idiot proof coaching tips letter

8/3/2019 Idiot Proof Coaching Tips Letter

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the idiot-proofcoaching toolfor managers


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Why are we asking you to shut up?

We believe that to be the best leader you can be, you need to be afearless, bold, effective coach on a daily basis. We also think the keyto you being a great coach is to talk less, not more.

So we created the Idiot-Proof Coaching Tool for Managers: a very simple way to quicklycoach anyone through any situation. Heres what we think you need to be a kick-@*!performance coach...1. A willingness to engage and coach daily as necessary. Dont delay, coach today.

2. Effective use of the Idiot-Proof Coaching Tool. We want you to mix in your ownpersonality and style, but you have to stay true to the tool. That means shutting upfrom time to time and letting the employee take control of the conversation.

3. The ability to deal with the 100 sidetracks that will be thrown your way as you coachyour team members. Pesky things, those employees; they dont always make it easyon you. They try to throw you off your game - sometimes on purpose, sometimes not.

4. No Pass-Throughs: If you want to be a superhero coach, you wont be able to bitchabout the company or the department head you work for (which is what we defineas the pass-through). Youll need to own all the reasons you provide when you ask

for more performance, and link company strategy with the career goals of the teammember. Simply put, you cant blame others when youre asking for improvement - youhave to own it.

5. You have to continuously migrate team members up the performance chart via yourcoaching over time. Bad to good, good to great, you move them. Youre a coach. Thatswhat youre paid to do as a manager of people.

Like everything else in your role as a manager, its not easy. You can have strong knowledgeof how to coach, then that one nasty variable - the other person - can blow your game to

smithereens. Its OK though, were here to help.

To start with, this e-book contains a series of color paper-style coaching tips from Sonar6 ;some very practical and worthwhile advice to kick off with. Then youll want to checkout the recorded version of the Idiot-Proof Coaching Tool introductory webinar we heldrecently...

Lets get started!

Kris Dunn, Fistful of Talent
http://www.sonar6.com/idiot-proof-coaching/recordedhttp://www.sonar6.com/idiot-proof-coaching/recordedhttp://www.sonar6.com/idiot-proof-coaching/recorded


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Ratings are out! 4

Joris Luijke, Global HR Director Atlassian

Go beyond the rating scale if you want a really productive performance conversation...

Please shut up 5

Kris Dunn, hrcapitalist.com

Managers, sometimes you just need to zip it...

Know thyself 6Tim Sackett SPHR, EVP HRU Technical Resources, timsackett.com

You cant talk to others about their failings if you have no idea what yours are...

How Angry Birds mademe a better manager 7

Success is about teams, not individuals...

Accentuate the positive 9

Steve Boese, steveboese.squarespace.com

Its actually OK to discuss peoples strengths in reviews...

The manager-miner metaphor 10

Trish McFarlane, hrringleader.com and cofounder of HREvolution thehrevolution.org

Recognize achievements, publicly...

The 10% cure for frustration 12

Kick the bucket...

The Coaching Tips... ...borrowedfromsonar6.com/colorpapers
http://www.atlassian.com/http://www.hrcapitalist.com/http://www.timsackett.com/http://steveboese.squarespace.com/http://hrringleader.com/http://thehrevolution.org/http://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://www.sonar6.com/colorpapershttp://thehrevolution.org/http://hrringleader.com/http://steveboese.squarespace.com/http://www.timsackett.com/http://www.hrcapitalist.com/http://www.atlassian.com/http://www.sonar6.com/http://www.fistfuloftalent.com/


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Ratings are in! Or something...OUT!

Its almost impossible to talk meaningfully about someones performance as a whole

(Nicola, I thought you did great last year). So instead most performanceconversations are broken down into chunks & at Sonar6 we call these chunksfactors. For example a factor might be a hard performance metric, like sales, or asofter behavior, like teamwork.

People typically get a rating on each factor, and there are a million different typesof rating scales, which many smart people have put lots of effort into designing.But for the purposes of this coaching idea the actual rating scale is, er... kind of

irrelevant.

And this is why...

Imagine you have a rating scale from 1 to 10 (like I said it really doesnt matter),youre dealing with a factor of teamwork, and your employee Nicola has ratedherself a 5.

The best way to get to the absolute core of

understanding how Nicola views her contribution toteamwork is not to ask her to explain why she is a5. Its to ask her why she isnt a 4.

Why? Because that forces her to think about the incremental stuff shedid: the things that made a difference. Which is a lot more specific, and a lot moreuseful. It also tells you the things that Nicola thinks are important for thisfactor.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Teamwork

5

4 5 6Teamwork4

do myshare of thework

usually agood listener

friendly!

contributesome newideas

goodcommunicationskills

I usuallylead groupdiscussions...

Nicola

Yourcommunication

skills havereally improved


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The best part is that this then sets you up for the obvious follow up question: Whywerent you a 6?

Why is this a cool question? Because it allows you

to start the development discussion. What are thetangible things that she could have done better?Can we work together to do those things from nowon?

You dont need to use this approach for every factor, but its particularlyuseful if you and your employee have a difference of opinion. If that ever happens!

4 5 6Teamwork

6

I couldcoordinatetasks moreefficiently!

How canwe makethathappen?

Often we get a clearer understanding of our own goals, ambitions and weaknessesjust by vocalizing them: quite a useful technique to have in the performance reviewtoolkit!

But too often review discussions end up being all manager, all the time. The pooremployee barely gets a word in edgewise, and the chance for that clearerunderstanding is lost.

Please... shut up

If one person is talking for more than half of

the review (and face it, thats unlikely to be theemployee) its not a conversation; its a lecture.

So try this: stop talking at employees at reviewtime. Its much more useful to prompt withsomething open-ended and just listen to whatthey have to say. Sure, with some people thatmight mean the occasional uncomfortable silencebefore they fire into action. Get used to it. Be zen.

Please shut up.

Tell me aboutyour moth...performance


6/13


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When it comes time for Tim to review his team, it can goeither of 2 ways:

Tim fails to account for his impossibly highstandards and comes down hard on those who take more

than 2 minutes to learn a new tech trick (these guysdont actually suck, they just arent at Timstechnical level.)

Tim recognizes he needs to be more realistic in hisexpectations and tailors his conversations accordingly.

Tims feedback has more credibility if his employeesunderstand their contribution to the teams success,and arent just getting hammered for not being aTim-clone. And Tim is able to give this feedback

because he knows his frame of reference.

Understanding (or at least appreciating the existence of) differences within teams is thekey to useful feedback and effective coaching: the best team isnt the one with a bunchof identical people; the best team is the one with the people who fit together the best.

And managers? When it comes down to it, your job is really about getting the best fromyour team, not the best from your individual employees...

Epic Fail Fail Meh Win Epic WinThis is you

I appreciate yourthorough approach& your documentationis a really usefulresource.

1

2

coachingtip

#4!

All managers should be making use of individuals talents, but great managers play abigger game; they understand the potential of entire teams.

Performance reviews typically look at individuals, but managers are responsible for theoutput of a team, not the teams components. A great manager needs the skills tomanage combinations more than people, and the skills to plan for the short term andlong term development of these combinations.

How Angry Birds made me a

better manager


8/13

8Angry Birds taught me to see my employeesas a flock

I picture my team as a flock of birds. Were trying to get eggs (the projects wereworking on). Theres a bunch of evil green pigs in the way: time consuming screwups, budget blow outs, shipping problems and other annoying stuff. I have to motivatemy team of employee-birds to solve the pig-problems.

My team has different skill sets. I pair my newbies up with more experienced people,and mix skill sets to solve problems more effectively. To do this I need a really clearidea of what my people are good at - that Steve can do a bunch of things at once,and Helen can clear whats left of a project in record time.

When we kill the pigs, solve the problems (using metaphorical explosive crates androcks) and meet our targets, we go out for a beer. Another level successfully com-pleted.Managers need to utilize skills collectively, over time, and understand how strengthsand weaknesses work to produce the most effective team. Its about knowing how tomix your red birds with your blue birds.

Businesses are run by teams, large and small. The success or failure of projects(and even the whole business) rests on whether these teams perform well. Looking atthe performance of each person is important, but you really need a view of how thewhole team works: how the combinations of people work, and which teams out-performothers (and why).

knocksoffthe

peskypig-problems

theflock-team and gets thejob done!

theteammulti-taskers

solid workersproblem solvers closers coordinators


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One of the most common coaching mistakes managers make is zeroing in on weaknesses andtrying to fix them to help employees improve.

Which makes sense on the surface - if your radiosnot working perfectly, you twiddle with the aerial

or replace a transistor or whack in anotherbattery - you fix whatevers brokenso its performance improves.

Most people are a wee bit different from youraverage radio though...

You cant always fix whats broke

For most of us, our core competencies are pretty well developed by the time were in the

workforce. That means its going to be an uphill battle to improve our skills in an area wherewere weak (those of us whove tried to learn a programming language with minimaltechnical aptitude can attest to this).

Its far less of a struggle to take something were already good at, and make us EvenBetter at it. Leveraging our strengths takes less time, costs fewer resources, and facesless resistance - because we already do it, we like it, we know were good at it, and we getgood feedback for it (which makes us happy, so we do more of it).

When were good were very very good

The fact is, most of us know how to do our jobs. Or most of our jobs. Most of the time. Thestuff that really makes us happy is the stuff were best at. If were really good atpainting huge murals, well be at our happiest, most engaged and most productive when werepainting huge murals, not analyzing the paints and solvents budget.

Accentuate the positive...(youve got to)


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In fact its very unlikely that this approach:

Is going to result in a better outcome for theteam than this one:

Not that you should avoid the negativescompletely - after all, if theyre not discussed, how

can they be addressed? But youll risk really messing up

an employee by taking the one or two things they may havehad problems with and treating them with the same importance as the 50 things they didreally well.

Your mathsskills need work.Youre going ona course.

Were getting greatexposure from yourmurals. You need moretime to do more.Greg from finance willwork on your budgetswith you so you canget out and paint.

The most successful organizations have one thing in common; theyre able to inspiretheir employees, and they recognize achievements.

This may sound simple, but so many companiesfail to reach higher levels of success becausethey just cant do these two things.

It has to do with a haphazard means ofrecognizing and acknowledging the good work thatemployees are doing. Its not that managers dontwant to recognize it - its just that they maynot have the means to capture the behavior.

Thats why managers need to be miners andstorytellers.

the manager-miner metaphor

-storyteller!


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Digging up gold

Miners dig through the dirt and rock to find shiny precious things. Being a managerat review time is no different.

Managers wont have full knowledge of every task orproject employees have worked on, so it becomes their job tomine for this information. Theyll need to talk withinternal or external clients, review any conversationstheyve had, analyze project goals, etc to find somethinggold.

Once the manager has this wee nugget they can build

coaching and feedback around it, and refine it further by finding challenging workopportunities to develop the raw gold into something truly awe-inspiring. But it doesntend here.

The step that many managers miss is the storytelling component: however great it isto have a manager tell an employee how well they performed, or how awesome theirlatest work is, its even better when the manager tells other people.

Telling the taleAs a manager, find creative ways to tell everyone whatyour team is doing. Its by publicly acknowledging theircontribution that you give them the non-monetaryrecognition that reinforces current performance anddrives strong performance in the future.

So:

1Dig around and find that nugget for each employee2 Refine and develop it into something truly precious (ie,

something your organization will really benefit from - maybe a nice necklace)

3 Tell everyone about it, and make sure the employee gets the glory for theircreation

4 Everyone benefits!

?

winner!


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Put these into 3 buckets and then find ways, together, to spend 10% less time on theARGH in Bucket C and increase by 10% time spent on the sweet stuff in Bucket A.

This might mean analyzing the ARGH in Bucket C and making sure its actuallynecessary, reassigning some of it to a more suitable candidate or diverting incomingrequests for more of it to make sure your frustratee has enough time to spend on thesweet stuff.

10% is realistic and achievable - its not radically changing the world (or even thejob-related part of it) but its making measurable progress and eliminating realfrustrations. Maybe in your next conversation you can figure out how to moveanother 10%...

Why bother?

Filling Bucket A means spending more time on the sweet stuff, which makes for ahappier employee. And overall performance improves when people do what theyre goodat; its just better business (see coaching tip #5!)

B

RATINGS

54

32

1

JobknowledgeWorkquality

Workquantity

ResourcefulnessOrganization

Timemanagement

Interpersonal skillsCustomerfocusAttendance

Attitude

1:Uns atis factory2:Fair 3:Meets E xpectations 4:E xceeds E xpectations

5:Outs tanding

REVIEWERCOMMENTS

EMPLOYEE COMMENTS

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REVIEWERSIGNATURE____________________________________________________

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GOALS

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Achieved?Y/ N

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Achieved?Y/N

Comments:

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POLICIES

sweet

ARGH!

& theres more where that came from...

sonar6.com @sonar6 facebook.com/sonar6
http://www.sonar6.com/http://twitter.com/#!/sonar6http://www.facebook.com/sonar6http://www.facebook.com/FistfulofTalenthttp://www.facebook.com/sonar6http://twitter.com/#!/fistfuloftalenthttp://twitter.com/#!/sonar6http://www.fistfuloftalent.com/http://www.sonar6.com/

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