Real-Life Disciplinary Action Scenarios for Leadership Training

When training your managers and supervisors, it sometimes helps to provide real-life scenarios that will help them evaluate the right path to resolution. While there are no right or wrong answers to the following situations, there may be some particular strategies that you will want to stress as you divide the training room into groups and have them work through an effective solution.

Scenario #1:

You have an employee that is struggling in his overall performance. Upper management says you need to “lose” this employee and that his performance is a reflection on your leadership. Your immediate supervisor says the employee can improve and that you need to give him a chance. What do you do?

As the Facilitator:

• Consider the trend of the workplace. (Will the employee always struggle, or is this just an adjustment period?)
• Talk to both sets of leaders.
• Make a plan.
• Meet with both sets of leaders afterwards.

Scenario #2:

You have an employee experiencing a crisis (death in the family, etc.), and she is just returning to work after two weeks off. You are concerned about this person's emotional well-being and ability to do the job. What do you do?

As the Facilitator:

• Displace workloads.
• Consider whether the employee is worth keeping if this becomes a prolonged depression/challenge.
• Get back to business after the grieving period.

Scenario #3:

You are currently in the process of disciplining an employee. After the first round of discussions, you hear back from the other team members that the disciplined employee is telling everyone only his side of the story. What do you do?

As the Facilitator:

• Gently meet again with employee and let him know that this is unacceptable.
• Focus on team expectations.
• Review performance expectations for the entire team.
• Consider termination?

Scenario #4:

You have come to the point, after a reasonable amount of time, where you need to terminate an employee. What things do you need to consider during this process, and what do you do?

As the Facilitator:

• Treat each termination as if it were your own.
• Use Civility, Courtesy, Candor (“Because of your continued poor performance…”)
• Make it business. Do not vent, stay as cool as a chess player.
• If you cannot handle terminations, do not do them/recruit.

For tips to effectively train your people and streamline your organization, and for other solutions to your staffing challenges, visit www.traininginabox.com. Sign up for our free newsletter at www.quicktrainingsolutions.com to make your HR training and development life easier. Ron Nielsen designs and delivers innovative and effective training solutions for businesses through NTG, his business development and training company.

| | |