|
Untitled Document
Coaching and counseling as management skills are often reserved for superb leaders,
yet are traits that all managers must possess to effectively do their jobs.
Although
very different, coaching and counseling are frequently lumped together and
awkwardly performed by untrained managers.Failing to demonstrate able coaching and counseling skills are among the
most common causes for entire departments’ erosion of performance.
Coaching is a proactive and supportive mentoring process to improve an
employee’s
performance and assist him or her when having occasional difficulties. It’s
focus is on maintaining strong performance and improving it further. Many
managers can intuitively coach their employees to some extent however they
usually have
a narrow vocabulary on different coaching techniques and tend to rely on
a one size fits all approach.
Counseling is the structured approach used when an employee displays
below par performance due to either a skill or attitude deficiency.
It’s
focus is on restoring performance to a minimally acceptable level, or failing
that,
removing
the employee from that job.
The coaching process begins by abandoning the mindset that reviews
are dreaded annual distractions. While yearly mile markers are an
important component,
they are just one piece of the puzzle. Coaching takes place every
day, otherwise it’s
a feel good label and little else.
Pop quiz:
Yankee manager Joe Girardi coaches Derek Jeter (choose one):
- One
a year
- Once
a month
- Once
a week
- Every
day
Conceptually we all understand the correct answer, however
garden variety hubris fogs the answer when we think
of ourselves both
as coaches and
as those being
coached.
The foundations of coaching include:
- Yearly developmental plan that includes areas for
growth. These are not remedial areas, but
areas for continued
development
and gratification
of the employee
and company alike. Maintaining the status
quo is not the goal of enlightened managers.
- Discussion,
thought and agreement by the manager and employee on specific actions
required by both
of them
to achieve that
enrichment.
This often
takes place over
several meetings.
- Agreement
to formally meet once a month to review the plan and adjust as
needed.
Manager formally builds into his or her
weekly schedule one-on-one time
for each person.
That may be a few
minutes to review a
given project or an hour
to model
a technique or behavior.
- Manager
also makes it a practice to spontaneously praise and reinforce
desired behavior
and improvement.
Key coaching points
- Dialog
is constant and ongoing, not centered on periodic reviews.
- Comments
are timely (if not immediate), not after some time has passed.
- The
manager advises, but the employee performs. The manager
may provide
advice, but it
is up to the employee
to resolve
a problem
personally.
- Coaching
is overwhelmingly positive or neutral unless
there is clear
evidence that the employee’s
judgement was wrong or
performance was below standards.
- Manager
is approachable. If a weekly meeting is
not held
and the employee
doesn’t
seek the manager out, then that manager
is the power figure and the process
is too reliant
on
the manager and will fail.
The counseling Process
The counseling process is a progressive
sequence of interactions that
result in either restored
performance or the under-performer
leaving
the job (to
another position or company).
Steps for systematic counseling
- Determine if the poor performance
is due to lack of skills
or poor attitude.
Dr. Robert Mager, accomplished
author and world-renowned expert on training and human performance improvement
issues, poses the simple question: Could he do it if his life depended
on it? If no, then it’s a skills issue. If the employee could perform it under
duress, but choses not to, then it’s an attitude problem. Calling it
anything else is a mistake to be avoided.
- Focus
on the demonstrated
behavior
and documented evidence.
- Obtain
agreement on the standard and
actual performance.
- Discuss
the effect of the performance
on others or
the organization.
- Discuss
available alternatives for
the manager and
the consequences
for the
employee.
- Establish
an action plan for
improvement
with dates
and
accountabilities.
Review and
monitor progress.
- Make
a decision.
While this
may seem excessively formal, it’s more
reliable and faster than
more casual approaches,
and protects
the employer from litigation.
It’s helpful to
have a counseling checklist
that is translated into
calendar events, so the
process moves naturally
once established.
Establishing
whether a deficiency is skills or attitude based is important
because it will determine the
resulting corrective
action.
Managers must focus on
observable behavior and
the evidence
for the behavior. Acceptable
examples
of
objective behavioral
assessments:
“
You sat there while the phone rang and didn’t answer it.”- “ Your client reports are three weeks late.”
- “ Three customers have complained about your language.”
Unacceptable examples:
- “
You don’t like to talk to people on the phone.”
- “ Your documentation is sloppy.”
- “
You don’t speak to customers properly.”
Unless
there is agreement on the standard and the actual performance, the counseling
process cannot continue. The employee must acknowledge both, and
many
managers’ inability
to articulate
behavior objectively so the counseling process can occur methodically
leads to
a long slow slide
in performance
to the point where
both the employee
and manager
are in a double spiral of dysfunction.
The inability to articulate behavior
objectively
directly leads to a documentation failure,
which ties
a manager’s
hands down the
line.
Agreement
seeking
questions are
commonly
used by
counseling
managers:
- “ Are you aware that our standards are that every employee is responsible
for answering the
phone within three rings? Am I correct that you continued to work while the
phones at your
desk rang ten times until it stopped?”
- “ Do you acknowledge that client reports are due to be turned in within
two days,
and that you have
not submitted these four clients for three weeks?”
Follow up with concrete explanation of the organizational
consequence:
- “
We’ve learned from industry studies that the company loses customers
when the phones
are not picked up within three rings.“
- “
Our client reports are distributed to the service people and other salespersons
to determine how to best coordinate our approaches so that the customer doesn’t
see us as disjointed,
or contradicting
other divisions.”
Once
agreement on
observable behavior
has been
reached, and
the organizational
implications discussed,
then alternatives
can be
explored. In
some instances
a manager
will have
latitude, and
in others
they will
not.
Managers
should not
worry about
creating precedent
or ‘if I do it for you’ issues,
which are generally veiled delaying maneuvers. If viable options exist which
do not erode that manager’s
responsibilities, they ought
to be
on the table.
The
available alternatives
will determine
what the
action plan
will be,
and must
include specific
steps and
dates, which
must be
documented.
Reviewing
progress and
making decisions
become much
easier as
objective agreement
has been
reached and
is on
the record.
If
this seems
like management
101 and
everyone around
you consistently
performs at
this level,
congratulations. You
are in
the minority.
If
on the
other hand
this seems
like management
101, but
despite knowing
better it
just doesn’t
happen as it should, give us a call.
Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
