Employee Coaching Flashcards
Employee Coaching Theories
People are Very Difficult to Change
-Cut Your Losses More Quickly
-Focus on Using the Strength of Employees rather than developing their weaknesses.
People Can Always Change
- Spend more time coaching to overcome weaknesses (enhances the trust of employee)
- More likely to consider and use motivational tools.
A Balance of the two is most successful.
Do Not Hire a Rabbit to Climb a Tree
Redlines
Clearly defined boundaries of when you have to cut losses. Ethical Lapses, Poor Performance
Difficulties in Coaching
Having conversations with Stars is difficult - be prepared.
Undesirable behaviors go beyond personality - have to do with organizational culture. Seek systematic solutions.
Ensure mechanisms to provide feedback as events unfold.
Use resources such as executive coaches to help people transition.
Performance Management Today vs Future
Today: Goal Setting > Formal Feedback > Pay Decision
Future: Ongoing expectations, feedback & development
Performance Management Practices
Formal Practices:
Beginning of the Year: Cascading Goals
Mid-Year Reviews
360-Degree Feedback
Competency Assessment
Rating Calibration & Pay Determination
Agile Practices:
Ongoing Feedback
Crowd Sourced Feedback
Rating-less Reviews
Benefits of Feedback
Offers Opportunity to Make Needed Changes or Maintain Behavior
Helps Employees Develop Accurate Self Images
Satisfies Employees’ Interpersonal Needs
Facilitates Mutual Problem Solving
Reinforces & Supports a Learning Culture
Balancing Empathy & Candor
Balance “Care” for a person with candor toward the person.
You often have to choose between different values. Loyalty to team vs mentor
Circumstances/Incentives can change relationships from that of camaraderie to hostility
You Don’t Want: Ruinous Empathy, Obnoxious Aggression, Manipulative Insecurity
You Do Want: Radical Candor, Honesty matched with Care
Ladders of Influence
Describes the thinking process that we go through, usually without realizing it, to get from a fact to a decision or action.
Pools of Available Data, without communication, lead to assumption and often division and wrong conclusions. Cherry Picking Data and Experience, No Radical Candor, results in resentment.
Preventing Unwanted Inferences
Focus on giving specific, job-related, observable, behavioral feedback vs feedback based on inferences or personality.
Positive Feedback Processes
- Take Responsibility for Shared Actions
- Ask for Self-Ratings Before the Meeting
- Depersonalize; separate people from the problems.
- Emphasize future vs. past; learning vs. blame
- Uncouple evaluation (ratings/raises) and development (how to grow)
- Do not have narrow, binary or frozen frames.
Self-Fulfilling Prophesies
Pygmalion Effect: High Expectations from Employees Facilitate Higher Performance from them.
Golem Effect: Low Expectations from employees leads to lower performance from them.
Boss Behavior Toward Perceived Performance
Toward Strong Performance:
- Makes themself available
- Displays openness to employee suggestions
- Gives interesting, challenging & stretch assignments.
- Praises for work well done.
- Provides freedom & autonomy at work.
Toward Weak Performance:
- Available on a need-to-see basis
- Pays little attention to employees’ comments
- Gives routine, mundane tasks.
- Emphasizes what was done poorly.
- Is directive & often stifling.
Preventing “Set-Up-To-Fail” Syndrome
(Self-Fulfilling Prophesies)
- Avoid inordinate focus on early mishaps or prior bosses’ impressions.
- Regularly challenge your own assumptions.
- Convey openness.
Designing Performance Management Processes to Drive Performance
- What business problem(s) need to be solved?
- What must be evaluated to achieve our business goals?
- How much pay is at risk?
- Will a common process work, or do we need different processes for different work and units?
Managers as Mediators
Managers act more like managers rather than mediators when asked to mediate.
-Throw Resources at the Problem
- Investigate the Problem & make Decisions
Why?
- Used to solving problems of Subordinates.
- Don’t exactly know how to do it.
- Fear that other parties won’t reach an agreement.
- Costly in terms of time.
- Own interests affect the outcome of the dispute.
Mediation rather than authority is often what is necessary.
