A mini case study – a plan to address the situation
In Part I of the story we learned that Jack needed to address issues with one of his team members, Sam. Jack realized he should have handled this situation with Sam much sooner, certainly before it became so obvious to others outside their department and had such an impact internally to the department.
Jack, with the help of another supervisor, decided to take the following steps to address the issues with Sam and get the department back on track:
- Jack scheduled a meeting with Sam to address the issue. He scheduled it for early in the morning, before the workday started. He noted the following in his email to Sam:
- The situation at work was getting worse and it had to improve.
- He wanted Sam to come to the meeting being prepared to discuss what is going on, and why, and with a plan to address it.
- During the meeting, Jack wanted to accomplish the following:
- Get acknowledgement from Sam that he also believed there were issues to be addressed and get Sam to discuss those issues (why were they occurring.)
- Acknowledge difficulty Sam may be going through, but let Sam know that it was reflecting poorly on his work, the work of the department, and his relationships with his co-workers and those in other departments.
- Develop collaboratively with Sam a detailed action plan to address the issues, ensuring Sam understand the issues must be addressed.
- Set a follow up meeting to check on progress (for 2 weeks after this meeting.)
- At the follow up meeting, Jack wanted to be sure the following had occurred since his first meeting with Sam:
- Significant progress being made toward the action plan developed.
- A change in Sam’s behavior and way he interacts with co-workers and with others throughout the organization.
- Make any adjustments as needed to the action plan to ensure progress keeps being made.
- Schedule another follow up meeting for 2 weeks from the date of this meeting.
What steps would you have taken to address the issues with Sam?
