Ontario Municipal Human Resources Association

One of the rare benefits of getting old in the HR business is seeing the evolution of how workplaces operate. Over the past 30 or 40 years, managers have evolved in many positive ways. There is greater emphasis on engagement, mental health, and collaboration. But in many organizations, managers have also become reluctant to exercise the authority that is inherent in their job. As a result, they often avoid dealing with everyday “people issues.”

Paradoxically, it’s the small problems managers struggle with the most. Big issues, like fraud or violence in the workplace, have clear legal or HR solutions. But managers and supervisors often avoid addressing the lesser irritants: negative comments in meetings, missed deadlines, careless mistakes, procedural shortcuts, or punctuality problems. Many worry that addressing these issues will damage relationships or disengage employees, especially new ones.

We see this hesitation reflected in management training. Too much of it focuses on what managers should think about when interacting with employees rather than teaching concrete skills. They’re not taught, and they don’t practise, what to actually do and say in the moment.

What do I mean by concrete skills? Imagine an employee who joined the team a couple of months ago. Lately, he’s been scrolling on his phone throughout meetings. The behaviour is becoming disrespectful. The employee, however, is good at their job. The manager knows they should address it, but they don’t want to seem nitpicky or adversarial. That manager needs a clear plan to follow so they can have that conversation while keeping it succinct and finding the right balance between authority and casualness.

In our Turnaround Interview workshops, managers practice a simple, nonconfrontational approach to what we call “early intervention conversations.” These are especially powerful with new employees, when small course corrections can prevent long-term habits from forming.

It works like this.

First, in literal and factual terms, describe what you saw or heard. For example: “In the meeting today, you were looking at your phone for at least 30 of the 40 minutes we were in the boardroom.” Avoid opinions or conclusions like “you weren’t paying attention,” or “you weren’t focused on the meeting.” And avoid adjectives such as “distracted.” Stick to the observable and unarguable fact that “you were looking at your phone.”

Second, ask, “What happened?” The manager’s tone is key here, and it may take practice to get it right. It should sound genuinely curious, not like an interrogation. If the explanation is reasonable, you can acknowledge it and move on. Often, though, you’ll hear a weak excuse (“I had important emails about the project we’re working on”) or an admission (“Yeah, I’m sorry about that. I won’t do it again”).

Third, respond by calmly stating your expectation without lecturing: “Okay, we need to find ways to resist distractions during our meetings.” Using “we need to” instead of “I need you to” keeps the tone collaborative rather than authoritative. The message has landed. There’s no need to rattle on about phones and paying attention in meetings, but that’s often the tendency when you don’t have a plan for what you’re going to say.

This entire conversation takes less than a minute. When used early, especially with new employees, it quietly and casually sets standards and communicates expectations, which prevents minor irritants from becoming entrenched problems.

If a few of these conversations don’t work and the behaviour continues, you’re no longer dealing with an isolated event but a habit. That requires a different, more structured conversation. We call that the “Turnaround Interview,” but that is beyond the scope of this article.

We often see managers struggling to change employee habits that began as small annoyances and grew into serious issues. In hindsight, the manager usually knows the same thing: it would have been far easier to address it early on. It’s so much easier to course correct a new employee than to change an old employee’s entrenched habit. Managers just need to know how. They need to be taught and then to practise what to do and say!

The takeaway for HR is straightforward. If we want to set new employees (and managers) up for success, we need to equip leaders with practical, skill-based tools for everyday interactions. Until our leadership development efforts focus more on skill transfer rather than just knowledge transfer, we’ll continue to miss opportunities to shape positive workplace behaviours from the outset.

Written by: George Raine, Founding Director of Montana Consulting Group