Introducing the ... Nementor. Part nemesis, all mentor. After they destroy you, they tell you how they did it. Or sometimes they go easy on you when they see you might get it.
We would work out adjacent to each other in an empty gym twice a week and I could observe their workouts.
Sorry if that's shirking your question but wouldn't want to overstate and offer something incorrect.
Whereas personal trainers (as opposed to professional trainers and more in line with the previous comment's thought of a single nemesis/mentor) would need to be that external source of discipline, as well.
Totally guessing here, no experience in the training world whatsoever, feel free to tell me I'm way off base.
I once worked for a mentor of mine using elements of Provicative Therapy and thought zhat was weird… not doubting the effectivity anymore.
http://www.provocativetherapy.com/what-is-provocative-therap...
It deeply saddens me because it means saddistic managers obtain better results, and people perform better by being talked down. And that’s not a path I want to take and it’s hard to find the way to both congratulate people and get them to excel at their work (FYI we’re at 35h/week and we don’t do overtime here).
Is your interview process perhaps over-indexing academic performance or some similarly time wasting achievement?
Within the context of a dysfunctional, fear-driven company, these sadistic techniques might squeeze better performance out of certain workers, but a force of creative, thoughtful, talented, self-motivated workers will work elsewhere. While I have worked in a few dysfunctional, fear-driven companies over the years, I did not see any of them grow or hold onto talent over time. The best companies I've worked at terminate abusive managers if they accidentally hire one. They take kindness and empathy very seriously.
Seems that you hire people who are good at bullshitting during the interview, not the ones who are actually good at their job (what is not easy btw, many people are bad at bullshitting and bad at their jobs).
Obviously most interns are green, but it seems you get the ones who are good at the interview phase and expect them to read your mind somehow and acquire the skills that.. you dont teach them. Do they know that they are supposed to do the things you want? Are they told how?
Also it is pretty funny that after 3 years of management you didnt notice that what all those failed interns have in common is... you.