Coaching Your Employees

Coaching employees is about goal-setting for their new or continued achievements, helping them take different and more positive steps, building momentum toward process, productivity, or behavioral improvements, trusting intuition (on both sides), and helping them create different results.

Sometimes, your employees fit into one of these four broad types.

The Smart Slacker – This employee has been there a long time, has “retired on duty,” and no longer wants to break a sweat. He or she knows how to do the work but doesn’t really want to. These employees appear to work hard when the boss is around. They have lots of knowledge and could make a real and valuable contribution because of their history, experience, and hidden skills. Motivation is the problem here.

The Problem Child – There are two possibilities here: acute problem employees (good worker who suddenly develop serious off-the-job problems) or chronic problem employees (who have been difficult since Hire Day One). Acute PC’s should be offered support, access to counseling, and an Individual Development / Performance Improvement Plan. Chronic PC’s should be given progressive discipline, last warnings, and then termination notices.

The Plow Horse – This is a good worker, who does the job he/she is paid to do, but without much imagination. They lack either the ability or the desire to use creative problem solving. They get passable evaluations and are largely happy doing what they were hired to do. It may be they are fearful of the stress and responsibility of advancement, so they won’t look for career help. Teaching them the skill of option-thinking can help a lot.

The Rising Star – They are easy to delegate to, usually love more responsibility, and work hard without being asked / reminded. They go the extra mile to earn exceptional evaluations. It’s possible and likely supervisors can burn these people out with too much work, too much autonomy, and not enough reward. Good coaches will get them on to a career path that plays to their strengths and improves their weaknesses.

The following points can help accelerate your process with each of these four:

Don’t wait until the Performance Review process to request performance or behavioral changes.

Hold “Personal Accountability Meetings” with all employees on a regular basis, not just during Performance Reviews.

Script out your main points and refer to your notes during the meeting. These discussions can be stressful; prepare yourself with notes and talking points in advance.

Smart Slackers – Confront their behavior, attitude, or performance. Remind them of their “legacy employee” status. Ask for their help in creating solutions you both can live with.

Problem Children – Use your progressive discipline process. Ask them to make a stay/go choice, as in, “You seem unhappy here and I’m not happy with your performance. Is this a job you really want?”

Plow Horses – Encourage them to use option-thinking to problem-solve. Reward their progress in this area, no matter how small it seems at first. They will grow with more praise for their efforts in thinking outside the box.

Rising Stars – Give them challenges but watch for job burnout. Create a career path that offers them opportunities for advancement.

Dr. Steve Albrecht, PHR, CPP, is a trainer, speaker, and consultant in San Diego, CA. He can be reached at drsteve@drstevealbrecht.com.