What to Do When People Don't Follow Through
By Tony Stoltzfus, professional coach and
coach trainer
You've
just started a coaching appointment, and the first thing you discover is that
the person sitting across from you didn't do half of his action steps—for the
second week in a row. Do you confront, cajole, encourage, get frustrated, or
just let it go by?
A
challenge all coaches face (and they face it often!) is what to do when people
don't get their action steps done. The key to handling a failure to follow
through is maintaining the grace vs. truth balance. You want to continue to
offer unconditional acceptance without just letting people slide completely off
the hook. A guiding principle I use in these situations is, "Give grace
but don't lower the standard." That means that I don't go negative when people fail—like showing disappointment in
them, or pointing out that they blew it, or getting prickly about doing it
right. However, I do keep expecting
that they will complete the task. In other words, don't punish people when they
fail, but do help them recommit, and then nail down what they intend to do.
Give grace, but maintain a high expectation that if we set out to do something,
we're going to get it done.
Here
are five practical techniques to help you do just that:
1. Check for Buy-in
When
an action step doesn't get done (especially if it happens more than once), one
question that often should be asked is, is this the right step? The client must
be internally motivated to consistently succeed at their action steps. So think
back: was this a step the client came up with, or one you suggested or
requested? If not, or if it is not clear that the client really cares about
this, ask, "Is this a step you still want to take?" or "Is this still
important enough to you to get done?" As a coach, you need to be ready to
hear a "No" as well as a "Yes"—in other words, you have to
make this a real question and not a rhetorical one. This technique offers the
added benefit of having the client re-verbalize their commitment to the step.
2. Identify and Troubleshoot Obstacles
I
didn't do a great job on my own steps this week. But then, I was out of town at
an intensive Engaging the Heart
retreat for 5 days. Often an obstacle or a "life happens"
circumstance will crop up and short-circuit the best laid plans. When a step
doesn't get done, it is always a great practice to ask, "Tell me more
about that. What happened?" Sometimes you'll uncover an important
obstacle, and find that dealing with that obstacle was much more
transformational than the original action step itself.
3. Reset for Next Week
A great application of the
"Give grace but don't lower the standard" principle is simply
resetting the step for the following week. If the person still wants to do the
step, and you've made sure there aren't any major obstacles blocking them, just
ask for a new deadline. Give grace for their failure to complete it, but don't
allow the step to just face away: help the client either make a decisive choice
to do it or a clear choice to let it go.
4. Nail Things Down Tighter
Often if it is the second time
around on a step, I will ask for more detail on how it will be done. "What
day will you do that?" "How much time will that step take, and when
can you schedule that block of time?" or "Is there anything else you
need to make sure that step happens?" Partly you are ramping up the
accountability, and partly you are helping the person develop a more detailed
plan for how they will actually get the thing done.
5. Reconnect with Their Motivation
Bobb Biehl says, "Without an
adequate answer to the questions, 'Why?'. the price is always too high."
Sometimes you need to reconnect people to why they chose to take a step in the
first place. "What motivated you to set out to do this?" "What will
it mean to you if you accomplish this?" or "What will it cost you if
you don't get this done?" are all good ways to help a person find a
compelling reason to follow through on what they know they need to do.