The Demand

Before your next shift, you name one cast member you have not read accurately in the last thirty days. Not their performance. Them. What they are carrying, what they are moving toward, what they need from the operation right now that the operation is not providing. If you skip this, you keep managing a person you do not actually know, and every accountability conversation you have with them lands as enforcement instead of growth.

The Work

  1. List every cast member you lead. Next to each name, write whether you have had a real, non-task conversation with them in the last thirty days. Be honest about the gap.
  2. Pick the name with the biggest gap. Before your next shift with them, find two minutes and ask one question that has nothing to do with the shift: what they are working toward, what they are dealing with outside the building, what they need more or less of from you.
  3. Write down what you learn. This is the first entry in the relationship record you keep on this person going forward.
  4. Audit your last five accountability conversations with this cast member. For each one, mark whether the relationship account was full or empty going in. If it was empty, that conversation landed as enforcement, not development.
  5. This week, make one deposit before you make any withdrawal. Hold a standard with an explanation, not just a demand, at least once with this person before Friday.

By Friday, you have had one real conversation with the cast member you knew least, and you have made at least one deposit into that relationship before asking anything else of them.