Julian Scadden

Many times in calls with contractors or business coaches, I hear about an employee who attended some form of training and as a result changed behavior that improved performance. While noticing big improvement after training is common, what is commonly missed is the employee who is already doing well and continues to do well for an extended period of time after training. Then “out of nowhere” this consistently good employee’s performance drops.

Almost every time we look into what happened, we find the feedback, follow-up, and support the employee received in the months following training was not consistent over time. By the time I reach the employee I find he or she is not working far off of the training, but is so good at the process a few of the smaller details are being forgotten. And those little details can make or break a process.

How can something so small get missed? It’s easy to miss the small details in a familiar process, which is where an objective view from a coach can help. Most good employees will always do well with training you provide, but for their performance to go from good to great is all in the fine tuning. Leaving “good enough” employees alone allows them to slide below average eventually.

Share how you keep your team focused on the details or ask any question in the comment section below.