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Performance Pointers The rationale for executive coaching Sometimes, a simple, low-tech performance initiative goes horribly wrong, perhaps because the concepts were poorly understood, or the goals were not defined clearly. Mostly, however, because the individual tasked with implementation received little or no support on how to achieve different results. And under those circumstances, it’s really easy to shoot yourself in the foot—almost inevitable. What was the case? During his performance review, a line manager was encouraged to involve his staff in generating ideas for productivity gains. He didn’t take much convincing. In fact, one of his pet peeves about his team was that nobody ever came up with good ideas. With a new sense of purpose, the line manager opened the next department meeting with enthusiasm, and asked his team to come up with ideas about improving customer service. After a brief pause, with the staff all looking at one another to see who would go first, one brave soul raised his hand, and made a suggestion. The line-manager’s reaction? "Tom, that’s a great idea. Why don’t you do some research and write up a proposal, and I’ll see it on my desk by the end of the week, okay?” With that, the line manager closed the meeting, and everyone went back to work. A week went by, but the proposal never appeared. A now frustrated line manager called Tom into his office, and berated him for not following through. Tom tried to explain why he hadn’t—couldn’t --complete the assignment, but it was to no avail. As far as the line manager was concerned, this just proved his point: no-one ever came up—or followed through—with good ideas; he would have to do it all himself. He felt he had tried to motivate Tom by giving him free reign; by letting him run with the ball; it was Tom’s baby, so he should be proud and really motivated to have the opportunity to work out the idea … the line manager couldn’t understand what he’d done wrong. What was Tom thinking in the meantime? "That’s the last time I ever speak up with an idea. If I’d known I would get 15 hours of extra work piled on top of my already overloaded plate for that week, I’d have kept my mouth shut.” If the line manager had been working with an executive coach, this disasterous outcome probably would have been avoided. We would have come up with a better plan. Consider this scenario: Instead of closing the meeting, what if the line manager had continued: "Now, I know you have some tight deadlines you’re dealing with, Tom. Let’s look at how we can free up some time for you to work on this project. Sally? Do you think you could pitch in with Tom for the research part? And Jack? Perhaps you can go over the deliverables for this week with Tom, and take some of them off his hands; maybe Ruth can help out, too. Tom: I don’t need ‘War and Peace’ – but if you could write up some bullet points for me, outlining pros and cons, then I can take it up the food chain, and if we need to rustle up some budget, I’ll have the data and the facts to get the funding. Good work, folks—let’s all pull together on this. If you run into any snags – you’ll let me know, right?"
The difference after the coaching intervention: This time, the line-manager took the time to not only motivate Tom to succeed, but to enable him as well. Needless to say, things would have gone much better, and an example would have been set for the other staff members to follow.
Last updated on Nov 13, 2009 at 10:03 AM Category: Retaining & Motivating Managing Change 0 comments | Leave a comment (must be logged in)
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