Following 12 weeks of One On Ones, and eight weeks of only positive feedback, followed by eight weeks of both positive and negative feedback, it's time to roll out coaching slowly. Set aside time in your weekly staff meeting, and walk through the four-step Manager Tools Coaching Model. If you have time, give your directs examples of Deadline, Behavior, Quality (DBQ) goals and of how effective tasks are actually deliverables with short deadlines.

You've introduced and started One On Ones after three weeks. You've started giving positive feedback after 12 weeks of having One On Ones, and then you waited eight more weeks to start giving negative feedback.

Eight weeks after that, start coaching one or two top performers. We are now 31 weeks into the rollout process. That's roughly eight months.

It's not a good idea to try to start coaching everyone all at once. Even though it doesn't take as much time as One On Ones, coaching feels more intensive to many managers. It will be more fun to coach a top performer because you probably won't feel that it's a “must improve” situation the way you will feel as you start to coach some of your at-risk performers.

After coaching a couple of your top performers through one or two successful coaching sessions, roll out coaching more broadly across your entire team.