Chapter 12
Steps to Effective Coaching

As a manager, you’re responsible for making sure that work gets done promptly and properly. That’s what “managing” means.

But for a supervisor who manages by coaching, getting the work done is only part of the job. The other part, sometimes the more important part, is developing employees to be able to function effectively and independently, as well as grow into new skills and abilities.

Here are the key steps to help you in this process when coaching your employees.

Step 1. Build rapport

Step 2. Identify issue or goal

Step 3. Create vision

Step 4. Brainstorm approaches

Step 5. Establish action plan

Step 6. Commitment and accountability

Step 7. Acknowledgment

Step 8. Follow-up

Note that these are tasks for you as coach, not for employees.

Does this seem like overkill—too much structure to apply to what might be a quick hallway meeting or when someone pops in your office with a question? You have to be the judge. You won’t need all these steps in every situation (or they may seem to blend together and not be discrete), and you can use this process informally when the situation warrants. But be wary not to skip steps, especially the first few times you try it. This method has been tested, and it works.

To best explain the process, we use a case example.

---

Your company has gotten too big for its parking lot, and the informal rule of “survival of the quickest” has started to create tension among the staff and some problems for individual employees.

The lot behind the building used to be more than adequate for employees. Those who got there earliest got the best spots, closest to the door, but late arrivals still had plenty of spaces to choose from.

---

The workforce has expanded, but the parking lot hasn’t. Street parking is metered, and there’s a four-hour limit. There’s a large garage three blocks away, but the daily cost for parking is somewhat high, as it’s meant to be an hourly lot for downtown shoppers, and people don’t want to walk to work in bad weather. There’s a lot of grumbling. You’re also getting complaints about double parking and cars blocking other cars in the lot. A new strip mall is opening two blocks away, so street parking and garage parking will only get worse.

You decide to call in your top lieutenant, Fran Quigley, and turn the problem over to her. Rather than just dumping the mess on her desk and walking away, you’ll work through the eight-step process to coach her to a successful solution and develop her confidence and competence as a problem solver.

Step 1: Build Rapport

An important (and sometimes overlooked) first step in effective coaching is building rapport. You need to connect with the person who comes to you, and establish a space in which you can move forward together. Sometimes this means setting someone at ease, and sometimes it means matching their emotional energy. In any case, establishing rapport allows you both to play on the same field, so you’ll be working together instead of at parallel or cross-purposes.

---

Professional coaches must spend time in each coaching session building rapport with a client. They do not have the luxury of working with them all day, every day, and so must create an environment of trust, openness, and creativity in the first few minutes of any coaching session.

As a manager, you know your employees very well, and this makes establishing rapport a little easier. Be sure you don’t neglect this stage, assuming you can just jump right in to coaching. You may have great working relationships with your team, but if a highly agitated worker comes to you, he will need an entirely different kind of communication and response from you than he would during a quick hallway chat. A moment or two to establish the appropriate connection serves you well in moving forward. The employee will feel that you respect his or her situation, viewpoint, opinions, and even emotions. This opens the door for them to be coached effectively.

How do you establish rapport? You’ll use many of the tools already discussed in this book:

Body language that’s open and invites communication; matching the body language and energy of the employee (see Chapter 4).

Employing powerful listening strategies so that the employee feels heard and valued (see Chapter 6).

Asking effective coaching questions with genuine curiosity (see Chapter 5).

Focusing as much as possible on the worker and his or her worldview and capabilities (see Chapter 2).

Possibly acknowledging and reassuring the person about his or her actions and the validity of his or her opinion and experience.

You and Fran hold a meeting in her office about the parking lot issue. As you arrive at her office, you see her wrapping up a phone call (she waves for you to come on in). You sit down, politely waiting until she finishes up. When she hangs up, she seems a bit frazzled and turns to you, asking if you’re ready to start.

---

Instead of jumping in immediately, you say, “Actually, I’m not in a rush. Take a moment! Get some more coffee, take a deep breath.” You smile as you say it, and lean back, showing with your body how relaxed you are.

Fran grins appreciatively and gets up to refill her coffee mug. When she comes back, she is visibly calmer. She silences her cell phone and turns off her computer screen. She pulls out her notepad, ready to get to work. You begin by asking about her kids—her son had a big soccer game over the weekend, and her daughter is in the class play. She smiles, and gives you a quick update. She asks how your weekend was, and you give her a few details of your trip to the art museum to see the new exhibit.

After a little chitchat, you get down to business.

Step 2: Identify the Issue or Goal

The way you name the issue at hand largely determines how you’ll try to solve it—and your chances of succeeding. In Chapter 7, we discussed at length how to create solutions (and solve problems) using a coaching framework. The techniques discussed there begin with defining the opportunity and goal, a critical step. You both need to be on the same page, or else you’ll be working to different ends.

In this case, you and Fran might attribute the parking lot congestion to

too many cars

too few free parking spaces (lot is too small)

poor building location

inadequate public transportation

uncooperative worker-commuters

timing (everybody wants and needs to park at the same time)

These might all be aspects of the main problem—or valid ways of naming the overall issue. The point is to view the situation from as many perspectives as possible.

Don’t hesitate to reiterate or restate the issue to clarify communication. You can say something as simple as, “Before we move on, I want to be absolutely sure we’re on the same page! Here’s what we are addressing … Do I have that right?”

---

When you’ve clarified the problem, you’ll need to check and make sure it’s something within your control to do something about. In the parking lot dilemma, you and Fran examine the list of contributing factors and quickly realize what you can and can’t change. You can’t change the location of the building, availability of public transit, or availability of free parking on the street or in the garage (at least not in the short run). You can influence the number of cars needing to use the lot, the timing of business hours, and possibly the cooperation of your employees. Focus on what is changeable so that you have effective brainstorming later.

You come up with the following description of the desired solution: Ameliorate congestion in on-site company parking lot.

Step 3: Create Vision

Before getting into the nitty-gritty of brainstorming action items, it pays to take a moment to imagine what you are trying to do when you work at solving the problem. This is a key aspect of coaching: creating the positive vision.

This doesn’t have to be a difficult or time-consuming step. After defining the issue at hand, you can then explore what the changes might be, and how it impacts individuals, your department, the whole company, and beyond.

You ask Fran, “So, if we come up with a good solution to the parking issue, what happens then? What do you think will change around here?”

---

Fran thinks and says, “Well, I think the grumbling will quiet down! Maybe folks would be happier when they arrive at work, if they haven’t had to scramble for a spot. So many people come in grumpy right now! I’d like to have a more positive environment to start the day, for all of us.”

Step 4: Brainstorm Approaches

You’ve built rapport, defined the issue at hand, and gotten a vision of what you want to accomplish. Now you start brainstorming action steps to creating the solution you want (see Chapter 7 for some guidelines on effective brainstorming). At this phase, you’re throwing out ideas for moving forward and not worrying about what you’ll choose to do just yet.

Brainstorming opens up the creativity of you and your employee, and sometimes you get a synergistic effect by the two of you working together. You’ll tap into knowledge, expertise, viewpoint, awareness, and information flowing from both of you.

Remember the two basic principles for effective brainstorming:

Uncouple the idea from the person offering the idea. You’re the boss, but in a brainstorming session, you and the employee are equals.

Don’t judge any idea until you’ve listed all the options you can come up with.

You and Fran may not be able to do anything substantial about some of the contributing factors to the parking problem (public transportation, building location), at least not right away. (However, you do consider some options for approaching these issues later.) You want a solution to the parking mess now.

You might be able to influence the “rush hour” fight for parking spaces. Staggering work hours might help the problem. In fact, management has discussed that possibility, along with flex time, job sharing, and working from home (telecommuting) as ways to improve productivity and employee morale (as well as parking). But you’ve been told that any major change initiative is at least a year away (a pilot program is in place testing telecommuting in one department, but it has only just started).

After working together for a few minutes, you and Fran come up with the following description of the overall thrust of the action plan: Reduce or eliminate parking congestion by developing alternatives to single-passenger car commuting among company employees.

After the two of you spend a little time shooting out more specific ideas, you come up with several potential approaches, with a few variations on each.

Stronger enforcement to eliminate double parking and the use of the lot by nonemployees—signage, threats, fines, towing

Expand the parking lot—onto adjacent land, or build private parking garage

Carpools—voluntary? mandatory?

Encouragement of alternative transportation—bike club, covered bike rack, discount bus passes

Assigned parking spaces—by seniority? distance driven from work? job classification?

Now you can discuss, sort, and judge those approaches. You rule out stronger enforcement almost immediately. Not only would it have little effect on the underlying problem of too many cars for too few spaces, but it would create new problems, in terms of employee resentment and frustration (and possibly pushing away customers and clients as well). Why punish employees for trying to cope with a situation that’s beyond their control?

Expanding the parking lot also won’t work—there’s no available land to expand onto, and creating a multistory garage on the existing lot is prohibitively expensive.

Mandatory carpools carry potential for backlash and raise the problem of enforcement. What’s the “or else” for a worker who refuses to share a car? Besides, what happens to employees who regularly stay late to finish a project? If they’re required to carpool, you lose their flexibility and maybe undermine their commitment to doing a better job.

Trying to encourage voluntary carpooling starts to sound like a viable option, especially because almost everybody comes and goes at the same times.

Although both you and Fran like the idea of encouraging voluntary carpooling, you continue to discuss other options.

What about assigned parking spaces? That idea may be feasible and simple to implement, but it has some subtle serious side effects. In fact, when Fran offered it during brainstorming, you had to fight the urge to reject it. “Just write it down,” you reminded yourself. “Don’t judge. Not yet.”

In light of the company’s commitment to bottom-up management and the elimination of caste systems in the workplace, assigned spaces would be a step backward in the move toward greater equality.

A “bike to work” program also sounds promising, but before investing time and money in the possibility of encouraging employees to commute by bike—at least in the warmer months—you decide to create a worker survey, asking how many employees own bikes, live within feasible biking distance, and would consider biking to work. You realize that this kind of program needs more time to be developed with full company support, because you’ll need to allow for physical capabilities and safety issues (some of the streets leading to your site are quite busy, a situation that will get worse with the new shopping area). Also, some employees would probably look less professional after biking several miles on a warm summer morning. This idea is put on the back burner for future development.

You also decide to check with the city transportation department regarding the possibility of getting discount bus ticket books for employees and checking with upper management on the possibility of the company subsidizing all or part of the cost of the passes. You then realize that you can approach the owners of the paid parking garage and find out about arranging a monthly parking pass for employees, possibly subsidized by the company, but in any case with a substantial discount.

“Whatever system we work out,” Fran said, laughing, “we’ll have to deal with those idiotic delivery vans.”

Good point. Despite your company’s best attempts at diplomacy with the drivers, delivery vans are constantly angled across two spaces, blocking doors and walkways, or keeping employees from going out for lunch.

“Let’s assign them spaces someplace in the next county,” you suggest, with a grin.

Then the light bulb goes on above Fran’s head: “How about a loading zone, right out in front of the building?”

“We could create a 15-minute area …”

---

“We’d get the vans out of the lot. That would help some.”

After just a few minutes of focused brainstorming, followed by a little critical analysis, you and Fran have come up with a number of possible approaches to the perplexing parking problem. You’re feeling pretty good and ready to move forward.

Step 5: Establish Action Plan

Create a simple to-do list for the chosen course of action. Next to each task, note who will take responsibility for making sure it gets done. Be very clear about who does what.

For the parking problem, the list might look like this.

1. Mark employee residences on an area map and create sign-up lists for voluntary carpooling. (Fran’s assistant, Gerald)

2. Hang the map in the break room with the sign-up lists. (Gerald)

3. Put an article on the company intranet and online newsletter talking up the benefits of carpooling. (Fran)

4. Check with upper management about the possibility of establishing a 15-minute delivery zone in front of the building. (You)

5. Create and send out a survey to determine to what extent employees are able and willing to consider biking to work. (Fran)

6. Check with the city transportation department about getting discount bus tickets. (You)

7. Check with parking garage owners about monthly parking passes. (You)

8. Get the subject of bus subsidies on the agenda for the next upper management meeting. (You)

Deadlines

Don’t duck the all-important question of “when?” Without a specific deadline, a task may never become a priority, so it may not get done—or it may be done in haste, when somebody thinks to ask about it. Set a deadline for each item on the to-do list. Better still, write down exactly when you intend to do the task.

---

Don’t just stop at picking a deadline—schedule when you will take action, writing down when you will do each step! If it’s on your calendar to do in steps (i.e., “research bus pass rates, find appropriate contact information for the city, schedule meeting, hold meeting”), you’re more likely to get to work, rather than just seeing the deadline of when it has to be done and trying to jam it all in at the last minute.

Establish Criteria for Evaluation

An important step in developing an action plan is to establish criteria for evaluation. Make sure you know exactly what outcomes you want and how you’ll know when you get them.

Your major focus in the case example is carpooling. You need to answer some questions to create your evaluation guidelines. How many people need to start sharing rides for the program to be a success? How will you know they’re actually doing it? Don’t get off the track here by thinking that “20 percent is a good participation rate for anything in this company” or “we’d be doing well to get 100 employees involved.” Think in terms of your goal. Will 20 percent be enough, and how would you know you’ve reached this level? More to the point, how many cars will those 100 employees be sharing—50, 30, 25? How much will that improve the parking situation? How much will you need to count on bikes and buses?

In this case, you and Fran decide on specific evaluation criteria for determining whether the parking problem solutions are successful:

---

20 percent of workforce committing to voluntary carpooling (counted by checking the sign-up sheets for number of names, and conducting surveys to find out who is carpooling and the results)

creation of the loading zone (easily evaluated—it’s either done or not done)

survey response of at least 20 employees interested in biking to work

survey response of at least 20 employees interested in the discounted bus passes (assessed through a survey, delivered next month)

Step 6: Commitment and Accountability

“Let’s make it happen!” Part of coaching involves getting commitment to the action plan. In the workplace, this is often implied because tasks have been assigned, so they “must” be done. Even so, taking a moment to get a clear statement of commitment can really serve everyone involved. You don’t have to get corny and pretend to be a cheerleader, saying “Let’s go, team!” A simple “Ready to get to work?” will serve fine.

Don’t forget your own commitment. What can you as manager do to help employees succeed? Restate your commitments from the action plan, if need be.

You’ve already gotten involved by taking on the tasks most appropriate for you. Consider, too, anything Fran might need to help her get her tasks done. Maybe you could give her a few quotes for her article on carpooling to show that management is supportive and involved in solving the parking problem. How about Gerald? Would he like you to informally talk with the employees and encourage them to sign up to carpool? To show your commitment here, you can say, “All right, I’ll get to work on those tidbits for your article, and I’ll connect with Gerald to give him the information he needs. I’ll work on getting in touch with the transit authority and parking garage folks in two weeks. I’m excited about this plan!”

Sometimes the best way to facilitate action is to hold your team members accountable for their commitments. Just being the person they report to is sometimes enough to motivate people to get to work and stay on track. Other times, you might need to dangle a reward of some sort to provide some motivation.

In this case, you decide that if the carpooling program is successful, you’ll reward Fran and Gerald with gift cards to the local coffee shop (where they both love to get a morning cup of java). If the program succeeds beyond the goal of 20 percent—say, if you get to 30 percent or more—involvement in carpooling, you’ll double the amounts of the gift cards. When you tell Fran this, you see a gleam in her eye.

Step 7: Acknowledgment

Acknowledgment after a coaching session often gets overlooked in the rush to get out the door and get down to business. Hopefully, you’ve said “nice work!” or “good idea!” along the way. You should consider taking another moment to recognize the work of the employee who was coached. Don’t just focus on their accomplishments—point out what impressed you overall. How did they respond to being coached as opposed to being told what to do? Were they creative, resourceful, knowledgeable, engaged, and invested? If you comment on these things, the employee will know you listened and valued his or her input. You’ll demonstrate the value you put on these big-picture characteristics. And you’ll be more likely to see those positive aspects in the workplace.

As you finish up, you turn to Fran and thank her for her time. You add, “I noticed a lot of creative responses from you, and I appreciate that! I think we brainstorm well together. You put forth some ideas I certainly wouldn’t have thought of, and I can’t wait to see how they get put to use!” She smiles a little bashfully, but seems happy that you’ve noticed her contribution.

Step 8: Follow-Up

As we’ve discussed in this book, follow-up is a critical part of any action plan, and it’s no different with coaching. If you haven’t already crafted a plan for follow-up, make sure you do so before the end of the meeting. Follow-up plays a big role in accountability for a lot of people. Plus, you can use follow-up steps to track progress, change, and success.

The idea isn’t to create an endless chain of meetings. (We all know how that tends to bog down any project!) But you do need to ensure accountability to keep well-intentioned plans from getting lost in the day-to-day shuffle and other crises of the moment. It’s a way of collaboratively enforcing the deadlines. Also, employees who might be hesitant to come talk with you about questions or concerns are more likely to bring them up when they report on their progress.

You set a time to get back together with Fran for a progress report. You figure that after two weeks, you’ll have most of the steps done and will be ready to evaluate how those steps went, what was learned along the way, and launch the carpooling (and evaluation) program.

The Coach’s Checklist for Chapter 12

If you want to use coaching effectively, you’ll need a consistent process for working with your employees.

Step 1 is building rapport, to set the tone for coaching.

Step 2 is making things happen: Identify the issue or goal and describe the desired outcome. Don’t forget to define it accurately.

Step 3 involves creating a positive vision of what you want to accomplish.

Step 4: Brainstorm possible approaches. Don’t forget to encourage people to be open and maybe even a little outrageous. It triggers creativity.

Step 5: Establish an action plan. Assign responsibilities, deadlines, and criteria for evaluation.

Step 6: Get commitment and accountability. Facilitate action. Figure out what your employees need to successfully complete their tasks. Hold them accountable.

Step 7: Acknowledge the good work of your employees, especially their work during the coaching session.

Step 8: Follow-up. Make sure what’s supposed to happen by your deadlines does happen.