11-11-14Gary, shop foreman for a Washington cabinet manufacturer, told Session 8 of the Leadership Development Lab (LDL):

“Last month, we delivered about seven or eight cabinets to a customer in LaCenter, WA. After Daniel, our backup delivery truck driver, unloaded the LaCenter shipment, he left to make his next delivery. Not long after he left, our installer called and asked me if the drawer pulls for the job were at the shop. I went to check and sure enough, there they were, the pulls were still at our shop, so now we had to send another truck and driver to deliver the pulls to the installer.

When Daniel got back to the shop, I knew this was the perfect opportunity to use Turbo’s DARE+ Correction Process. I told Daniel about the call from our installer and I asked him the inquiring question, “What happened?” He didn’t try to make an excuse. He said he just hadn’t followed our check list procedures. I listened patiently and when he was through, after a half beat pause I said, ‘As you know, our standard for loading delivery is marking things off on the order checklist.’ I told him how important it is to get everything in the order pulled together the first time. It supports our image as a professional firm and it eliminates rework, saves gas, time, and money. Daniel agreed to carefully follow our standard of checking off each item on his packing slip manually before leaving in the future. I told him how much we appreciated him filling in for our regular driver, and appreciate his willingness to be flexible when we need to shift his role.

“The lesson I learned from this experience is when performance situations arise, I need to meet them head on as quickly as possible. By doing this, I don’t have it hanging over my head. I found that there are no arguments when I handled performance issues with the 6-step DARE+ approach. The action I call you to take is use Turbo’s DARE+ Correction Process. It really works. The benefit you will gain is you will become an empowering leader and earn the respect everyone on your team.”

Gary makes the important point that when we address performance issues quickly by following the DARE+ Correction Process, there’s nothing “hanging over our heads.” No gnawing feeling in your gut, no endless conversations about it with your spouse, no worrying about it during the night, trying to figure out how you will address it the following morning, sometimes letting it drag on for days.

I want to add my words of challenge and encouragement to you for the next time you have a performance issue, it could be today, address it quickly and respectfully. Ask for commitment to a changed performance. You may be amazed at how easy it is and how quickly you begin to shift your entire culture to high performance.