You can’t make a good omelet without breaking a few eggs. Sometimes you get shells in the mix. Sometimes you miss the bowl entirely and end up making a big mess.
Change falls into three main categories: good, bad, or just different. When we see a problem, it is in our nature to fix it. Sometimes the way we fix it ends up being just different or occasionally causing more harm.
Plenty of organizations out there have either recognized the need for performance management or the harm their current reviews are doing. Many turned to Catalytic Coaching to resolve those problems. Some of them became Coaching rockstars, tapping into the true potential of their people and augmenting all of their other efforts. Others… not so much.
What causes Coaching to break down and how do you unscramble those eggs?
The problem: Workers dread the Coaching process.
The common cause: Coaching was used as a stick to beat them, instead of a carrot to motivate them.
The solution: Retrain your managers so they understand how to avoid the weakness trap, how to leverage the Yellow Employee Input sheet, the correct way to handle Job Threatening cases, and what a great Coaching conversation looks like.
That renewed training can come from your organization’s Coach2 (Coach of Coaches) or by having Gary and his team handle that for you. Virtual training is available.
The problem: Employees don’t understand why they need Coaching.
The common causes: Blue Collar employees don’t see a career path to work on, past Yellow Employee Input sheets weren’t leveraged or listened to, or someone doesn’t have a career path to focus on.
The solutions: Let’s tackle these issues one at a time.
For Blue Collar workers, many see their job as a repetitive action they do until they retire. They view career paths or development recommendations as something office people work on. It’s still important to track those job related targets and further develop skills. No job remains 100% the same over the course of any career. New technologies and streamlining processes must be developed and learned to make any job function more efficient. Other skills, like using a computer, may not seem like an intuitive Blue Collar Focus Area; but in today’s market, it can be vital for their future.
Now let’s look at leveraging that Yellow Employee Input sheet. If the effort of filling it out doesn’t seem to pay off, workers will lose interest and buy-in will be hard to win back. When they share important details with their manager, but they don’t hear any of it come up in their Blue Coaching Worksheet meeting, then they feel ignored and unappreciated. Maybe their career aspirations won’t fit in with the company goals. Maybe they asked for accommodations or benefits that just can’t be granted. No matter what the bump in the road, the Coach must acknowledge and explain it. If they aren’t sure how, they can turn to the company’s Coach2 (Coach of Coaches) for guidance.
The final common cause is a lack of direction. They may not buy into Coaching because the team member doesn’t really know what they want to be “when they grow up.” The easiest solution is for the Coach is ask. Use thoughtful questions to coax out aspirations the employee may not even realize they had.
The problem: Managers don’t value Coaching.
The common cause: They don’t understand how to leverage the Coaching process.
The solution: This is the difference between being a manager and a true Coach. Through training, a manager learns how to leverage the Catalytic Coaching process to identify the superpowers in their team members and tie those into company goals. Coaching is a skill and doesn’t come naturally to everyone. It may take a bit more practice and guidance to turn a decent manager into a great Coach. A Coach2 (Coach of Coaches) is vital to helping them. If this a widespread problem among many managers, then have your Coach2 or Gary and his team provide a refresher Coaches Workshop.
The problem: The Coaching process isn’t being completed properly.
The common cause: Managers are putting Coaching on the back burner.
The solution: Lead by example. When the employees see leadership invested in the process, they’ll be more likely to complete it. If they know they’ll be asked about it, they’ll get it done.
Setup a clear schedule with reminders for when each step of the process should be completed. There is a sample Coaching timeline available as an example within the Catalytic Coaching Online software powered by Energage in the Resources section.
Incentivize successful completion of the process. For example, some organizations have their department heads compete by having a “prize” for completing the process or the head of the department with the lowest participation rate must buy their colleagues breakfast.
Track where everyone is in the Coaching process by reviewing which sheets have been submitted. It’s easy for an admin to pull those reports from the Catalytic Coaching Online software.
Managers may also feel like they just don’t have time to get Coaching done. The first year can be especially time consuming as everyone is overcoming the learning curve. Be sure each Coach has time blocked off to complete the steps needed, that they understand this is vital to the success of company goals, and is required of them to fulfill their role as a manager.
The moral of the story: You may break a few eggs making your omelet, but the effort is well worth it.
Most of the time, bumps in the Coaching road are smoothed out by revisiting training and being sure the process is properly supported.
Having a couple of Coach2s certified is a vital asset to any organization. These highly trained Coach of Coaches are prepared to advise managers, revamp training, serve as an administrator of the Catalytic Coaching Online software, and keep the Coaching process going strong.
Coach2s are trained through our Catalytic Coaching Mastery Program. This virtual class is designed with in-depth interactive activities that develop elevated Coaching skills through practice and one-on-one guidance from Gary Markle and his team.
Get more details or register for the upcoming session by visiting catalyticcoaching.com/masteryprogram.
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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