The Demand

The next time you have an underperforming cast member, you run the full corrective action sequence this week instead of avoiding the conversation or using it as a weapon. If you avoid it, the cost does not disappear — it shows up in a cast member who never improves, a team that quietly lowers its own standard, and a Guest experience that erodes one dropped standard at a time.

The Work

  1. Before you write anyone up, answer two questions in writing: does this person know exactly what the standard is, and have they been given the tools and training to meet it? If either answer is no, fix that first — the correction starts with you.
  2. Determine whether this is a will problem or a skill problem. A values problem gets a short conversation: here is the standard, here is what you are doing, here is what happens if it continues. A systems or development problem gets the full six-step sequence.
  3. Before you correct, build. Name something specific and real the person does well. Then share a time you made a similar mistake. Only then move to the correction itself.
  4. Run the six steps in order: define the specific gap (behavior, situation, shift — not a generality), name the cause (will or skill), set the exact expectation going forward, name the support you are committing to provide, set a check-back date with a defined improvement target, and document what was agreed.
  5. Before you hold anyone accountable for a Guest complaint tied to a system you control — a crashing POS, an understaffed line, a three-approval comp process — fix the system first this week.
  6. If the gap does not close after one full, supported correction cycle, move to the values conversation. Do not run a third development cycle on a problem that has already been supported twice.

This week, you run the complete six-step corrective action sequence, in writing, on the underperformer you have been avoiding or over-punishing.