Category: Leadership Skills

I recently wrote a blog, rather unlike my usual blogs in that I told the true story of fellow worker; in this case he had no way out of his current negative job except unwanted retirement or quitting, or death.

It was called simply, Finding the Way Out of a Coffin That is Nailed Shut, a bit of a take-off from one of Tom’s quotes in Tennessee Williams’ THE GLASS MENAGERIE. Tom is placed in a situation with no way out other than abandoning his family and whatever dreams he has. He remarks that he saw a magician get himself out of a coffin “without removing one nail.”

No one will deny that life is filled with such dilemmas and for our purposes here, we’ll focus on the work environment because that is where, believe it or not, life and death situations may happen as well; we may just not be aware of them totally.

The situation:

• The employee placed in a situation where he or she thinks “what a wonderful opportunity” to learn something new or another side of the business.
• He or she has an employer who likes to hire people just like him or her and sees the job as totally removed from the place the new employee came from even though his or her level is equivalent to those in the same job, different location.
• The employer is brash or frank enough to make statements to the employee that he or she will never be able to accomplish the work that is needed because “he (or she) was miss-classified in Central Office and is not the type of person she (or he) hires for work in the Region.

That should be the end of the situation, but it’s not. The employee can’t go anywhere, but he is encouraged to look for work elsewhere and offered support. In the other blog, Phil is the employee so let’s continue with that here. Phil is “advised” by his supervisor to see the Regional administrator and ask if there were any options available in the Region for a change. Naturally a flag goes up that an employee is asking for a job elsewhere because he cannot get along with his new boss, or can’t do the work. That employee now bears watching. And, is no longer, to be in charge of anything. Sometimes that is a good thing; no way to get in trouble.

Discussions were scheduled and occurred without the input of the employee. Managers prerogative. Management decides to offer a lesser job, lesser pay, lesser rank, but one definitely more suited to the employee.

Painful as it is, it is viable option. At least it will be a job his supervisor feels he is competent to handle and is worth the loss of pay and rank, even though he held that rank for six years. But it is worse than that–because then he is asked to sign papers, which pretty much say he asked for it and to admit he was incompetent in the previous job. A nice big scar on his personnel record for trying personally trying to rectify a personnel problem early and did what he was supposed to do according to the book.

You see the supervisor didn’t like the job as described and said over and over again that this employee would not succeed at it either and it would affect everyone up the line. Only the incompetency part was in stone, the rest confidential (but not really). The rumors were out. Everyone wasn’t out to get him, but he was isolated, alienated and maligned. The union would stand in the office when he spoke to his boss, but that would only make matters worse. Anything to make the “boss” look bad, or work harder was bad. Just ask her.

It is obvious to the employee everyone in the office is aware of the situation from the unwillingness to help with work-related situation. Alienation–not persecuted–except by one person who was going to let the system do him in.

So, what to do?

This shouldn’t happen when people are involved; however, work the system needs to make it right. With laws that run our country, judges have enough flexibility to make them appropriate to the situation–not that judges don’t make mistakes. In this case supervisor upon supervisor decided to leave it alone. Let the “troublesome” employee quit or retire; he has the age. Then, hire who you want. The supervisor even had the gall to tell the employee “if you can get me a slot to replace you that I can hire from outside (there was a freeze on at the time) I’ll support any move for you–even an intergovernmental move.” In my last blog, I spoke about the employee’s qualifications that were quite sound and while he rewarded while at the Central Office level, the opposite situation was to be found at the Regional level. It would seem to me, that alone would make a difference to any outsider looking at this. Room for investigation of some sort. No, never happened. Let time and isolation take it’s course.

This is not the way to run a system. The people running the system were blind to the obvious–especially when no one told them the obvious. An employee playing by the rules and doing as instructed with the hope that something will be done to alleviate this problem should be able to rest easy and expect relief. Leaders and managers higher up the chain should take all mentions of unprofessional misconduct or suspicious behavior that marks a leader as working the system for his or her own ends serious.

In this situation, there were many ways out without “saddling a new supervisor” with an incompetent or troublesome employee. One ego was determined it would not happen. Several other egos made sure it didn’t happen on their watch. Better safe than sorry.

Except for Phil who ended up depressed, sick often, and eventually glad his day to retire finally came–even though he wasn’t ready for it financially; he needed it to protect his sanity.

Others could have helped but were worried about their own skins. Here’s where a training counselor or career counselor with some power to do more than tell people what their options are could have come in handy to Phil, who didn’t survive six months after his retirement, and the others involved at work who did. There was a need for many a call especially for a much-needed character lesson or two. It’s a shame; it shouldn’t have happened. It’s not just too bad the system failed him, it’s appalling.

For the younger folks, it may not happen quite the same way. Age discrimination was probably one real factor in Phil’s case, although we know it shouldn’t be. Just as potential employers should know a hatchet job when they hear it. The reality is no one wants it to happen on their watch. That’s the real shame of it all.

People wonder why they are perceived in a negative way, especially when they work for the Federal or State government or for other big organizations that don’t seem to have time for people. This is it. Like customer service. People talk. Some not much, but just enough. Others pick up on it see it as a truth. It may be only part of the story. As people who work with others, it is our job to know the whole story–especially if it affects the organization.

Personally, I don’t want selfish people in my life, work or otherwise. I want caring people, people who will risk for me as I am willing to risk for them. Help me reach my goals and I’ll stand beside you when you need my help achieving yours. Instead of always looking for ways to improve our careers, why not look for ways to preserve them and help others not fall out of the sky hoping for a parachute. Sometimes they aren’t available.

End of lesson. Like teachers who teach people not courses, trainers who train people not skills, supervisors should care about the people they supervise as more than a producer of products. I never have liked the term “managers” because it is too easy to say managers manage programs not people. We should all be leaders, helping others lead and leading ourselves. It almost sounds like a proverb because I’m sure it is in so many words.

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For more resources about training, see the Training library.

My time is done. Check out my website and my new book, The Cave Man Guide To Training and Development.

Happy Training.

Reframing is seeing the current situation from a different perspective, which can be tremendously helpful in problem solving, decision making and learning.

Reframing is helping you or another person to more constructively move on from a situation in which you or the other person feels stuck or confused.

The aim of reframing is to shift one’s perspective to be more empowered to act – and hopefully to learn at the same time.

Many times, merely reframing one’s perspective on a situation can also help people change how they feel about the situation, as well.

Many fields regularly use reframing, including therapy, coaching and even marketing and sales. Techniques of reframing can also be used to cultivate creative and critical thinking skills.

When working to reframe perspective on a situation, consider the following basic guidelines. Keep in mind that, even though the following examples are about another person’s comments, you can use the guidelines to shift your own perspectives, as well.

Shift from passive to active

For example, if the other person said, “I really doubt that I can do anything about this,” you might respond, “What is one small step that you might take?”

Shift from negative feeling to positive feeling

For example, if the other person said, “I don’t want to work on that now because it makes me feel sad,” you might respond, “What small part of that might you work on for now, that might even leave you feeling a bit more happy?”

Shift from past to future

For example, if the other person said, “I’ve never been good at public speaking,” you might respond, “If you imagined yourself to be successful at public speaking, how would you be speaking that would be successful?”

Shift from future to past

For example, if the other person said, “I can’t seem to get started on achieving this goal,” you might respond, “Has there been a time in the past when you achieved a goal and, if so, what did you do back then to be successful? How might you use that approach now?”

Shift from others to oneself

For example, if the other person said, “They don’t seem to like me,” you might respond, “What do you like about yourself?”

Shift from a liability to an asset

For example, if the other person said, “I’m such a perfectionist,” you might respond, “How might being a perfectionist help in your job and life, though?”

Shift from victimization to empowerment

For example, if the other person said, “That always seems to happen to me,” you might respond, “Sometimes we even do that to ourselves. Perhaps it’d be useful to explore if you’re somehow doing that to yourself, too?”

Can you think of other examples of reframing?

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The office holiday party was a huge success. Was it just a way to thank your workers for a job well done this past year? Or do you expect it to have the lasting power to motivate your workers for the next twelve months?

I’m not trying to be a scrooge or put a damper on the holiday spirit. Rather I’m inquiring how do you obtain consistent, high performance from the people you manage, coach, lead, or supervise? So I asked the experts—not the management or academic gurus—but the people who lead, supervise, or coach on a daily basis. Here’s what was said:

“It’s the small things on a day by day basis that bring down performance–and-it’s the small things every day that can raise performance. One or two large events a year probably won’t do it. They may be fun….but if morale is down, I bet you’ll find a bunch of people griping about the other stuff that goes on in the workplace.”

Drawerful of $100 bills

A supervisor’s sincere recognition of a job well done will usually do more for getting people to do their best work than a holiday party or picnic. Respect, acknowledgment and genuine praise cost you nothing. But they can pay off substantially in terms of employee commitment and discretionary effort—the difference between what employees must do to keep their jobs and what they are fully capable of contributing.

As a consultant working, for the past twenty five years in many kinds of industries and in companies that had 10 people to companies that had 10,000+, here’s what I’ve observed of “good” managers—-those who consistently get top performance from their team, staff, or project group. Here is a sampling of their $100 bills:

1. Providing more appreciative feedback.
The good stuff should come a lot more often than the bad stuff! Giving direct, honest feedback about their contributions on a regular basis and emphasizing the consequences of what they have done.
Example: “I noticed you put in a lot of extra work to finish your part of this project. As a result, we were able to finish ahead of schedule and the main office was really impressed. Thank you for going the extra mile.”

2. Letting others know of staff or team’s contributions.
This is known as third party acknowledgment or praise. In the example below, praise directly from the director would be even more motivating.
Example: “I told the director what a great job you did on the PC installation project. She asked me to let you know how much that helped us out.”

3. Taking a sincere interest in what people do well.
Wanting to understand someone’s success is one of the highest forms of recognition and praise.
Example: Sit down with an achiever and asking how she accomplished the praise-worthy task. Examine the nuts and bolts together.

Even when it’s difficult to find something to praise, it’s worth searching. When you start noticing what people do right, they tend to do more of it. When you focus on the negative you may gain compliance (when you’re around, at least) but you breed hostility and undermine morale.

Therefore, a staff or team that has received appropriate praise will tend to be more involved, more creative and more willing to achieve the team’s or department’s goals. In the end, isn’t that what you want as manager or leader?

Management Success Tip:

People need to feel respected and appreciated on a day-to-day basis for what they contribute to the group or organization. Employee recognition and appreciation do not have to be in the form of awards or even bonuses. A manager doing simple things can gain a lot – a more motivated worker and team. Also see Employee Motivation: One Size Doesn’t Fit All.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Fast track your leadership. Be part of a Success Team.
• Need a speaker? Get the Edge keynotes-webinars-workshops.
• Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

Two very useful skills in communicating with others, including when coaching and facilitating, are paraphrasing and summarizing the thoughts of others.

How to Paraphrase When Communicating and Coaching With Others

Paraphrasing is repeating in your words what you interpreted someone else to be saying. Paraphrasing is powerful means to further the understanding of the other person and yourself, and can greatly increase the impact of another’s comments. It can translate comments so that even more people can understand them. When paraphrasing:

• Put the focus of the paraphrase on what the other person implied, not on what you wanted him/her to imply, e.g., don’t say, “I believe what you meant to say was …”. Instead, say “If I’m hearing you right, you conveyed that …?”
• Phrase the paraphrase as a question, “So you’re saying that …?”, so that the other person has the responsibility and opportunity to refine his/her original comments in response to your question.
• Put the focus of the paraphrase on the other person, e.g., if the person said, “I don’t get enough resources to do what I want,” then don’t paraphrase, “We probably all don’t get what we want, right?”
• Put the ownership of the paraphrase on yourself, e.g., “If I’m hearing you right …?” or “If I understand you correctly …?”
• Put the ownership of the other person’s words on him/her, e.g., say “If I understand you right, you’re saying that …?” or “… you believe that …?” or “… you feel that …?”
• In the paraphrase, use some of the words that the other person used. For example, if the other person said, “I think we should do more planning around here.” You might paraphrase, “If I’m hearing you right in this strategic planning workshop, you believe that more strategic planning should be done in our community?”
• Don’t judge or evaluate the other person’s comments, e.g., don’t say, “I wonder if you really believe that?” or “Don’t you feel out-on-a-limb making that comment?”
• You can use a paraphrase to validate your impression of the other’s comments, e.g., you could say, “So you were frustrated when …?”
• The paraphrase should be shorter than the original comments made by the other person.
• If the other person responds to your paraphrase that you still don’t understand him/her, then give the other person 1-2 chances to restate his position. Then you might cease the paraphrasing; otherwise, you might embarrass or provoke the other person.

How to Effectively Summarize

A summary is a concise overview of the most important points from a communication, whether it’s from a conversation, presentation or document. Summarizing is a very important skill for an effective communicator.

A good summary can verify that people are understanding each other, can make communications more efficient, and can ensure that the highlights of communications are captured and utilized.

When summarizing, consider the following guidelines:

• When listening or reading, look for the main ideas being conveyed.
• Look for any one major point that comes from the communication. What is the person trying to accomplish in the communication?
• Organize the main ideas, either just in your mind or written down.
• Write a summary that lists and organizes the main ideas, along with the major point of the communicator.
• The summary should always be shorter than the original communication.
• Does not introduce any new main points into the summary – if you do, make it clear that you’re adding them.
• If possible, have other readers or listeners also read your summary and tell you if it is understandable, accurate and complete.

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“Many managers make poor staffing decisions. By all accounts their batting average is no better than .333. At most, one-third of such decisions turn out right; one-third minimally effective; and one-third outright failures. In no other area of management would we put up with such miserable performance.” – Peter Drucker, management icon.

I recently gave a presentation to a group of business and community leaders on how to select talent to grow their organization. Given the expense associated with recruiting top performers and the high cost of making poor choices, you would think that those responsible for hiring would follow a systematic process that results in high quality hiring.

Yet, I am continually amazed, when reviewing staffing practices, how frequently I find in companies the lack of workforce planning, inconsistent procedures, ineffective interviewing, indecision or a quick decision based on gut feel rather than good data, etc.

Here are seven best practices for selecting top talent.

1. Don’t shoot from the hip.
   Have a well-thought-out recruitment and selection process in place. Prepare in advance for interviews. Take hiring seriously.
2. Identify the interview team.
   Make sure you have the right people to evaluate applicants’ qualifications and also they’ve been trained on interviewing techniques. Not all supervisors are great interviewers.
3. Develop a role expectation or job description.
   It’s important to have everyone on the same page about what is required. If one person thinks a certain personality type is needed while another thinks differently, then there will be problems deciding whom is the best applicant.
4. Ask open-ended questions based on the position requirements.
   It’s usually not very helpful to ask candidates “Can you do x?” Most likely they’ll say yes because they think they can. Remember, the best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Instead, ask something like, “Tell me how you handled dealing with x?” See Behavioral Interviewing: Hire the Right Person for the Job.
5. Decide who will ask the candidate what questions.
   It’s usually best to divide the questions based on interviewer’s area of expertise. For example, let finance people ask the finance questions.
6. Take notes and be consistent.
   I guarantee that you will either forget what the first interviewee said or mix his/her responses with subsequent interviewees if you don’t take notes. Ask each applicant the same questions so that you can compare answers and more accurately compare them. This may save you discrimination headaches.
7. Prepare a scorecard.
   Develop a rating system to analyze and compare each applicant. Decide on the criteria you will use to rate each applicant. Also decide on how you will decide – majority vote, consensus or the manager will have final say.

Management Success Tip:

The purpose of any hiring process is to discriminate (albeit fairly) among applicants. You must be able to differentiate those who will perform well from those who will not. Your goal is to select the right people, with the right skills, for the right jobs and at the right time. You can probably teach a turkey to climb a tree—but it is easier to hire a squirrel. Also see The Top Five Hiring Mistakes.

Readers, have you ever hired turkeys rather than squirrels? If so, let me know about it. What were your lessons learned?

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Fast track your leadership. Be part of a Success Team.
• Need a speaker? Get the Edge keynotes-webinars-workshops.
• Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

I saw this question as a search question for training and while I don’t know the reason behind the question, it seemed logical to try to answer it. This may not be the answer people want to hear, but it is an alternative.

I’ve actually addressed the question of icebreakers before. I don’t like them personally (but my excuse is that I’m an introvert), but when they are necessary–especially for some trainers and some trainees–I use them. Those who like icebreakers would probably say “most.”

• Introverts who derive their energy from internal sources rarely gain from icebreakers; they don’t need other people for strength and energy. If you don’t involve them in another way, they tend to be wallflowers on the company dime.
• Icebreakers take up valuable time. A good trainer can grab an audience, swing ’em around a few times, and train ’em before the icebreaker is done. Okay, a little skepticism and exaggeration. But, nevertheless, icebreakers do take time that could be spent training.
• A trainer who is well-prepared knows his or her audience to the point of jumping in and making the party fun, and if the training is well-planned the trainees are well-acquainted and appropriately ranked in equal groups, there is no need for an icebreaker to introduce them to one another.
• Icebreakers can make training fun; so can a good trainer with personality.
• Let’s see…what else do we use icebreakers for? Introduce the topic. Really. We need an icebreaker for that. An informed and well-led workforce is prepared.
• Without icebreakers what have we? Activities, games and, oh, rewards for when the adult/children get it right. To some adults, this is downright insulting. We all like candy–those of us who are not diabetic (but a good reward trainer thought of that already). How does this help us focus on training, learning to do our jobs better? No one gives us candy there. We could put a jar on our desk, but that’ll just make everyone like us or just come to our office for a snack.
• Icebreakers are used to break ice in the ocean so ships don’t get ripped apart. Thinking of it that way, we use icebreakers to break the ice in a classroom. Really? They are the same?

I see icebreakers as a trick and a cheap trick at that. Disagree with me if you want. I want trainees willing to learn, who come in a professional manner prepared for that next job. Realistic? Probably not in a lot of cases. You know what’s coming next. Because someone came in and convinced leadership that icebreakers would ready the class for learning and activities would give them hands-on training. Make sure they do what you promise. I have no problems with doing what works, but make sure it does, and it sticks. Someone who leaves and says, “That was fun,” probably means it. “Did you learn anything?” “I”ll never tell.” Clues, people.

When does the real training work get done? We should be planning a way other than treating our trainees as school children to treat them as adults. If that means training leadership to hire grown-ups to do the work, so be it. We are setting ourselves on a path of professional mediocrity. We let anyone train who says they can train (especially the business skills), anyone who has a gimmick or set of tools to entertain an audience. We don’t tell them to grab a training group and steer them to the direction the company wants to go anyway. Here’s my solution: Use your club! If they don’t want to learn, don’t make them. They can leave the class and deal with their bosses directly on the issue of training. Maybe that’s the real learning solution for them after all.

There I am. Took my club and knocked those no-gooders right out of the cave. It’s one answer. Maybe we should re-evaluate how we handle our classes of adults. We call it “adult learning” and yet it has all the makings of Kindergarten.

Not done yet today. I feel the need to use that club on bloggers who feel the need to tell us the worst degrees to have in this economy. We could re-structure schools at the same time, making sure those jobs promised will go to the graduates with those degrees. I could be wrong, but this seems like wrong thinking to me. Well, that’s it for now. Check out the The Cave Man Guide To Training and Development. Pssst. The Cave Man I’m talking about used real fires to warm up the cave. Happy Training.

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For more resources about training, see the Training library.

One of the advantages of the coaching process is that it can be done in a wide variety of formats and still retain its powerful benefits. In this article, we acquaint the reader with the basic formats in which coaching can be done. We use the term “format” to refer to the physical configuration or context in which the coaching occurs. We use “mode” to refer to the medium of communication among participants.

We do not review the many different types of applications in which coaching can be done. For that information, see Some Common Types of Coaching .

First, a Reminder “What is Coaching?”

As the field of personal and professional coaching has grown, so have different perspectives and definitions of coaching. Many coaches might agree with the following definition:

“Coaching involves working in a partnership between coach and client(s) to provide structure, support, inquiry and feedback for clients to:

1. Take a complete look at their current state, including their assumptions and perceptions about their work, themselves and/or others;
2. Set relevant and realistic goals for themselves, based on their own nature and needs;
3. Take relevant and realistic actions toward reaching their goals; and
4. Learn by continuing to reflect on the inquiry and feedback, and on the results of their actions to achieve their goals.

For more perspectives on coaching, see All About Coaching

Informal and Formal Coaching Relationships

Coaching Conversation (or Session)

Coaching can occur as a one-time exchange between people – between a professional coach and client (coachee) or even between people who are not necessarily trained as coaches.

Coaching Project (or Program)

This occurs between a professional coach and coachee in a professional relationship (or project) that is highly customized to the nature and needs of the coachee. The relationship is formalized in a coaching contract and usually involves numerous coaching sessions. Sometimes a coaching project is referred to as a coaching program, however, a program is typically a series of activities to teach coaching, for example, a coaching program or coaching school.

Formats of Coaching

Self-Coaching

This is one of the most forgotten formats of coaching. Coaching teaches us that, when we get stuck, it’s often because of how we perceive a situation. One of the most frequently used coaching tools is asking questions to generate reflection, insights, and relevant and realistic actions to address a current priority. You can ask yourself powerful questions to examine your own perceptions, assumptions and conclusions about a current priority. Although it’s often best to involve someone else in that inquiry (because the other person can help show “what you don’t know that you don’t know), you can still learn a great deal about yourself and your situation by self-coaching.

One-on-One Coaching

One-on-one coaching (or one-to-one coaching) is probably the most common format of coaching. One-on-one coaching can be done between two peers or with a professional coach. The term “peers” refers to people who come together as equals to address a priority and learn at the same time.

• Peer Coaching in One-On-One Format
  In peer coaching, people coach each other. Peer coaching can be done with two people or in a group. This opens up a wide range of possibilities for participating in coaching because you likely have many peers who could coach you, for example, a friend, family member or colleague.
• Professional Coaching in One-on-One Format
  Professional coaching involves a person trained in a particular coaching model and who might have achieved certification from a coaching school. The coach might have strong skills, including in assessments, listening, inquiry, and moving the coachee forward to actions and learning.

Group Coaching

Although group coaching often does not quickly achieve the attunement, engagement and intimacy of a one-on-one coaching experience, group coaching can be powerful means for many people to benefit from the coaching process. (Many people would agree that an outcome from group coaching is “team building” and, thus, use that label rather than “group coaching.”)

NOTE: As the field of coaching has grown, so has the number of coaches who customize their own approach to group coaching, so has the different perspectives on group coaching, and so has the different names for the types of coaching groups.

• Peer Coaching in Groups
  In peer coaching groups, one or more members might be coached by other group members. Facilitation could be the responsibility of one person or the entire group.
• Professional Coaching in Groups
  In this format, a professional coach coaches one or more group members, while other members either observe or take part in sessions.
• Action Learning Groups (“Sets”)
  In an Action Learning group (often called a “set”), members address a current, urgent priority (or priorities) by sharing inquiry and taking actions between meetings to address the priority. Action Learning does not often refer to this exchange as “coaching,” although many coaches would recognize it as coaching. (Action Learning often refers to an external facilitator as a “learning coach.”) Groups can be externally or self-facilitated.

Organizational Coaching

Organizational coaching aims to enhance the performance of a unit in the organization (a department or process) or the entire organization, and can include a variety of other domains of coaching. One of the outcomes from organizational coaching often is a “coaching culture,” in which coaching is a primary nature of exchange and development among employees.

Systems Coaching

Occasionally, coaches (especially in the field of Organization Development) refer to systems coaching, and associate various contexts of coaching, including, for example, gender coaching, team coaching and organizational coaching. However, many people would argue that all forms of coaching are systems coaching because a person, group and organization are each a system.

Modes of Coaching

Face-to-Face vs. Virtual

The coaching process can be done where people are directly interacting with each other or done by means of telecommunications (phone, Web, etc.). Many people might react that virtual coaching would seem less effective, however, much coaching is very effectively done virtually.

Synchronous vs. Asynchronous

Synchronous coaching is when the coach and coachee(s) directly respond to each other, for example, in a vocal exchange. Asynchronous coaching is when communications between the coach and coachee(s) can have even significant delays, for example, when each is reading and responding to emails from others.

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“Managers who coach their people become known as good managers to work for, developers of talent, and achievers of business results. They also become better leaders in the process.” Jack Welch, Former CEO General Electric

Why Is Coaching Important?
Good managers regularly keep their people and team informed about work performance so that they can nip problems in the bud. if you think it’ll get better or you don’t have the time now, then I can assure you down the road you’ll be spending more of your time fixing even big problems.

Here are three strategies and 25 tips on how to give corrective feedback that will be heard and most important acted on.

1. Prepare – Don’t “Wing It”

• View coaching as tool for improvement not criticism
• Don’t garbage dump. Decide on the key areas to cover.
• Be sure you have documented facts not just impressions.
• Assume positive intentions that your employees want to improve.
• Know the target and how that person would best receive your feedback.
• Avoid the let alone, then zap. Don’t let marginal performance build into a crisis.

2. See Coaching As a Discussion Not a Lecture

• Coaching needs to be regular, useful, timely and two way.
• Always look at the problems from the employee’s perspective.
• Start with the specific situation: timeliness, error rate, lateness.
• Explain why this situation concerns you or its impact on the team.
• Invite the person’s response, listen attentively, and be supportive.
• Discuss the possible reasons for the poor or marginal performance.
• Move into problem solving emphasizing the person’s responsibility
• Decide on specific actions and get commitment to the new actions.
• Focus on performance, avoid getting tangled up in personality issues.
• Summarize what was agreed upon and set-up specific follow-up date.
• Keep it private. Public criticism will generally demotivate rather than motivate the person.
• Go for “quick wins”. Don’t try to solve all the problems at once but ones that can be solved quickly.

3. Don’t Stop Now, Follow Up

• Don’t let out of sight out of mind happen.
• Praise the employee when performance improves.
• Be specific. Tell exactly what was done right so he can do more of it.
• Keep the message ‘clean’. Don’t mix negatives feedbakcwith positives.
• Express your personal appreciation. Encourage them to keep up good work
• Resume corrective coaching, or possible discipline, if improvement begins to slip.
• Remember, feedback needs to be regular, useful, timely, two-way, focused on behavior.

Management Success Tip:

Regular employee feedback is a communication tool that keeps employees informed about their performance and their progress. Feedback should compare a person’s actual performance with an objective standard so the worker will know whether he or she is below, at or above standard. Also see Employee Coaching: Guidelines to Make it Work.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Fast track your leadership. Be part of a Success Team.
• Need a speaker? Get the Edge keynotes-webinars-workshops.
• Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.

In the case study that started this chapter, we indicated that there are a number of different roles for a facilitator:

Meeting Adviser – The facilitator helps the leader plan the meeting, but during the session, he primarily sits on the sidelines, stepping in only when asked or if a situation occurs which the participants cannot handle themselves.

Meeting Manager – The facilitator sets the agenda, establishes ground rules, initiates the discussion, and allows the session to flow, stepping in only when needed.

Meeting Leader – The facilitator sets the agenda, establishes ground rules and initiates the discussion just as the meeting manager does. In addition, however, he is active in getting participants excited about participating. The facilitator describes the purpose of the session in terms that gives the participants a much bigger picture of the importance of the session. In addition, he is active in ensuring that all participants engage in the discussion. The facilitator challenges the participants when the discussion appears to remain at a high level. And, from time to time, the facilitator offers insights that may be otherwise overlooked.

Participating Facilitator – The facilitator starts out much like a meeting manager, setting the agenda, establishing ground rules, and initiating the discussion. But the facilitator also actively engages as a participant in the discussion, frequently offering his own views, giving opinions on topics, and expressing disagreement with various comments.

Each of these roles is valid for support of a meeting. However, in our organization we focus on the facilitator as Meeting Leader. When you serve as the facilitator in this role, we believe you have seven specific responsibilities:

Guide You must know the steps of the process the group will execute from beginning to end. You must carefully guide the participants through each of the step.

Motivator From the rousing opening statement to the closing words of cheer, you must ignite a fire within the group and keep it well lit. You must establish momentum and keep the pace.

Visionary You must create a vision for the group of why the meeting is important.

Bridge Builder You must create and maintain a safe and open environment for sharing ideas. Where other people see differences, you must find and use similarities to establish a foundation for building bridges to consensus.

Clairvoyant Throughout the session, you must watch carefully for signs of potential strain, weariness, aggravation and dis-empowerment — and respond in advance to avoid dysfunctional behavior.

Peacemaker While it is almost always better to avoid a direct confrontation between participants, should such an event occur, you must quickly step in, re-establish order and direct the group toward a constructive resolution.

Taskmaster You are ultimately responsible for keeping the session on track; this means tactfully cutting short irrelevant discussions, preventing detours and maintaining a consistent level of detail throughout the session.

Praiser At every opportunity, you should praise the effort put forth, the progress made, and the results achieved. Praise well, praise often, praise specifically.

After playing so many roles, is there any wonder why a facilitator is typically exhausted after even a relatively short facilitated session?

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For more resources, see the Library topic Facilitation.

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Michael Wilkinson is the CEO and Managing Director of Leadership Strategies, Inc., “The Facilitation Company” and author of Amazon best-seller “The Secrets of Facilitation”, “The Secrets to Masterful Meetings”, and the brand new “The Executive Guide to Facilitating Strategy.” Leadership Strategies is a global leader in facilitation services, providing companies with dynamic professional facilitators who lead executive teams and task forces in areas like strategic planning, issue resolution, process improvement and others. They are also a leading provider of facilitation trainingin the United States.

Are you seeing a decrease of employee motivation and morale, especially with your top performers?

Don’t look for causes and solutions out there. Instead, chances are you’ll find critical employee issues are actually resulting from a host of internal management practices. Here are five “demotivators” – sure ways to dampen the enthusiasm of your best and brightest.

1. Overloading them with responsibility.
A study recently released by the American Management Association found that 76% of professionals surveyed said they had more responsibility than a year ago, while 65% said their workload has increased. But more responsibility doesn’t necessarily translate to greater job satisfaction of top performers. Rather, it can be viewed as being “dumped upon” and that can lead to a decrease in their motivation and performance.

2. Micromanaging their efforts and their time.
Once given the scope of their assignment or project, top performers expect that you’ll have trust in their ability to move forward without constantly looking over their shoulders. An important part of managing others, especially if they are highly competent, is to let go.

3. Creating confusion about roles and responsibilities.
The best and the brightest want to attack assignments with vigor and decisiveness. They want to know things like what resources and decision making authority they have. If it’s unclear it can lead to conflict with others over who does what with what people and when it needs to get done.

4. Focusing on the bureaucracy not the results.
There’s nothing more frustrating, when you clearly see the big picture, than to have someone insist that every decision must be pre-approved in triplicate. In too many workplaces, the myth of empowerment is one of the greater fantasies. Loosen up the bureaucracy and grant freedom to those who earn it.

5. Constantly changing goals and objectives.
Top performers are definitely goal driven on both a personal and business level. Each goal accomplished at work is another message that life is good, that work is satisfying. Take that away, by constantly changing, rearranging or eliminating previously stated objectives, and you will frustrate the goal-driven employee.

Management Success Tip:

Eliminate these “demotivators” before you start planning so-called “motivational” perks. Free coffee and donuts are pleasant, but they’re like bubble gum in a major league baseball dugout. Players appreciate the taste but it has nothing to do with motivating them to hit an inside fastball thrown at 98 miles an hour. The hit is the result of their hard work, focus and wanting to succeed. Also see Motivate Your Best People and Not Break the Bank and What Makes a Great Boss.

Do you want to develop your Management Smarts?

• Build your skills with The Effective Manager.
• Sign up for Quick Wins: 101 Management Tips.
• Find performance boosters in the Smart Moves Blog.
• Fast track your leadership. Be part of a Success Team.
• Need a speaker? Get the Edge keynotes-webinars-workshops.
• Copyright © 2012 Marcia Zidle business and leadership coach.