7 Ways to Correct Team Members Correctly

As leaders, it is part of our job to make our teams run smoother and get better results by correcting behaviors that run contrary to maintaining a productive and healthy team.

This means that leaders need to handle corrective procedures correctly.

The way a leader handles correction is important if they desire to keep quality people on their team.

All of us occasionally need someone to help us become better at what we do. Becoming better should be the end-goal of correction.  All of us make mistakes.  Avoiding the corrective procedure keeps the organization from being all it can be. Good leaders use correction to improve people and the organization.

Here are 7 aspects of healthy correction:

Relationship

Corrective actions should start here.  It’s hard to correct people effectively if you don’t have a relationship with them.  Using authority without an established relationship may work in a bureaucratic organization, but not in a team environment.  Relationship building should begin before the need for correction.

Respect

Never condemn the person.  As soon as correction becomes more personal than practical, the one being corrected becomes defensive and the leader loses the value of the correction. Focus attention on the actions being corrected and not the person.  (Even if the correction involves a character issue, if you intend to retain the person, you will accomplish more if he or she knows they have your respect.)

Reprimand

Make sure the action being correction is clear and the person knows what they did wrong.  Don’t wait until the problem is too large to restore the person to the team.  Even though protecting the relationship is important, the person doesn’t need to leave still clueless that there is a problem.

Refocus

In addition to telling the person what he or she did wrong, help them learn from their mistakes.   Spend time discussing how the person can improve in the area of performance being corrected.

Restore

Make sure the person being corrected knows you still believe in their abilities and that you have faith they can do the job for which they are responsible.  Correction is never easy to accept, but the goal should be to improve things following the corrective period.  People will lose heart for their work if they do not think their work is still valued.

Reinforce

Correction can be a valuable time for the team member and organization if used appropriately.  It should be a learning time for the leader and the person being corrected.

Use this as a time to remind the team member of the culture, vision, goals and objectives of the organization, as necessary to improve the team member’s performance.

The leader should consider how he or she can improve to help the team member improve.

Replace

Some people simply aren’t a fit for the team. The problem could be them or the team.  Making the call to replace a team member is hard, but sometimes necessary to continue the progress of the organization.   The sooner this call is made the better it will be for everyone.  (If it reaches this point, the leader should spend time evaluating what went wrong with the relationship…was it the person, the organization, or the leader?)

Leaders, do you avoid correction?  Are you using it for the good of the organization and the people on your team? I would love to hear your suggestions to help with proper corrective procedures!

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Ron Edmondson is Co-Pastor at Grace Community Church
He specializes in Communication, Strategy, Org Behavior, Mgmt and Marketing
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