pride in working for the company, and (c) were motivated to go the extra mile.

Here's an example of where discipline was needed to save a team from falling apart. Lydia and Jeff had been model co-workers in the past. Lydia developed a dislike for the way Jeff started to leave some of his work at the end of the day for her to finish up. They begin to exchange insults with each other every morning, and that led to more heated discussions. The rest of the team was getting distracted and taking sides. Productivity was slipping, and the rest of the employees didn't understand why their manager wasn't doing something to discipline Lydia and Jeff for their behavior. Lydia and Jeff started slacking off because of their distracting quarrel, and the team was not motivated to work hard when others were getting away with poor performance. The team had become disengaged.

A Solution

Having a practice of effective discipline can motivate employees to be engaged with clear and fair expectations of performance. This practice allows you to:

• Prevent continued negative behavior
• Make rules for discipline clear
• Empower yourself and your managers to handle conflict effectively
• Increase company productivity with more engaged employees
• Ensure the company complies with legal requirements

As a manager or training professional in a position to deliver effective training on discipline, you should be looking at the following elements:

• Discipline focusing on behavior
• Teaching self-discipline
• Using positive-discipline to encourage self-discipline
• Documenting the discipline

Find out how to train your managers on discipline with Vital Learning's "Effective Discipline" program. Bring your managers out of the fog. They can learn techniques for effective discipline, such as communicating concerns about behaviors, minimizing defensiveness, reducing conflict avoidance, and focusing on solutions that include employee participation. Improve morale, engagement, and productivity!

To learn more about "Effective Discipline " or the complete Vital Learning leadership development curriculum download this 4-page PDF or watch this brief video.

The Vital Learning curriculum is available in Classroom, Online, or Blended delivery options and includes the following essential topics...

Delegating - understanding when to use delegation and how to make it motivating

Complaints - being able to effectively manage complaints

Coaching - knowing how to productively coach job skills

Project Management - being able to run projects, both on-time and on-budget

Conflict - understanding how to successfully resolve conflict

Hiring Winning Talent- knowing what to do to consistently hire the right talent

Providing Feedback - understanding how to establish performance goals and standards and give feedback

And more...

For detail go to www.TheLearningEngine.org