I’ve never been a fan of disciplinary action processes. You know, the process a manager or supervisor is supposed to go through with an employee who is doing something they shouldn’t or not doing something they should. It’s not that I don’t believe we should address performance problems; it’s just that I think the point is not to discipline the person. You know, like giving your 3-year-old a “timeout” because they won’t pick up their toys. Or when you ground your teenager for a month because they stayed out past curfew.
One of my responsibilities is to work with team members to ensure they understand expectations and are clear on objectives. It’s also important that leadership is clear on acceptable behavior and, of course, unacceptable behavior. A good Staff Policy Manual is a must in helping to get this accomplished.
So, when a staff member’s behavior becomes problematic, the leader must point it out. If the behavior continues to be a problem, the leader has to take action eventually. But the “action” should not be in the spirit of “discipline”; it should be in the spirit of “correction.” Hence the topic of this post. The objective of any “corrective action” process is to help a staff member understand that behavior has to change and help them make the change, with the point being to correct the issue and move on. As leaders, we’re not trying to “run the staff member off”; we’re trying to keep them on the team and help them succeed.
Therefore, the documented process (a subject for a future post) is called “Corrective Action.” It has specific steps that include meeting with the staff member periodically to discuss their performance and how it is improving or not. In many cases, consequences might need to be implemented to help them improve, but the objective is improvement, not discipline.
Correction versus discipline? Perhaps a subtle distinction but an essential one. It’s necessary to communicate the spirit of the action taken to the staff member, and the name of the process is an important part of doing that.
In my experience, Disciplinary Action processes far outnumber Corrective Action processes.