In yesterday’s Advisor, we talked about the need for training managers on coaching skills and began a training session on coaching. Today, we provide the conclusion to this training session on coaching, including a wrap-up and an exercise.
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To recap: North American employees report two-thirds of managers fail to actively engage in their career development, according to a poll by Right Management, the global career experts within ManpowerGroup. As talent shortages persist and employee retention becomes increasingly important, employers have an opportunity to make career development a priority by enabling their managers to coach and mentor their teams, advises Right Management.
Here’s the conclusion to a comprehensive training session to help you prepare your supervisors and managers.
5. What are some of the techniques of informal, interactive training?
If you’re short on time and/or want to get through the informational material before conducting any exercises, you may want to just list the following techniques:
- Direct observation of behavior or specific facts,
- Openness (Doesn’t rush to judgment or criticism, both of which can cut off communication),
- Questioning to determine the problem and if the employee understands,
- Listening and showing that the employee has been correctly understood,
- Affirmation of the employee’s feelings and point of view,
- Clarification, helping to identify the true nature of the problem, and
- Collaborative problem solving.
Alternatively, if you’re making good time, you could use the Exercise: An Example of Coaching at the end of this article as an interactive way to convey coaching techniques.
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6. Who needs coaching?
Everyone benefits from the attention of coaching. Here’s why:
- Weak performers build necessary skills to meet standards.
- Average performers are better motivated to go for stretch goals.
- Top performers are affirmed by the recognition, encouraged to grow into more responsible positions, and/or are shown that their contribution is not taken for granted.
Two notes of caution:
- Avoid appearing to play favorites, coaching only the most promising employees.
- Avoid appearing to pick on certain individuals, making it seem that only the most inept persons are singled out for direction.
Wrap-Up
- Recap: On-the-job coaching is a powerful performance motivator and a highly effective training tool. Answer final questions.
- For Further Skill-Building
- Join forces with two other trainees to role play a real-life coaching situation. Have one person play supervisor, one play employee, and one act as observer. Take the time to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the coaching session from all points of view. Conduct several role plays, so that everyone gets to play coach and everyone has a chance to improve.
- For the next 3 working days keep a coaching log. Note employees you’ve coached, regarding what, and any ideas on how you could do it better the next time. If you notice a problem in either your techniques or where you’re putting your attention, keep the log for a week to see if you improve.
- Final Feedback
- Hand out and collect instruction evaluations.
- Thank trainees for their participation.
Exercise: An Example of Coaching
Trainer suggestion. This material can be presented as a demonstration-discussion. Have one person read Gene and another read Lou. At each starred point in the dialogue, pause and ask trainees to comment on what techniques the supervisor/“coach” is using. Ask both “employee” and “supervisor” how they feel and what they’re thinking at each point. Emphasize at the end of the discussion that the key techniques of successful coaching include the following.
This exercise is designed to demonstrate how effective coaching includes the following qualities:
- Direct observation of behavior or specific facts.
- Openness (Doesn’t rush to judgment or criticism. These cut off communication.)
- Questioning—to determine the problem and if employee understands.
- Listening and showing that the employee has been correctly understood.
- Affirmation of the employee’s feelings and point of view.
- Clarification, helping to identify the true nature of the problem.
- Collaborative problem solving.
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Background to the scene: Lou is a competent, conscientious worker with good potential for promotion, but he has a tendency to miss deadlines.
GENE: I notice you’re still using the old software in your unit even though we’re past the changeover date we agreed on. What seems to be the problem?
*(Note how Gene is asking the question and raising the issue.)
LOU: I know we agreed, but frankly, I like the old system better. I think management should re-evaluate the decision. Besides, I haven’t had time!
GENE: I appreciate that you’re always running tight on deadlines. Are you saying that the old program took less time?
*(What does Gene affirm, zero in on, and ignore as a nonissue?)
LOU: Well, maybe it won’t take more time, once I understand it. But I’ve read the manual several times now, and it still doesn’t make any sense to me. Besides, going over and over it just takes time away from everything else.
*(What new issue seems to be coming up?)
GENE: Sounds like the manual isn’t the help you need. What do you think would help?
*(What role is Gene playing here? Who is defining and solving the problem?)
LOU: I guess I’m really more of a hands-on type. If somebody just talks me through the process, I usually pick it up fast enough. Hmm, maybe somebody from Computer Services could explain it to me.
GENE: Well, that’s easy enough to set up. You know, there’s nothing wrong in asking for help when you need it.
Discussion questions
What made this a constructive interaction? Has any useful groundwork been laid for discussing other cases of lapsed deadlines in Lou’s work?