The Demand

Before you respond to your next underperforming cast member, you diagnose which of the two problems you actually have — cares but can’t execute, or can execute and doesn’t care. If you apply the same response to both, you waste the conversation and the cast member stays exactly where they are.

The Work

  1. Name the specific cast member you are currently struggling with. Write down what they are failing to do.
  2. Answer directly: is their commitment real and their capability undeveloped, or is their capability intact and their commitment absent? Use evidence from the last two weeks, not a general impression.
  3. If it is a capability gap, build competence under them this week — pair them with a stronger performer for their next shift, walk the specific task with them before service, and check the result at the end of that shift.
  4. If it is a commitment gap, do not schedule more training. Have the direct conversation this week about why they show up and what they are actually getting from the work. If you cannot give them a reason to care, move to the corrective conversation.

Before the next shift, you have made the call — capability or commitment — and taken the matching action, not a generic one.