Coaching — high direction and high support for the disillusioned learner

When early enthusiasm dips but skill is still forming, combine clear guidance with active encouragement.

Why it works

The hardest phase is the dip after the honeymoon: skill is partial and motivation has fallen as the work turns out to be harder than expected. This person needs both continued direction (skill gap) and explicit support (confidence gap), which is why a one-lever response tends to fail here.

How to do it

1. Keep giving direction, but also explain the reasoning so they’re building judgment.
2. Name the dip openly — normalize that the hard middle is expected, not a sign they’re failing.
3. Pair correction with genuine recognition of progress made.

Evidence

The competence-up/commitment-down "dip" is a recognizable pattern echoed in skill acquisition and motivation research, but the specific staged trajectory is the model’s narrative rather than a measured developmental curve. (anecdotal)

The "dip" is intuitively compelling and widely reported anecdotally but is not established as a reliable, measured stage everyone passes through.

Sources

• Blanchard, Leadership and the One Minute Manager (development-level dip narrative)

Common mistake

Pulling back support precisely when motivation dips because "they should know this by now" — abandoning people in the exact phase they most need both levers.