Coaching for Improved Performance

by Robin Nitschke

I've always regarded problems as opportunities to do better, gain experience, and learn more, just to be a little bit smarter and perhaps "street wise" on how to handle life issues and situations. After all, we learn best, not by being taught and not by studying or reading, but by experiencing and then reflecting on what we did and what happened and then drawing conclusions and experimenting.

As a coach, I've practiced this method with considerable success. If we don't learn from the past, we are doomed to repeat the same mistakes and have the same problems over and over again. Then, we'll never grow and develop as a person; we'll effectively stagnate both emotionally and intellectually.

Kolb's Learning Cycle Expanded

1. Life gives us "gifts" in the form of opportunities to have EXPERIENCES.
   
2. Coaching provides the opportunity to get FEEDBACK from these experiences - this is achieved by questioning and clarifying.
   
3. Further probing and questioning creates insights and common themes which lead to the learner REFLECTING on the experiences, the action that was taken and the consequences of this action.
   
4. From these insights and personal discoveries, CONCLUSIONS are drawn that, if sufficiently powerful, can relate back to other current or past situations.
   
5. The valuable lessons learned from this exercise are then applied to future situations in the form of EXPERIMENTS.
   
6. From these experiments, EXPERIENCES are provided as well as further opportunities to learn more and the cycle goes around again.

I have found that Kolb's learning cycle becomes so much more effective when approached from a coaching perspective. It incorporates the "empowerment causes involvement which causes commitment which results in increased performance" coaching technique with the "commend, recommend, commend" Toastmaster principle.

Let me give you an example of the effectiveness of this technique in a non-performance situation.

Recently the manager of one of our departments told me he couldn't work with a member of his staff because she didn't do anything she was told and he didn't want to "have to write everything down for her." Instead of approaching this from a disciplinary perspective, I used the coaching feed back technique and set the situation up so that she asked me for help, rather than me forcing the help upon her.

Broadly speaking this process involves three parts: Commendation, Recommendation, and Commendation:

Commendation:

Recommendation:

1. Get straight to the point. Say, "The purpose of this meeting is to ____" or, "I want to spend some time discussing with you the situation around this issue."
   
2. State why you are having this conversation. Say, "I have a concern about ____" or, "A problem has occurred in this area."
   
3. Describe the behavior causing the problem. Say, "I noticed that you ____" or, "When I was told that you made this decision, I looked into it and discovered this result." (Provide evidence, if necessary. Never, ever try to coach or discipline on hear-say. Also, during the discussion, make sure you focus on behaviour, and never on personalities.)
   
4. Explain the consequences of this behaviour. "The customer would see your behaviour as uncaring." Or, "The effect of your lateness caused your workmates to ____."
   
5. Tell how this behavior makes you feel."When you behave in this way, I feel _____."
   
6. Ask for the individual's view. "But that's how I see it; what's your view of the situation?"
   
7. Ask her to assess her own behavior. "How do you think he felt when you ____?"
   
8. Review the employee's job competency requirements. As an example, check his understanding of his job description to ensure that you both have the same expectations of the task or duty.
   
9. Ask the person how she will correct her behavior and how she can convince you she will do it. Ask, "What's getting in the way for you?" Or, "How confident are you that you can change?" Or, "What can you do to convince me that you will change this behavior?"
   
10. Ask the employee to say, in his own words, what specifically he will do to change his behavior. "Say in your own words what you will do differently as a result of this discussion? What will the outcome that I can anticipate look like if you are successful in making the changes? (In this way you are effectively empowering the employee to change himself. By approaching the change in this way, the employee is setting his own standards by which he will assess his own behavior.)
    
11. Decide on the actions that the employee will take. "Let's both agree, then, that you will do the following and we'll review the situation in three months."
    
12. Summarize your agreements. "To recap, you said you will do the following, and I will do this."

The manager had written the employee off as totally lazy and stupid, a real hopeless case. When I got to number nine above, I suddenly realized that she was not lazy or delinquent - far from it. She just learns things differently than most of us. I discovered that she understands everything in a visual way, so telling her what to do was ineffective. What was required from us was a checklist, so we made a checklist and the difference was truly amazing. She's now a very motivated and conscientious employee.

Commendation:

That's basically the structure for feedback we use for coaching employees. With the exception of totally defiant employees, it really does work.

I don't discipline my staff. I coach them in a way that makes them aware of the consequences of their actions, allowing them to tell me what they will do to change their behavior. In this way I am "empowering" them with the responsibility of changing their own behavior and this makes them feel directly accountable and involved with the situation, the problems and outcomes. This feeling of involvement makes them committed to the change required and, almost without fail, will result in no loss of dignity, a higher level of motivation and improved performance.

Robin Nitschke is a Certified Career, Business and Life Coach. Robin has had 22 years in various management roles where he has been involved with training and motivating people to achieve their potential. He has worked with both large and small businesses, managing all aspects of human resources, training, management development, marketing and customer service departments. The enthusiasm, dedication and passion he brings to coaching, inspires, motivates and empowers people to achieve their life long goals.