Many of us struggle to agree goals with our team members around ‘behaviour change’ or ‘interpersonal/people skills’.

We might say something like ‘I’d like you to be more proactive’ or ‘more of a team player’ or ‘more assertive’.

But these statements are way too vague and open to interpretation.

So, let’s get rid of the ambiguity with my two-step process. 

Here’s an example:

Let’s say you want Sue to improve her communication skills.

Step One 

Ask yourself: What’s the impact of Sue’s communication skills on you or others?
Say it out loud or write it down as if you were telling a story or talking to a friend.

You might say:
‘Sue’s great but she’ll never use two words when twenty will do. She’s unprepared a lot of the time and she waffles so we get confused and lose interest. She seems completely unaware that people are looking at their watches and switching off...