After having assessed your apprentice’s skill and will use one of the following approaches depending on the appropriate style.
Direct (skill and will are both low)
First build the will
- Provide clear briefing daily of tasks to be done
- Identify motivations
- Develop a vision of future performance
Then build the skill
- Structure tasks for ‘quick wins’
- Mentor and train
Then sustain the will
- Provide frequent feedback
- Praise and encourage
BUT supervise closely with control and clear rules and boundaries
Guide (low skill, high will)
Invest time early on
- Mentor and train
- Answer questions/explain until you’re sure they understand
- Create a risk free environment to allow early ‘mistakes’/learning
- Relax control as progress is shown
Excite (high skill, low will)
Invest time early on
- Identify the reason for low will
- Motivate
- Monitor, feedback
Delegate (skill and will are both high)
Provide increasing freedom to do the job
- Set objective not method
- Praise, don’t ignore
- Encourage apprentice to take responsibility
- Involve in decision making where you can
- Use ‘you tell me what you think’
- Give more stretching tasks
- Don’t over manage
A useful tip is to draw up a plan using the tactic(s) provided for the particular situation for this person.
