[The following is the first in a series of email "reminders" that we provide as part of our follow up / ongoing support for clients who have completed our Performance Coaching & FeedBack workshop. Hope that you enjoy. -- Rob]
Congratulations on successful completion of the Performance Coaching & FeedBack workshop. We know that the skills you have learned will be a huge benefit to you and to your employees to the degree that you step out and use them. I encourage you to make good on your commitment to deliberately employ the process to the performance issues you are addressing. Deliberate use will make you more proficient and more confident, both of which translate into more effective conversations.
As we discussed during the workshop, there are five steps to the Performance Coaching process:
The first step of the Performance Coaching process is “Praise Performance.” Praising Performance “works” in that it reinforces positive behaviors and achievements that you want to see repeated; it affirms the associate’s good work; it shows your attentiveness; and it expresses your appreciation.
Praising Performance also works because it prepares the associate to receive constructive criticism … ONLY IF you regularly recognize an associate’s good work and make it a regular part of your performance conversations with him or her.
This Week’s Reminder: Praise Regularly. When you see good work, recognize it. All the time, every time you see it. Then, when you need to have a conversation to raise performance, your associate will be ready to hear your FeedBack.
The Three Critical Management Inputs to Employee Performance
Picture This: you come around the corner and, without intending to, observe Joe, one of your direct reports, in his cubicle hanging out on Facebook. You’ve spoken with him (with everyone, actually) about the fact that your division is lean and how everyone needs to “pick it up a notch.” You are pretty certain that he is aware of the recent “cease and desist” memo from corporate about unapproved online use.
How does this scenario make you feel? What would you do?
Situations like these put many managers on edge. They know that Joe’s behavior right now is an issue, but “it’s not all that bad.” Many managers will avoid situations like this one. Unless and until Joe’s behavior is “over the top,” they reason, “it’s not worth the effort.”
We’re not here to judge any manager’s decision in the moment about which behaviors merit addressing or not. All too frequently, however,
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“Rob, we need to talk. She’s not a team player, and she’s not getting with the program!”
My friend is the Assistant Director of a nonprofit with a heavy summer workload. She had been meeting with program staff, feverishly finishing planning for the upcoming sessions. Afterwards, she approached me about one of her senior staff.
I know this staff person – she has been a participant in our Train-the-Trainer on three separate occasions and has run various aspects of their summer program. This year, she is over the whole youth program.
She is very talented. She knows her stuff … and she knows that she knows her stuff. All good.
But she is not showing the willingness to “get with the program.”
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We are currently assisting one client by coaching some of their people who are being downsized and helping them rapidly transition to new and profitable work. Our Career Coaching process is a variation of Choice Analysis. The Career Coaching process is simple and powerful. We use it to coach others. It is also a superior pathway if you are the one who is currently what our strategic partner Elizabeth Allen calls a “free agent.”
I have uploaded the Career Coaching Process Outline as a Word document. Feel free to use it. If you print it or otherwise transmit it, please ensure that the copyright notice is retained. If you do use it for yourself or with your clients, post a comment here letting us know any results achieved.
And it is an outline, so if you have questions, just ask.
