Coaching Tip for Leaders: When an Employee Won’t Comply

What do you do when you’ve communicated the expectation, provided support, followed up and the employee still isn’t complying?

In this coaching-focused episode of The Road to an Effective Classroom Environment, Dr. Lashawnte McCray-Sarvis explores one of the more challenging responsibilities of leadership: addressing employee non-compliance without allowing frustration, emotion, or power struggles to drive the conversation.

Leaders are encouraged to first determine what they’re really dealing with: Is it a clarity problem, a capacity problem, or an accountability problem?

This episode provides practical coaching questions and strategies leaders can use to clarify expectations, uncover barriers, establish ownership, document concerns, and determine when it’s time to move from coaching to formal accountability.

The key takeaway?

Coach for clarity. Support for capacity. Hold accountable for choices.

Effective leadership requires both compassion and accountability. You can support your employees, listen to their concerns, and provide opportunities for growth while still maintaining clear expectations and professional standards.

If you’re a school administrator, instructional leader, supervisor, or anyone responsible for leading others, this episode will help you approach difficult employee conversations with greater clarity, confidence, and intentionality.

Transcript

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SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome back to the Road to an Effective Classroom Environment. I am your host, Dr. Lashanta, known as that Classy Sassy Consultant. Today I want to put on my coaching hat and talk directly to leaders. Whether you are in business, whether you're in education, organizational leadership, this message is for you. So here's the situation: you have communicated an expectation. You've sent the email, you've had the conversation, you've provided the resources, and the employee still isn't doing what is expected. So, what do you do when an employee simply will not comply? For many leaders, the first instinct is frustration. And this is something that we all will experience at some point because we are human. You may say to yourself, I've already told you to do this, or you've even told the individual. Or you say, Why do I have to keep asking? Or everyone else is doing it. But before we label an employee as difficult, defiant, or non-compliant, I want leaders to ask a different question. Is this a clarity problem, a capacity problem, or an accountability problem? That distinction matters because each one requires a different leadership response. So before responding to the behavior, you need to determine what is actually happening. So here are three questions that I want you to consider. The first question is: Does the employee clearly understand the expectation? Because sometimes leaders, we believe that we've communicated clearly because we've sent an email or we have mentioned something during a staff meeting, but communication does not automatically equal understanding. So you want to ask, tell me your understanding of the expectation. Do you notice the difference there? You aren't asking, did you understand? Because most people are going to say yes. You're asking them to explain their understanding. Now you can determine whether there is actually a gap in communication. The second question you want to think about is does the employee have the capacity to meet the expectation? Because maybe they understand what you want, but don't know how to do it. And that changes the entire coaching conversation. So you might ask, what is preventing you from completing this successfully? Or what support or resource do you need to meet this expectation? This gives the employee an opportunity to identify a legitimate barrier. But here's the most important part Support should not become an indefinite substitute for accountability. A leader can provide support and still expect results. And then the third question you want to ask is the employee choosing not to meet the expectation? This is where leadership becomes, sometimes for some uncomfortable. If the expectation is reasonable and clearly communicated, aligned with the policy and the employee's responsibilities, and the employee has the ability and resources to meet it, but repeatedly chooses not to, then we are no longer dealing with a coaching issue alone. We are dealing with an accountability issue. And leaders cannot coach around accountability forever. So let's dive more into this. When an employee repeatedly refuses to comply, leaders can become emotionally attached to the situation. And this is not the time to become emotionally attached. As a leader, you may start to think this person is disrespecting me, this person is challenging my authority, and this person is trying to make me look bad. Be careful, be very careful with those thoughts. Because once leadership becomes personal, the conversation can quickly become about winning instead of solving the problem. So move from emotion to evidence. And instead of saying you never do what I ask you to do, say this. That's evidence. Instead of saying you have a bad attitude about this, try saying this. We've discussed the expectation three times and it remains incomplete. Help me understand what's preventing you from meeting it. Now you have changed the conversation. You're not attacking the employee's character, you're addressing observable behavior. That is a major distinction for leaders. Address the behavior, document the behavior, don't diagnose the person. So here's one of my favorite question coaching questions for leaders dealing with repeated noncompliance. What can I expect from you moving forward? And then I just stop talking. Allow the employee to answer. Sometimes we talk too much during difficult conversations because silence makes us uncomfortable, but silence creates space for ownership. And you want to follow up with, what will you do differently? And the next follow-up question would be when can I expect this to be completed? Now the employee has articulated the commitment, the conversation is no longer simply the leader told me what to do. It becomes I stated what I would do, that creates ownership. But there is another piece to this as well. The leader must follow up. Ah, inspect what you expect. If you continuously establish expectations without following up when you are ignored, you unintentionally teach people that your expectations are optional. This may be the most important part of today's episode. Not every performance problem can be coached away. Coaching is powerful, but coaching requires participation. The employee has a role in the process. And if you have already clearly communicated the expectation, verified understanding, provided reasonable support, identified barriers, established a timeline, followed up and documented the conversations, and the employee continues to choose not to comply, then you, as the leader, may need to move from a coaching conversation into the organization's formal accountability or progressive discipline process. And that does not mean coaching failed. Sometimes effective leadership means recognizing when the issue has moved beyond coaching. This is where leaders should follow organizational policy and work with human resources or the appropriate supervisor. Here's the distinction. Coaching asks, how can I help you meet the expectation? Accountability asks, now that the expectation and support are clear, what happens if you choose not to meet it? Strong leaders understand how to do both. Here's the framework that you can use in your conversations. You can start off with a clarifying statement. The expectation is, and fill in the blank, explain. A verifying statement. Tell me your understanding of that expectation. Asking the employee to verify. Explore. Exploring question could be what is preventing you from meeting it? Meeting that expectation. A supporting question would be, what support do you need from me? Establishing ownership. A question that you can ask is what can I expect from you moving forward? And then set the timeline. Give a time. Clarify the accountability. Your statement can start off with, I want to be clear that meeting this expectation is required. If it continues to go unmet, we'll need to address it through the appropriate accountability process. Then document the conversation. Not because you're trying to catch the employee. Document because clarity protects everyone. So here's my coaching tip for the leaders this week. Don't confuse compassion with avoiding accountability. You can listen, you can coach, you can provide resources, you can give someone an opportunity to improve, and you can still hold the line. Leadership isn't about proving that you're in charge, it's about creating clarity around what the organization needs and helping people understand their responsibility in achieving it. So the next time you find yourself saying, How many times do I have to tell this employee, just stop? Stop in your tracks. Ask yourself, is this a clarity problem? Or is this a capacity problem? Or it just might be an accountability problem. Because once you correctly diagnose that problem, you can choose the appropriate leadership response. And remember, you want to coach for clarity, support for capacity, hold accountable for choices. This is our coaching tip for the week. I'm Dr. Lashonta, known as that Classy Sassy Consultant. And this has been the road to an effective classroom environment. Until next time, keep coaching, keep leading, and keep building capacity.