Strategies for Supporting Team Members in Need of Change

Leadership Actions for Positive Transformations

Addressing performance concerns with employees is one of the most delicate aspects of leadership. It's not just about pointing out what's going wrong; it's fundamentally about fostering positive change.

At the heart of many performance issues are habits—actions or behaviors that have become automatic and not necessarily aligned with the team's goals or values. As leaders, our challenge is to guide employees not just to recognize these habits but to evolve them intentionally into constructive behaviors.

It's important to recognize that when such issues arise, they often reflect on the environment and leadership as much as on the individual. If an employee has developed habits that work against the desired culture, it's partly because these habits were allowed to form and persist without intervention. This realization isn't about assigning blame—it's about understanding our role as leaders in shaping the behaviors within our teams.

Leadership Responsibility in Habit Formation

As leaders, we must take responsibility for identifying and addressing these habits and for guiding our team members through the process of modifying them. We set the conditions that either discourage habits that work against our culture or encourage those that support it. Acknowledging our part in allowing counterproductive habits to develop is the first step in effectively supporting our employees' growth and development.

It's important to remember, that we don't label these as "bad habits," because no one sets out to develop a detrimental habit. These are simply practices that have formed over time without full awareness of their impacts, and changing them requires a structured, supportive approach.

Never refer to something as a “bad habit.”

We have old habits and new habits.