The Spoon

During tough economic times, you'll hear rumblings about "employee engagement" from various levels of an organization. Employee engagement is the hot buzz word that just won't go away, primarily because it does have an impact on how well (or poor) a company comes out of a downturn.

However, while everyone is buzzin' about employee engagement, how many of you actually know what drives, creates, and sustains it?? If you can name at least 3 *without peeking*, you get an A for the day.

Get a little deeper on what drives employee engagement:

• Trust and integrity – how well managers communicate and 'walk the talk'.
  
  
• Nature of the job –Is it mentally stimulating day-to-day?
  
  
• Strategic Direction between employee performance and company performance – Does the employee understand how their work contributes to the company's performance?
  
  
• Growth opportunities –Are there future opportunities for growth?
  
  
• Pride about the company – How much self-esteem does the employee feel by being associated with their company?
  
  
• Coworkers/team members – significantly influence one's level of engagement
  
  
• Employee development opportunities – Is the company making an effort to develop the employee's skills?
  
  
• Relationship with one's manager – Does the employee value his or her relationship with his or her manager?

The 5th Installment of Coaching Staff from the Brilliant Leadership Blog. Share other topics you'd like to learn about! ~Kristin

Coaching Staff -- Part V
The Brilliant Leadership Blog
So far in this series we’ve looked at how to provide clear instruction, effective demonstrations, enable practice in a safe environment and the under-rated element of observing this practice. In this section we’ll be looking at how to make an effective coaching intervention and provide feedback to the staff member.

In fact, the very phrase, provide feedback to the staff member is wrong. This implies that feedback is a one way process whereas it really should be a two way discussion. Wherever possible, the staff member should be encouraged to review their own performance or progression in the task or skill area with a view to identifying what has worked well and what can be improved. The coach’s role is to ask great questions and listen actively. In Brilliant Leader I recommend the use of the communication funnel as a key coaching technique for such interventions.

Apart from being a two way discussion, what are the other aspects of a feedback intervention that we should consider?

1. Positive Reinforcement – It is vital that people understand what they have done well and why. This is much more than simply praising the individual. It is about helping them to understand the positive behaviours they have employed so that they learn when and how to employ these behaviours in the future.

2. Constructive Improvement – When something hasn’t gone as well as was intended, it is important for the staff member to understand what they needed to do differently and how. The key guideline here is that if they were to perform this task again will they be able to exhibit different and more effective behaviours.

3. Support Interventions – Often, a feedback intervention occurs because the staff member asks for help – usually because they encounter something new or different in relation to the task or skill area. In the early stages of the coaching cycle, the coach might simply provide a recommendation or even an instruction. However, as the individual becomes more accomplished, the coach’s role is to challenge the staff member to come up with their own solutions or recommendations. These can then be shaped, if necessary, before being ratified.

4. Timely – Coaching interventions should be timely. The longer it is left after the event before the staff member receives feedback, the less relevant the feedback becomes. This presents particular challenges for those who are coaching remotely. This might involve coaching via the telephone or video conferencing. It might also indicate a need to meet with the staff member more frequently or to involve additional help in the coaching process from those who are on the same site or location.

5. Motivational – While remembering that the purpose of a feedback conversation is for the staff member to learn, it is also important that the environment that is created is motivational and inspirational. This requires that encouragement is provided even when correcting or improving behaviour. The feedback session should finish on the development of an action plan or a summary of key points that will be taken away from the session and the coach should instil a sense of belief in the staff member that they can successfully implement and apply these actions.

The final point to make when considering the coaching cycle is to remember precisely that – it is a cycle and not a straight line process. The cycle will repeat less and less frequently until the staff member becomes fully competent in the task or skill area. This implies that coaching is an ongoing process not a one off exercise. To be clear on this, coaching is a fundamental part of managing and leading people – it is a core part of the job.

This will be an important point to note in the next part of this series we explore how to find the time to coach.


Simon Cooper is chief executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the Brilliant Leadership workshops.

I found a great series on Coaching Employees that I'm going to share with you over the next couple of weeks. Let me know what other topics you'd like to learn about! ~Kristin

Coaching Staff --- Part 1
The Brilliant Leadership Blog
One of the key leadership activities in the workplace, especially for those with direct responsibility for people, is to coach their staff. But how do you do it and how do you find time to do it?

In this series I hope to answer both questions. To do so I will be putting a simple coaching cycle at the heart of the discussion. This breaks down as follows:

1. Instruction
2. Demonstration
3. Practice
4. Observation
5. Feedback

This cycle seems relatively straightforward but the reality is that there are challenges presented at each stage. So let us begin with the first stage of the coaching cycle – instruction.

When a staff member is new to a task or skill area, the first thing they need is to understand what they are meant to be doing, why they are doing it and how it should be done. This is the knowledge they need to gain but simple as it sounds, it has some potential pitfalls. The greatest risk is that the initial explanation might not be fully understood and even if it is, human nature will lead to memory gaps during the learning process. So how does the coach overcome and deal with these issues?

Context
Before providing instruction on a task or skill area, the coach should provide the staff member with a clear context. Why do you need to learn this? How does it fit in with the other tasks you are asked to perform? How does it fit in with the work of other team members? How does it fit in with other teams and/or the wider organisation?

Without context, it is much harder to fully understand the task in hand.

Bite Sized Chunks
The best way to provide instruction is in bite sized chunks, particularly for more complex tasks or skill areas. These chunks should be logically organised into building blocks of knowledge so that each new explanation is a natural progression from the last one.

Common Language
It is imperative that the coach uses language that the staff member understands. You need to be especially careful about the use of jargon or internal language.

KISS
Keep it short and simple (or keep it simple, stupid if you prefer). Don’t over complicate an explanation. It should be clear, concise and unambiguous.

Message Delivery
Make the message come alive by using examples, analogies and visual aids.

Check Understanding
At each stage of the knowledge transfer process, the coach needs to check understanding. There are several ways to do this. In some situations it might be appropriate to run a test or a quiz. In others it might be more appropriate to ask the staff member to summarise their understanding. A more subtle way of checking understanding is to have a conversation about how to apply this knowledge that culminates in an action plan – the conversation itself enables the coach to be confident that the understanding is accurate.

Reference Material
Ideally, the staff member will have access to reference material that will serve as a reminder to the knowledge they gained. This can take the form of procedure/user manuals, process maps, notes, intranet/knowledge transfer documentation or even a relevant book.

On the surface, providing instruction on a task or skill area appears straightforward but in practice there are a number of potential pitfalls. The guidelines above will help you avoid or navigate your way through these.

In part two I will be looking at the next stage of the coaching cycle - how to provide staff with an effective demonstration.


Simon Cooper is Chief Executive of the Experiential Learning Centre, author of the exciting new book, Brilliant Leader and architect of the unique and powerful Brilliant Leadership workshops.

People commonly tell me, "We need leadership training." After digging deeper into what they call "leadership training", I find what they're typically looking for is management skill development.

The terms "leadership" and "management" are quite often used interchangeably, but there is a profound difference and both are important to your job today.

I've made my distinction between the two simple:

Of course, to be a good manager one must have many leadership traits. Good leaders are good managers and vice versa. Leadership and management are very much intertwined, so discounting characteristics of one is discounting the importance of the other.

However, they’re more than just intertwined. The combination facilitates your ability to get the resources you need, have the support you need, get the skills you need, build the relationships you need... to get your job done.

Getting an organization "to the next level" or competing in an ever-changing world requires mighty management and enriching leadership... but the true power to make a difference lies with the people that have both: Leadagers.

Let's all be Leadagers.

Here are some upcoming management and leadership development opportunities.

Thursday, 11/20 @ 12:00 (noon) EST
Taking the Fear Out of Feedback -- Thought Leadership, The Ken Blanchard Companies
As we enter Performance Appraisal time, now is a prime opportunity to provide solid feedback to your employees.

Tuesday, 12/2 @ 2:00 pm EST
How Effective Leaders Coach with Compassion (vs. Coach for Compliance) -- Richard Boyatzis / Human Capital Institute / MHS

Tuesday, 12/2 @ 11:00 am EST
BOOM! Play to Your Genius / Get it Done -- Dr. Kevin Freiberg and Dr. Jackie Freiberg / Better Management

Play to Your Genius - Your work is your signature—make it a masterpiece. To know that your work counts is to know that you count. If you engage in work that makes you come alive, the world will beat a path to your door. Defy mediocrity and make yourself indispensable by playing to your genius and engaging in work that matters.

Get It Done - No one is paying you today for what you did yesterday. When you stop bringing something of value to the game, the game is over! Become a junction box for knowledge, find a way to get smarter, better, faster. Speak up, tell it like it is, think for yourself. People who get it done and make a difference, choose results over rhetoric and red tape.

Wednesday, 12/10 @ 11:00 am EST
Authentic Leadership -- Gail Ostrishko / Better Management
This seminar will help you to listen, encourage, advocate and demonstrate shared values in order to cultivate a sense of ownership and accountability in yourself and others.

It's that time of year again -- time for performance appraisals!! I'm sure all of you are PUMPED about providing your employees with good feedback, so here's some help for getting the most out of the performance management process.

The November 2008 issue of Ignite! Newsletter from The Ken Blanchard Companies focuses on how leaders can deliver targeted, well-crafted feedback to grow employees and keep performance from declining.

The lesson for all you managers out there -- or anyone trying to help develop another person's skills -- is to appreciate the importance of effective feedback; understand your personal motives, agenda, and responsibility for giving feedback; and know when and how to give the various types of feedback.

Providing good feedback does not occur naturally or by default. To provide effective feedback, leaders must learn, develop, and cultivate very specific conversational skills. Read the article to learn how.