Leaders – Are You Issuing the Fine Before the Warning?

I admit that the plot of land in front of our house is hurting.  We have a combination of weeds, grass and random plants that do not look attractive.  I decided to tackle this issue over the weekend and made only a small dent until my weed pulling hands started cramping up.  I was surprised that the next day I was walking like I participated in a rodeo.  Who would have thought my groin muscles would have been so affected by weed pulling activity?  Seriously.

So you can imagine my frustration when I received a ticket from the city for $75 for grass/weeds over 10″ high.   No warning first, no “I’m sorry we have to do this….”  In fact, this ticketing effort is part of a city plan called SWEEP (Streets & Walkways Education and Enforcement Program).  The program brochure talks about recycling and keeping the area clean.  We received the “enforcement” part of the program without the “education” part of the program since we had no idea there was a 10 inch grass height rule.

What does this have to do with your leadership?  Compare me to one of your low performing employees.  When it comes to the annual performance appraisal time do you issue the $75 fine?  Or, is there verbal feedback given at the first notice of a problem that educates your staff person about your expectations and what it takes to get an excellent performance evaluation?  What wording, tone of voice, and emotion are you using when giving the feedback?  Is this a dialogue or a one-way giving of information?

The officers who issued our ticket have no idea how much my husband contributes to the neighborhood’s overall health.  I don’t expect them to but I expect you know what contributions your employee makes to the organization other than the low performing area(s) and that those are considered in your feedback as well.  When we share the Leadership Without Excuses Model we often get comments about how several members of the team are sinners in some ways and saints in other ways and that it’s not a clear cut delineation.  How do you factor this in to your leadership?

Thanks for reading my rant today and I welcome further discussion on this topic of giving feedback and enforcing rules.