developing employees participant guide

Supervisory Training Series: Developing EmployeesKevin R.Thomas, Manager,Training & Development · Office of Human Resources · [email protected] · 413-597-3542

January 2016

[email protected]

413-597-3542

Manager, Training and Development

Office of Human Resources

Presented by Kevin R. Thomas

Supervisory Training Series

Developing Employees


1) Stay Interviews2) 9 Box Grid3) Writing Development Plans

a) Strengths Basedb) Development Based

4) Walking the Walk



1. A stay interview is a periodic one-on-onestructured retention interview that identifiesand reinforces the factors that drive anemployee to stay.

2. Typically used only for highly valued employees,

3. Helpful in finding out what motivates averageand lower performers.

Stay Interviews


• Read the questions in thestay interview handout.

• Take turns conducting astay interview with your peercoach.

• Debrief.

Your Turn

Stay Interview



1. The 9 Box chart is a matrix which contains employees categorized by two variables (their performance ranking and their potential for advancement).

2. Identifying your employees on a 9-box can suggest coaching strategies for bringing out the best in them.

9 Box


9 Box



• Identify your employees on a 9-box.

• Review materials in your participant guides to identify a coaching strategy.

• Debrief with your partner.

Your Turn

9 Box



© Warner Results Coaching (WRC), 2009. All Rights Reserved. WRC is a division of the Worldwide Centre for Organisational Development

Using a Performance and Potential Grid to Guide Coaching Interventions by Dr Jon Warner

The Performance and Potential Grid, or Matrix, is a well-known and useful model which has been used for the past twenty-five years by HR professionals and line managers to help determine individual’s (and mainly manager’s) organisational contribution. A simplified version of this nine-box grid is shown below:

Charts like the one above are commonly used (although they may vary slightly on occasions, such as having “performance” and “potential” the other way around for example. However, they all use a simple numbering system, such as that shown on the chart. Typically, the “1” at the top right represents those individuals whose performance and potential is seen as most optimal, with then progressively higher numbers in each box representing various contributions down to number “9”, at the bottom left, representing the organisation’s “problem people”.

The Performance and Potential Grid has been used most often for leadership development and on-going succession planning purposes. In this respect, most of the focus is on boxes 1, 2 and 3 shown here (with some performance management effort naturally also being directed at box 9). This usually translates into an often very detailed and focused effort to develop people in these top three boxes, with far less attention, time and money being spent on boxes 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8. This may be quite a sensible way to allocate precious training and development investment but may do little to change the overall group picture for the better, over the medium to long term. This is because some individuals may continue to slide backwards or may not develop or improve because they are being left largely to their own devices and to flounder, often for years (also partly because termination of lower-performing individuals may be impractical).


Using the Performance and Potential Grid for Coaching

Although it has been little used for this purpose in the past, the Performance and Potential Grid is an excellent mechanism for considering possible coaching interventions for each type of individual in the boxes on the chart. In other words, we can utilise the basic Performance and Potential Grid to attach our own labels to the various populations of people we find in each instance and then look more closely at the behaviours (productive and counter-productive) that seem to be most prevalent. This then allows the most appropriate coaching interventions to be made.

As an example of this approach, in the detailed grid below, each of the nine boxes has been assigned a label and some broad and general descriptors of behaviour added as illustrated. A range of applicable coaching interventions are then listed at the bottom of each box.

Coaching Performance and Potential Grid

PERFORMANCE (Right results)

POTE

NTIA

L (R

ight

“st

uff”

)

High

Hig

hLo

w

STARSLikely Behaviour: -Inexperience/lack of maturity -Lack of competence in some areas -Over-pressured/stressed -Overwhelmed with tasks/work -Poor organisation skills

Coaching typically needed: -Prioritisation/time management skills -Knowledge transfer in identified areas -Personal organisation/discipline coaching -Networking capability building

DETRACTORS

EMERGERSLATENTS

CONTRIBUTORSTRANSITIONALSPLACEHOLDERS

WORKERSBLOCKERS

Likely Behaviour: -Keen and enthusiastic to try new things -May not utilise others optimally -Detailed focused -Prefer familiar problems/challenges -Intuitive decision-makers

Coaching typically needed: -Critical thinking ability -Goal/Target/Milestone -setting ability -Dealing with under-performance -Communication breadth/versatility -Assisting/developing others

Likely Behaviour: -Self-motivated/Initiating -Helpful and co-operative -Effective and focused problem solvers -Wide networkers/communicators -Big-picture focused

Coaching typically needed: -Stretch Goals/Tasks/Projects -Cross-functional assignments for next job succession -Broader networking opportunities -Wider/more diverse presentations -Influence/Negotiation development -Assign senior mentors

Likely Behaviour: -Set personal and team targets at low levels -Work at slow or steady pace -Less prepared to get “hands dirty” -Some missed goals/deadlines -Potential “prima donna” attitude

Coaching typically needed: -Stretch goal-setting competency -Pressure tolerance/“tempo” ski lls -“Hands-on” project work/challenges -Cooperative projects and teamwork opportunities

Likely Behaviour: -Focused on immediate issues/problems -May send mixed messages to other people -May work in “fits and starts” -Evolving team leader/people relationships -Unsure of themselves in face of change

Coaching typically needed: -Emotional intelligence capability -Longer-term planning/organisation -Quality/Consistency of communication -Focused people management skills

Likely Behaviour: -High personal confidence -Individually competent -Tactically/operationally focused -Project/Task/Change management oriented -Effective resource allocators

Coaching typically needed: -Setting higher/harder/more strategic goals -Evolved teamwork/collaboration skills -Wider commercial/business acumen -Presentation skills

Likely Behaviour: -Negative attitude at times -Poor relationships in evidence -Conflct/antagonism towards particular people -Low morale/self-esteem -Over-tolerant of mediocrity

Coaching typically needed: -Self-awareness/discovery -Conflict management skills -Empathy/people sensitivity -Listening skills -Personal coping/pressure management skills -Performance manage or out-council

Likely Behaviour: -Overly “traditional” thinking about issues -Low levels of initiative -Precious about personal knowledge -Directive or even autocratic style -Prone to micro-management

Coaching typically needed: -Letting go/delegating work -Creativity/lateral thinking skills -Openness/Flexibility of attitude -Self-starting techniques and personal motivation skills

Likely Behaviour: -High personal work ethic -Low ability/need to delegate -Task-focused (possibly at the expense of the relationship) -“Silo” work area focused -Too little communication

Coaching typically needed: -Greater forward planning and thinking -Analysing/designing work and the people to do it best -Becoming a team-player -Nurturing/Developing others

As we can see, this already creates a useful “at-a-glance” summary to be used by a manager, internal coach, mentor or external coach as appropriate.



Issues arising from the Performance and Potential Grid when used in Coaching

When looking for the next generation of leaders or seeking the most likely successors for a more senior management role, the tendency to focus on the top 3 boxes on the grid is relatively logical. However, in seeking to lift overall performance of the organisation, the grid can be used quite differently to achieve higher levels of success as discussed below:

Boxes 1, 2 and 3 individuals Clearly, all individuals that are assigned to or reside in these boxes are generally well-regarded and worthy of some coaching and mentoring attention. For “contributors” in box 3, the main focus is on helping an individual to become as ready as possible for the next career step. For “emergers” in box 2, the main focus is on helping an individual to lift performance to best possible levels in the current job before moving on or up. Finally, for the “stars” in box 1, the focus is mainly on how to maintain their attention and to ensure that these more “at risk from poaching” individuals are not lost to other organisations.

Not surprisingly, all individuals in these 3 boxes are usually popular or attractive people to coach, as they are (in broad terms) looking at the future positively and seeking to find ways to enrich their contribution to the enterprise. However, even though such people may attract as much as 80-90% of the internal and external coaching effort, we also need to pay close attention to individuals in the “bottom six” part of the grid (who may collectively make up 70-80% of the entire population).

Box 4 individuals – “workers” People in this “worker” box often operate “below the organisational radar” because they are likely to be working hard and achieving better than acceptable results most of the time. However, in many cases this can disguise underlying possible problems for the organisation such as low levels of delegation and teamwork, an overly individualistic task focus and perhaps an unhelpful willingness to tell people what they are doing and why (all behaviour which may have limited job promotion prospects). This can lead to too little time spent building the skills and experience of others, which can be a big problem if a person in this box manages many people.

From a coaching perspective, it is important with individuals in this box to assess the contribution that a particular person is making to the medium to longer-term strength of the organisation. This will either be by transferring knowledge more openly to others or by taking on a more “nurturing role” for others in the team and using more opportunities to delegate, for instance.

Box 5 individuals – “latents” At the other corner of the grid in box 5, “latent” individuals are often far more visible or “known” in the enterprise because they are likely to have demonstrated high potential earlier in their career (and therefore been promoted) and continue to show “flashes” of even higher potential in their current position. However, future capacity to contribute is not an excuse not to look closely at current job performance and contribution. Coaching is therefore critical here because we can ensure that any continued lack of confidence or competence in getting the present job done well is properly highlighted and managed, before the individual seeks to press to move on to the next role.

From a coaching perspective, individuals in this box will benefit from coaching which allows the person to gain helpful job performance knowledge for their present role (to help build up confidence and experience) and to learn some of the major contributors to better current performance. This will potentially include task prioritisation skills, greater organisational ability and tools and project management capability, for instance. Help with building partnerships and networking with others at peer level may also be helpful with this group.


Box 6 individuals – “transitionals” “Transitional” people are different to all others in the Performance and Potential Grid because they may be capable of moving into any of the other boxes on the grid quite quickly. Some people in this box may therefore be “on the way up” and some might be “on the way down”-time will tell. However, whether it is up or down, what all people in this box share in common is that they have to prove themselves in both performance and potential in the eyes of others.

Because as many as 25-30% of a managerial population may be assigned to or reside in box 6 of the grid, coaching interventions are critical here for two main reasons. Firstly, individuals may need direct and on-going help to move forwards (planning, organising, communicating more effectively etc). Secondly, individuals may easily start to slip backwards if they are not coached (which may quickly be felt as a competence shortfall by those they manage or deal with). Even the box 6 individuals themselves may start to feel unappreciated and overlooked. Being such a large population, we therefore often need to give people in this group more coaching time than they are typically getting.

Box 7 individuals – “blockers” Although people in several of the grid positions can block the progress of others, individuals in box 7 are more likely to be the most obvious blockers simply because they have low or even no potential to move and are making only a basic or minimal contribution. Like box 4 individuals, blockers consequently often operate under the organisational “radar” and may only become visible if and when a higher performing or potential individual working with or for them criticises the individual concerned or a valued subordinate employee leaves the enterprise.

From a coaching perspective, intervention here is critical because we need to ensure that we do not have any immediate “at risk” issues as a result of these people’s contribution shortfalls. In addition, we also need to take the time to properly assess whether or not we could readily get a more effective contribution in the job, if performance is not improved. In actual fact, experience tells us that these individuals will often respond well to coaching, especially if it brings new ideas or helps to open up options for the target people that they have not previously considered.

Box 8 individuals – “placeholders” Placeholders are usually those people who have more capacity and ability to contribute but find themselves doing the minimum possible when it comes to performance and results. Individuals in this box are often highly intelligent but may see their work to be repetitive or not challenging enough. They may also see themselves as merely “passing through” and therefore fail to hold either themselves or others accountable for getting things done efficiently and effectively.

From a coaching perspective, once again this box might include a large population of people on the overall grid, and thereby offer many opportunities and scope for improvement in areas such as tempo of work, more “stretching” goals and greater team-work, for example.

Box 9 individuals – “detractors” Obviously, box 9 individuals are problematic for the organisation, having both low potential and a low performance or results contribution. However, the typical first response is a performance management intervention, when coaching may be a better first step.

Many individuals in this box in an organisation, who end up leaving the enterprise, often say in external out-counselling sessions that they could have turned performance around and even had greater potential to reach higher levels if they could have had coaching to help in areas of high personal frustration or need (such as conflict handling or developing greater listening skills, for instance). Obviously this is a decision for the organisation to make in terms of how much time and money it wants to spend with its “box 9s”, but once again experience tells us that even a small amount of coaching is likely to pay good dividends.



Summary In this brief article, we have suggested that the familiar and popular Performance and Potential Grid, used mainly for leadership development and succession planning purposes, is also an excellent tool to use in making balanced coaching interventions. Used in this way, rather than to focus on our box 1,2, and 3 individuals most of the time, we are well-served to pay as much attention to the large proportion of the population who are likely to reside in the other six boxes on the grid (being perhaps as much as 80% of the population). The chart below offers a final visual summary.

Coaching Performance and Potential Grid

PERFORMANCE (Right results)

POTE

NTI

AL

(Rig

ht “

stuf

f”)

High

High

Low

1. STARS

9. DETRACTORS

2. EMERGERS5. LATENTS

3. CONTRIBUTORS6. TRANSITIONALS8. PLACEHOLDERS

4. WORKERS7. BLOCKERS

Individuals in all three of these boxes may only represent 20-30% of the entire population but typically receive 80-90% of the coaching intervention effort. The main coaching focus here is on stretching assignments and knowledge broadening so as to aid in retention and succession planning.

Individuals in this box need to be coached to focus on the current job and to achieve valuable personal and team results before expecting to move on.

Individuals in this box need to be coached to focus on greater personal flexibility, better organisation and more teamwork. They also often need to evolve greater accountability for results in themselves and others.

Individuals in this box need to be coached to focus on greater delegation and team-working skills. In addition, they may need to spend much more time communicating with others at peer and senior level about what they are doing to contribute to overall department or organisational goals

Individuals in this box need to be coached to focus on planning, organising and communicating more effectively at all levels. In addition, they may need to develop greater “emotional intelligence” and “political savvy” about themselves and others.

Individuals in this box need to be coached to focus on areas of personal frustration and need, particularly when adversely affecting job performance (for themselves and others). This may mean spending time on issues of self-esteem or specific skill-building in areas such as conflict management.

Individuals in this box need to be coached to focus on letting go of his or her “turf”, building trust with others and to developing more open attitude and level of overall flexibility.

Dr. Jon Warner www.WarnerResultsCoaching.com

This article was written by Dr Jon Warner of Warner Results Coaching, an executive coaching business, which focuses across all sectors of the Performance and Potential Grid. Jon is an experienced coach with over 20 years experience in assisting individuals of all types and at all levels of management. He is also an experienced author having published several books in the leadership and coaching areas, as well developing several assessment instruments including the Coaching Effectiveness Profile, the Leadership Effective Profile and the Management Effectiveness Profile. Jon has an MBA and PhD in Organisational Psychology. He can be reached at [email protected]


http://www.warnerresultscoaching.com/�

mailto:[email protected]�

9 Box Management Tips

In coaching and talent management, the value of the 9-box grid is to identify when coaching or a

change in job or responsibilities may be needed. It may not be valuable to the organization to

spend time and effort in attempting to salvage an individual with low potential and poor

performance. However, an individual with low potential but effective performance may need to

be engaged or motivated in his or her current job.

Performance D

W Potential

5 2 1

8 6 3

9 7 4

# Tips for Managing

1. Provide challenges, encourage cross training, conduct a stay interview, create a

retention plan.

2. Does extremely well at current job with potential to do more; give stretch assignments

to help prepare for next level.

3. Current role may still provide opportunity for growth/development; focused on tactical;

focus should be on helping improve strategic thinking.

4. Experienced high performer but has reached limit of career potential. Focus on

appreciation, eliminate red tape, provide good tools and resources.

5. Seasoned professional capable of expanded role, but may be experiencing problems

that require coaching and mentoring. Provide regular, clear feedback, conduct

strengths story interview. Check for personal problems that may be stressors.

6. May be considered for job enlargement at the same level, but may need coaching in

several areas, including people management. Collaborate to create professional

development plan.

7. Effective performer, but may have reached career potential. Coach as necessary to

improve performance.

8. With coaching, could progress within level; focus on stretch goals for this employee.

9. Consider reassignment, reclassification to a lower level or exit from the organization.

Adapted from: “Succession Planning: What is a 9-box grid?” Society for Human Resources

Professionals, retrieved from:.

http://www.shrm.org/templatestools/hrqa/pages/whatsa9boxgridandhowcananhrdepartmentuseit.

aspx on May 20, 2014.


http://www.shrm.org/templatestools/hrqa/pages/whatsa9boxgridandhowcananhrdepartmentuseit.aspx%20on%20May%2020

http://www.shrm.org/templatestools/hrqa/pages/whatsa9boxgridandhowcananhrdepartmentuseit.aspx%20on%20May%2020

9 Box Worksheet

For each of your direct reports, identify which box they may be in, and create a strategy for

working with them.

Employee Box # Management Plan



1. Development plans are written, concrete plans designed to:

– Develop strengths and/or– Address stumbling blocks

Writing Development Plans


• What kinds of activities can be part of a development plan?

You Write the Slide




• With your partner, decide which of you will write a strengths-based and which will write a development need plan.

• Write a plan for one of your employees.

• Debrief

Your Turn




Planning Templates

Development Plan

Build on Strengths

Stepl Step 2 Stll!l 3 Step4 StHl!ltil Action Pla11S Involvement of lltl!ers Ta(iet Dat&s

Strength, I. l

2.

3.

4.

Strength: I.

2.

3.

I

4.

Strength: I.

2.

3. ' I

14.

660 ~ SUCCESSFUL MANAGER'S HANDBOOK


Pia nn in g Templates

Development Plan

Address Development Needs

Step 1 Step2 Step 3 Step4 Dnelojrnient Keed Actlllfl PlallS 1omMm1ent of Others TarplDates

Development Ned: L I

i 2.

i

i

3. i

!

4.

-· Development Need: L

2.

3.

4.

···-· ... -·-Development Need: 1.

2.

3.

4.

SUCCESSFUL MANAGER'S HANDBOOK • 661



1. Employees will be inspired by your example

2. Make a development plan and share it with your employees.

Walking the Walk


• Create a development plan for yourself.

• Debrief.

Your Turn

Walking the Walk


Planning Templates

Learning Plan

! Name Date -t. f'OCUS on critical priorities.

What do 1 want to change or develop? What developmeot r,rioritfes give me the greatest leverage?

I

2. IMPLEMENT something every day. What situations, people, or events signal What new behavior will I tiy? that right now is the time to put 11ew Where will I push my comfort zone?

I behaviors Into action?

Every time I see the following sitnationls) . . . . . I will take the following action: I -I. I

I 2.

I 3.

I 4. I

I 5. I

I 6. --,

I I

.

658 .,. succrssrut MANAGER'S HANDBOOK


Planning Temp lates

Learning Plan

I J. RERECT on what a learn. , What wHI I do each day to consider what worked, what didn't work, artd what I want to do next time?

4. SEEK feedback and support. How will I draw on other people to track my progress, gather advice and feed back, and support my learning?

Seek feedback and information

Seek resources, support, and opportunities

5. TRANSFER learning to the next level. How will I evaluate my progress? Considering my goals and organizat1011al priorities, how will I update my development strategy and learning plan? How will I leverage what I learn?

Co~-right.\) 11)04, lll09 f'et!lll,11\el Oe<:I ~i<1r1$ I n\l".mal i<JI1<1l Curporatfun. All 1ightt I'('8Cl"Td.

SUCCESSFUL MANAGER'S HANDBOOK .. 659



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Contact Kevin Thomas at 413-597-3542or email [email protected]

Supervisory Training Series

Developing Your Employees

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