In any organization, the role of a leader invokes several functions. You set goals and coordinate the actions needed to achieve them. You manage time, motivate people and put them in the best position to succeed and use their strengths for the benefit of the group.
None of these things can be accomplished without an effective coaching skill set.
Each individual may require a unique approach. Some might respond better to an authoritarian style, with formal sessions, clear goals, and strict accountability. Others want to be approached informally, almost in conversation, and given a degree of autonomy to operate.
It is beneficial to have a wide variety of techniques in your coaching toolbox. This way you can deploy them according to the personality of the employee.
And above all, you can select the ones that will have the most impact according to the time available.
Sometimes unfortunate incidents happen involving your employees. You might have a hunch about what's wrong or why, but it's best to check if you're right, especially if the problem is serious.
Root cause analysis is a technique that helps you investigate and dig deep into the problem. Just as you would want a doctor to treat the disease and not the symptom or a device repairer to fix what's broken or recommend a replacement is final. Finding and addressing the root cause ensures that the problem will not reoccur.
To execute a good root cause analysis, however, your coaching should use lots of open-ended questions. You can and should steer the conversation, especially based on your suspicions.
But like a real root system, remember that you could be dealing with several intertwined causes. You need to map them all to maximize the results of this approach.
This means that root cause analysis can take a long time. One employee may beat around the bush or you may be dealing with multiple employees. Each session could uncover a single facet of a complex problem. So, use this technique when the problem is urgent and serious enough to warrant taking so much time.
On the other end of the spectrum, when you and your employees have very little available bandwidth, the only tactic you can ever use is some form of quick feedback.
Although each coaching session is a vital opportunity to create improvement, it must be balanced against the real, daily need for productive work. Not only does the balance tend to tip in favor of employees doing more of their actual work, but it also makes sense in terms of cognitive workload.
You may have good intentions when trying to guide and improve people, but their minds are already busy processing many other things. Keeping it short and simple is often more effective.
In fact, quick feedback should make up the bulk of your coaching sessions. This is based on the OODA loop pattern :Observe, Orient, Decide, Act.
You should always observe your people, but never become obsessed with getting perfect information. It's best to exercise good judgment and navigate the uncertainty, decide on a course of action, and start testing.
Remember, the faster you go through these loops, the faster you fill in the gaps. If you see something that can be corrected on the spot or positive behaviors that need to be reinforced, why wait? Give brief feedback right away, and you will always progress towards the desired result.
Between these extremes of running out of time and needing to launch a thorough investigation, you have another tactic to use when your employee has bandwidth but you don't.
This is based on nudge theory :the idea that change can be managed by working with choice design, which influences people's decisions.
Giving someone a hand at work therefore involves, to some extent, structuring their choices. It shifts their behavior in the desired direction. Most of the effort comes from them. For your part, less time is consumed, although you should think carefully about how to design the nudge.
Coaching nudges can take the form of simple reminders:direct messages or visuals that make a clear connection between behaviors and impacts. They can be subtle, like bringing a group of people together for a meeting when your real goal is to warm them up to each other for better collaboration.
Another form of nudge involves a playful approach to learning, which encourages people to spend their free time honing their skills and improving their personal effectiveness.
Although powerful, nudges don't always achieve the precise effect that more direct and targeted methods can provide. So remember, this is still just one option in your toolbox. Time is a resource, and using the right coaching technique is another way to maximize it.
