“I shouldn’t have to tell people how to do their jobs!” is a familiar battle cry of beleaguered managers and supervisors. After all, employees are extensively interviewed and vetted to ensure they have the skills and knowledge to do their jobs, right? The problem is that shame-based management rarely gets results and—more importantly—isn’t a reflection of reality.
The first hurdle for these managers to overcome is accepting that their primary responsibility is to make sure the work gets done. That means things are done the right way, they’re done on time, and they produce the intended results. After all, if an employee isn’t meeting those requirements, who else is going to change that?
The second hurdle is usually a bit trickier: Breaking the shaming cycle with employees and adopting a coaching-style mentality instead. Many managers fear that adopting a coaching-style approach will come off as inauthentic and forced. Others worry about pushback from employees who would rather not be told how to do their jobs. But for most, the issue is they simply don’t have a good idea of what coaching actually looks like, especially in a non-sports environment.
If you’re one of these managers, there are a few pieces of good news for you. First, coaching isn’t the same as cheerleading. There’s no need to adopt an overly supportive or cheery demeanour, especially if that’s not something that comes naturally. The second is that, for the most part, team members would much rather be told what to do and how to do it than be left in a sink-or-swim situation. And the third is that coaching is a skill that can be learned and mastered.
These four essential components of good coaching will pivot you away from shaming-style management and toward performance-improving leadership.
1. Don’t name and don’t blame: Describe.
The biggest issue with shaming language is that it simply names an issue and assigns blame accordingly. This ultimately does nothing but reinforce that an employee’s performance issues are personal failings that neither the manager nor anyone else can help them overcome. Imagine if a coach simply said to an athlete, “You’re too slow and lazy! Just run faster!”
It works far better for coaches and managers alike to describe what they are seeing and what they would like to see.
“Run faster!” becomes: “Pick up your knees when you run, pull your elbows in, and tuck your chin!”
“Your work is sloppy.” becomes: “You missed this spelling error, didn’t adjust the document margins according to the spec sheet, and overlooked replying to a key recipient on this email thread.”
2. Focus on tangible outcomes and observable performance.
Managers find coaching-style dialogue the most difficult to engage in when the employee’s performance issue is soft skill related, such as having a bad attitude or poor phone etiquette. But telling someone they have a bad attitude or they don’t know how to talk to people likely won’t do much but make them defensive. Again, the key is to focus away from the employee’s internal experience and toward tangible, observable behaviours.
Rather than telling an employee they are difficult to work with because of their attitude, explain exactly which behaviours make people avoid them at work. That could be anything from tone of voice to specific word choices. Describe the behaviour in question, tie that behaviour explicitly to reduced results, and make it clear how things will improve if the behaviour changes.
3. Be proactive and future-oriented.
Coaches don’t wait for their athletes to start failing before they coach them. They don’t view performance as static. Rather, they approach performance as either continuously improving or declining. That’s why they practice in the off-season and between games—because, by the time it’s game day, it’s too late to address any performance issues an athlete may have.
Managers should approach employee performance in the same way. Don’t wait to provide feedback until after the big presentation is over or the project is complete. Have those one-on-one coaching sessions before the employee begins and at every step along the way.
4. Provide concrete course corrections and next steps.
The most critical element of coaching is describing not just relative performance, but also the steps that need to be taken to bridge the gap. Identifying performance issues alone simply isn’t enough. If a team member is struggling at work, don’t be afraid to tell them what to do and then how to do it.
Instead of saying, “You need to get this done faster.” try this: “It’s taking you 60 minutes to finish a task that takes most of your coworkers 30 minutes to finish. Let’s go through your process, step-by-step, and compare. Focus on removing the time-wasters you’ve developed by adopting the best practices of your colleagues.”
