Coaching poor performers

Last month, I started coaching all my 10 direct reports one-by-one and in private, with no significant improvement after three weeks. Am I doing it wrong? Please help. — Blue Star.

You need to tell me in detail how you’re doing it, except that we don’t have time for that. Whatever you’re doing, I’m sure you’ve communicated your expectations in clear terms. If not, that’s the first red flag.

Before I continue, let me tell you the experience of Mario (not his real name), a department manager in a medium-sized corporation.

Mario’s preferred coaching method was barking orders, frequently embellished with four-letter words. Mario was always in an agitated state even when taking a 30-minute nap during lunch. You could hear him snoring loudly in his well-lighted small room facing the glass windows where everyone would silently laugh at his facial distortions.

Given Mario’s style, do you think the workers listened to him? Obviously not. The workers would perform according to their perceived understanding of Mario’s instructions and expectations. The results were often disastrous. Why?

One reasonable guess is Mario’s combative and loud personality. His workers would often reject his direction due to his insecurities and lack of trust in the workers’ abilities. People also simply vary by learning style.

LEARNING STYLES
Some individuals are experiential learners who do not require close supervision. They can do the work independently and thrive on the opportunity to discover better ways of doing things. Others are bookish and must be guided by written policy and procedures. The rest are best guided by work instructions with cartoon illustrations showing the best result and also possible bad results.

If you can cater to individual training needs, you can adjust your coaching style to suit their orientation. Let us explore what adjustments you can make:

Self-discovery. People who prefer this type of learning are rare. They are independent-minded and like unbridled freedom to experiment. They prefer to challenge the status quo and thrive on “aha” moments. As long as you describe to them the issues, parameters, standards, and timelines, they will surely deliver superior results.

Regular feedback. Giving performance feedback is a tricky approach. Many don’t want to be judged wrongly. However, they tend to accept negative feedback if the work expectations are clearly communicated and objective. Frequency of delivering feedback can be an issue. Some people prefer to be told every week while others like it monthly.

Engagement learning. You can’t do engagement without motivation. You could start with a casual engagement dialogue to explore possible answers to the following questions: What are the difficulties of the job? What kind of resources are needed? How does this job help achieve career goals?

Facilitated learning. People learn on their own if their boss acts like a training facilitator. This can be frustrating to some managers who don’t have the patience for training. However, in the long run, this approach becomes effective as people become accustomed to a facilitated learning environment.

REWARD AND RECOGNITION
Poor performers will respect you if you give them reasonable recognition, which may not be limited to material rewards. This presupposes agreeing with your direct reports on clear targets and expectations at the beginning of the process. Obviously, we can’t measure performance against standards that have not been mutually agreed.

It is in the measurement of performance and proper rewards that we often find managers failing their people. You may have experienced it before. How many times have you labored long and hard over certain regular tasks and special projects that go unnoticed by your own boss?

This is happening every day. When you got no feedback on the quality of your work, you’re not sure if you did well or how you can improve your failings. If this has happened to you, chances are, it will happen again. The cycle goes on and on, until you break it with a reasonable reward system appropriate to the performance level of your workers.

Bring Rey Elbo’s leadership program called “Superior Subordinate Supervision” to your management team. Contact him on Facebook, LinkedIn, X or e-mail elbonomics@gmail.com or via https://reyelbo.com