We ask much of our teams and we ask much of our employees. Indeed in most cases we are justified and in most cases we receive the expected behavior, but often times we are left sorely disappointed by the behavior expected of others.
Tardy arrivals at work, disorganized work ethics or a disproportion of effort put in between the days of the week and between the weeks of the month.
Although expecting a consistency of results from your team member is fallacy, demanding a consistency of behavior is not.
Regarding all work done by your team, when you assign it to them you also need to attach a list of sequential but essential steps necessary to be done to achieve the desired result, or more simply put a “cookbook”. If you have not the time or indeed the necessary proficiency for every task at hand, you can delegate the creation of said cookbook to the person responsible to follow it. Then go over it with them and add improvements where necessary. Then use it as a starting basis for all future people in that same position.
Success in business is oftentimes the result of volume work, and as such, you cannot be aggravated purely by a lack a result. And even when justified to do so, the lack of result needs to be analyzed from the perspective of “what went wrong” and “how can we improve upon what we already do so as to achieve the results we want”.
To be able to do this you need to trace the “step by step” behavior of your team member and be able to help guid them in finding what is amiss, what needs to be changed and how to improve results.
Using such a “cookbook” to guide your company behavior can help track and – if need be – enforce a consistent behavior from everyone working there. And once you have consistent good behaviors you can also expect consistent good results.
But for all this to work best you yourself need be consistent in how you do your job and also in how you interact with and guide your team.