As a year full of struggle winds down, the last thing you need to contend with is more strife next year.
Huge swaths of the workforce have dealt with being underemployed or job loss as companies had to contract or fail. Supply and demand has been fickle, starving some companies and drowning others.
Here at Catalytic Coaching, we’ve tackled our share of the chaos too. Gary wrote about his perpetual pivots earlier this year and they just kept on coming. His team has had to adapt, learning and expanding new skills they hadn’t ever needed before. They weren’t alone in tripping through the learning curve.
Goals have shifted across the board. Strategic plans have changed and leadership teams are formulating what success will look like moving forward. Now we undertake the monumental task of cascading that down throughout the teams and among the individual employees.
How do you execute that crucial cascade in 2021?
1. Put the pedal to the metal. We can’t keep playing the waiting game. It’s comforting and invigorating for your workforce to push the gas a bit harder and feel the wind in their hair. That focus will help clear away the dust and guide them as suitable goals are formed to get them to the finish line.
2. Make it loud and clear. Creating those strategic initiatives is only the first step. Cascading them down throughout the company is the really vital part. Each team will have a crucial role to play in executing the overall vision. As the managers coach their direct reports toward that, they must empower each employee to take responsibility for accomplishing their own part.
Think of them like puzzle pieces that must get themselves into their correct spots. If a puzzle piece doesn’t know where to go, the final picture will be mucked up.
3. Take it one bite at a time. After an overwhelming year, you don’t want to further overwhelm your employees. They have to eat the elephant one bite at a time. Clearly carve out which parts of the elephant each team should take on then empower your managers to slice it up among their people. In turn, those managers will enable their direct reports to take their piece of the elephant and cook it up any way they need to get it ready for the feast.
4. Get ready to celebrate. A simple thank you and a socially distanced air-high-five can go a long way. Track the progress as everyone works through those goals. When they hit a milestone, give them a shout out. It not only tells the individuals you see and appreciate their efforts, but it motivates others to up their game. Ask your managers who on their team has been checking off their progress updates. Incentivize it with small rewards. Not back in the office? No problem. Even a simple hurrah over Zoom will be enough.
5. Put baby in the corner. There will always be problem children. There will always be those folks that won’t get on board with new direction or develop the new skills you need from them. Rely on your performance management to reveal those problem children through tracking of input from them, their managers, and their goal attainment. Don’t be nervous to put them on notice and in the corner. “This is what we need from you for everyone to be successful. If that’s not something you’re interested in/ able to achieve, then let’s amicably start planning your exit.”
6. Rally the troops. You can’t do this alone. Any company leader, from the senior executives to floor managers have so much on their plates already. You need a guide that has been specially trained to tackle those tricky performance management situations and provide clarity to employees that are struggling with seeing how they fit into the company.
That’s where a Coach of Coaches comes to the rescue. These highly trained Coach2s have been given an in-depth dive into the full coaching process with real world scenarios and practical exercises. You can learn more about training your Coach of Coaches HERE.
Want to be sure you execute The Crucial Cascade? Gary is hosting a free webinar on December 16th that will do exactly that. Registration and details at catalyticcoaching.com/events
Garold (Gary) Markle is the creator of Catalytic Coaching and author of Catalytic Coaching: The End of the Performance Review. He brings real world experience from 17 years in HR leadership in major corporations coupled with 20 years of teaching small and mid-sized organizations how to cultivate their leadership and ditch their detrimental performance reviews for a proven Coaching process.
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