Effective strategies for coaching and developing your employees Part 1 |
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Performance coaching is not about disciplinary action, nor is it about accountability (although it may promote accountability in the long term). It is really about leadership development - teaching your team of supervisors, managers and leaders the skills and behaviors that are necessary to perform their jobs as efficiently as possible in order to get the best results for themselves and the company.
Performance coaching is not about telling your management team whatto do; it is about telling them how to get the best results from their people and processes. If you are experiencing mediocre productivity, ongoing conflict or high turnover, you should look first at your management team. They are the root cause for success and failure. There is an old Chinese proverb that says, “For every hundred men hacking away at the branches of a diseased tree, only one will stoop to inspect the roots.”
It is surprising the number of managers and executives who have no idea how to conduct performance coaching sessions. While facilitating an executive coaching session with a vice president, she told me that she had continually written her managers up and they continued to deliver substandard performance! Her frustration was evident, but writing people up is self-defeating when you have not performed due diligence in the supervisor’s or manager’s performance training. It does not teach the employee or manager the skills they need to move forward. It only punishes them for making mistakes and not performing up to expected standards.
The fact is that most supervisors and managers want to do a good job, but many do not have the skills to deal with the complicated workforce issues prevalent in today’s organizations. Many supervisors and managers are learning as they go. This process is slow, ineffective and costly to organizations as supervisors and managers bungle their way through each day, trying to do the right things.
To effectively conduct performance coaching sessions, you must first understand the root cause of poor performance. Performance is a function of both ability and motivation. For example, someone with 100 percent motivation and 75 percent ability can achieve good to above average performance. However, someone with 25 percent ability will most likely not be able to perform to expected standards, no matter how highly motivated they are to succeed.
Key signs that low ability may be the root cause of poor performance include; evidence of strong effort despite poor performance and lack of improvement over time despite ongoing coaching and training. In this case, you will have to identify a strategic plan to provide this person with the skills they need to succeed or you may have to assess whether they are in the right position.
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Mentoring - A Word to the Wise |
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Truly great leaders excel at mentoring and developing those around them. If you accept this premise as correct, then why is it that so many in positions of leadership fall woefully short in successfully transferring the benefits of their wisdom and experience to others? All too often there is a great difference between someone who holds a leadership position, and that of a mature, effective leader.
As a leader your success can only be found in one measure: whether or not those you lead are better off as a result of being led by you. We have long held that the great privilege of leadership carries with it an even greater responsibility; the obligation of service. Once a person assumes a leadership role, they automatically inherit the responsibility for the care, well-being, and overall stewardship of those they lead. While some refer to the aforementioned demands as the burdens of leadership, We like to think of them as the primary benefits of leadership.
However in today's business; mentoring is part of a leader’s job description. Your obligation as a leader is to develop people to their full potential. All successful organizations create a culture where the acquisition, development, implementation, and transfer of skills and knowledge are highly valued. This type of culture simply cannot exist where the practice of mentoring is not a top down initiative.
Leaders must not only embrace mentoring, they must become its champion. Following is a list of 5 simple rules that all leaders can turn to help improve their mentoring efforts:
- Trust: Any relationship between mentor and mentee that is not built upon a foundation of mutual trust and respect won’t be productive, and won’t last. Being a mentor has nothing to do with being arrogant, condescending, or patronizing in an attempt to demonstrate your knowledge, and the mentee’s lack thereof.
- Mentoring Requires a Mutual Commitment: Your mentee will only be as committed to the process as you are. If you’re not totally committed to the success of your mentee, they will only pay you the same lip service in return for that which you’re giving them. Likewise, a healthy and productive mentoring relationship cannot be built upon on a one-way street from the mentor to the mentee. While a mentor can be committed and provide excellent advice, the harsh reality is that you cannot mentor someone who doesn’t want to be a mentee. Those who seek shelter in the wisdom of sound counsel must also be willing to take refuge there. Those unwilling to do the latter really don’t value the former.
- Walk the Talk: Who is your mentor? Learning is a life-long endeavor, and you don’t simply reach a magical place in life where you become the all knowing mentor who no longer has anything to learn. Your mentoring efforts will be better received, and will be more productive if you are not just a mentor, but a mentee as well. Make it a point to communicate how much you believe in the process of being mentored by telling your mentee how you’ve benefited from mentors past and present.
- Choosing Your Mentees: There is simply not enough time in the day for you to become everyones mentor. You cannot do it, so don’t even bother trying. This begs the question of who you should personally mentor, and why? Aside from other essential aspects of mentoring that have already been mentioned, mentors must keep in mind their overarching obligation to the organization…the business purpose if you will. Leaders need to evaluate coaching and mentoring decisions based upon the potential ROI vs. the potential risk. Only invest your time where the biggest returns or the largest risks can be impacted. As a leader your first responsibility is to the greater good of the organization, and if your mentoring time is invested in non productive efforts then you’re not catalyzing progress, you are gating it. One of the toughest things for a leader to come to grips with is that not everyone can be saved. If time squandered with an individual is adversely impacting the greater organization, then you cannot continue to invest time there.
- Ownership: Don’t view mentoring as just another development initiative and pass the buck to HR. Effective mentoring programs while led from the top down, are decentralized and driven down to lowest possible levels of the organization. Everyone should be included in some form or fashion. As noted above, you cannot do it all yourself, but you can create an enterprise wide framework that makes sure that nobody falls through the cracks. As noted above, not everyone may be a good choice for you to personally mentor, but if a person in worthy of being a part of your organization to begin with, then they are worthy of someone’s attention and efforts as a mentor.
If you would like more information about leadership and mentoring, please
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. Bukky Olaleye is a business mentor with Princes Trust and NWDA Mentoring Programme
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This article is from one of our favourite author and speaker........
Boost Your Productivity
By: Brian Tracy
Push to the Top
All successful people are very productive. They work longer hours and they work better hours. They get a lot more done than the average person. They get paid more and promoted faster. They are highly respected and esteemed by everyone around them. They become leaders and role models. Inevitably, they rise to the top of their fields and to the top of their income ranges, and so can you.
Everything is Learnable
Every single one of these tested and proven strategies for managing your time and doubling your productivity is learnable through practice and repetition. Each of these methods will eventually become a habit of both thinking and working.
The Payoff is Remarkable
When you begin applying these techniques to your work and to your life, your self-esteem, self-confidence, self-respect and sense of personal pride will go up immediately. The pay off for you will be tremendous, for the rest of your life.
Make A Decision!
Every positive change in your life begins with a clear, unequivocal decision that you are going to either do something or stop doing something. Significant change starts when you decide to either get in or get out, either fish or cut bait.
The Vital Quality of Success
Decisiveness is one of the most important qualities of successful and happy men and women, and decisiveness is developed through practice and repetition, over and over again until it becomes as natural to you as breathing in and breathing out.
Why People Are Poor
The sad fact is that people are poor because they have not yet decided to be rich. People are overweight and unfit because they have not yet decided to be thin and fit. People are inefficient time wasters because they haven't yet decided to be highly productive in everything they do.
Become An Expert
Decide today that you are going to become an expert in time management and personal productivity, no matter how long it takes or how much you invest in it. Resolve today that you are going to practice these principles, over and over again until they become second nature.
Action Exercises
Here are two steps you can take immediately to put these ideas into action.
First, hold your own feet to the fire. Resolve to start earlier, work harder and stay later. Don't let yourself off the hook.
Second, become an expert in time management. Learn and practice time management techniques every day until they become habits.
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KidsRthebiz is making a mark |
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It was a busy three weeks in January working in twelve schools across St Helen's. We ran KidsRthebiz sessions with Years 3 to 6 providing a fun learning environment where children were taught business basics and got the opportunity to create their own business. One child said
"It's like having fun and learning Maths and English isn't it, Miss?
Feedback from teachers:
"A well worthwhile session which introduced the children to business basics using a theme/product which was of general interest. I would definitely be interested in another session"
" Fast paced morning which covered many skills. The group work and final presentations were very good"
KidsRthebiz is a young entrepreneur schools programme working with children aged 7-11 to provide a good introduction to business in an interactive and creative way.
For more information about KidsRthebiz, visit here or email
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Children working on their product design.
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There is a line in the popular Bobby McFerrin's song "Don't worry, be happy" which says 'In every life we have some trouble, but when you worry you make it double'.
Worry bothers almost everyone periodically. An emotional, mental, and physiological response to a situation, worry has negative and postive aspects to it. It could motivate us to action in a particular area, for example worrying about the future could propel us to make better plans to ensure our livelihood. On the other side of the same coin, prolonged worry about the same situation can cause anxiety, depression and inaction.
Worry is to be managed. It should not become a constant companion to us and affect our daily life.
The following principles from Dale Carnegies' How to stop worrying and start living" provide a useful guide.
Overcoming Worry
- Live in "day-tight compartments."
- How to face trouble:
- Ask yourself, "what is the worst that can possible happen"?
- Prepare to accept the worst
- Try to improve on the worst
3. Remind yourself of the exhorbitant price you can pay for worry in terms of your health
Analyzing Worry
- Get all the facts.
- Weigh all the facts - then come to a decision.
- Once a decision is reached, act!
- Write out and answer the following questions.
- What is the problem?
- What are the causes of the problem?
- What are the possible solutions?
- What is the best possble solutions?
Break the Worry Habit
- Keep busy.
- Dont fuss about trifles.
- Use the law of averages to outlaw your worries.
- Cooperate with the inevitable.
- Decide just how much anxiety a thing may be worth and refuse to give it more.
- Don't worry about the past.
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