Situational Leadership and Constructive Discipline

You are the manager of the sales department at Splendor Company. Sally has been your top sales representative consistently for over a year now. She is always in the office first, last to leave, thorough in her paperwork, and receiving praise from the other departments, and she has volunteered several times to test new products with her clients. Recently you have noticed a difference in her performance. This past week she was late to your staff meeting, was not at her desk when you came into the office, and left early. She seems distracted and unfocused compared to her usual behavior in the office. Customer Service sent back two contracts due to missing information on the new client. You just got off the phone with Mark, head of the Accounting Department, who gave you an earful about how Sally "unethically" tried to bend the rules and push a new client through who did not have the appropriate credit ratings. Upon hanging up the phone, you look up to see Sally entering the office. She appears to be in a hurry, glances around to check who else is in the office, and hurries to her cubicle. Glancing at the clock you see it is only 3:45 pm. Sales reps are not usually back in the office at the end of the day before 4:15 pm. You decide to approach Sally and talk about her recent drop in performance.

Answer the following questions by applying the concepts learned in Chapter 10. Also, conduct literature reviews on the subject of discussion and use to support your case study answers:

1. List the data points you have on her current performance. How does this differ from her "usual" performance?
2. What style will you use to start the conversation?
3. How will you know from Sally if that style is working?
4. What type of follow up will you do and why?