Coaching for Success
Coaching helps your staff become better problem-solvers, learn new skills, and meet their goals.
Spend time coaching when it’s worth your time to do so—when the risk of your employee failing in this part of their role is too high—or when they ask for help.Coaching for Improved Work Performance [Fou00]Managing a Struggling Employee [Der03] People may not be aware that they are stuck or that their work is at risk—that’s the time to coach.
- Coaching is a kind of helping.
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Coaching doesn’t mean you rush in to solve the problem. Coaching helps the other person see more options and choose from them. Coaching helps another person develop new capability with support.
- Generate options.
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Our rule of thumb is to generate at least three reasonable options for solving any problem (see the sidebar Rule of Three). Generating three options breaks the logjam. Rather than offer options on a silver plate, collaboratively generate and discuss options with the employee.Coaching for Improved Work Performance [Fou00]
- Walk through implications.
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Jointly review the implications of various options to help choose the most appropriate one. Helping someone think through the implications is the meat of coaching.
- Develop an action plan.
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Outline the first steps necessary to take action. Options without actions don’t happen.
- Follow up on progress during one-on-ones.
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One-on-ones provide you the perfect opportunity to ask about progress, provide support, and ask whether more help is wanted.
- Coaching goes only so far.
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When you find yourself coaching someone about the same issues over and over, decide whether the person has the ability to learn from your coaching. The failure may be due to your coaching or the other person’s abilities. You may be missing an underlying issue. It’s also possible that the person is in the wrong job.
If you believe someone needs coaching to be successful, and he or she isn’t interested, don’t coach. Move into corrective feedback and possibly a get-well plan.Coaching for Improved Work Performance [Fou00]