Coaching skills for managers
One of the things which good managers have always developed, and are being increasingly appraised upon, are their coaching skills.
Developing coaching skills not only allows you to get more out of your team, but also makes working for you a far more enjoyable experience. This is extremely important for me in one of my roles, where people are given an explicit choice of whether they would like to work on one of my teams or on another. If my coaching skills are not up to scratch, then I might lose out!
Part of being a good coach is being able to deliver feedback in an effective way. I've found a great way of delivering feedback which is very easy on both parties, and preserves all the positives of feedback with none of the negatives.
Imagine one (sub-optimal) way of giving feedback:
A "I think you should have done a better job on the last report"
B "In what way?"
A "I just thought you should have done a better job. You're underperforming and you'll need to improve if you want to keep your job here"
B "Well I think that given the instruction you gave, I did the best job possible"
A "The instructions I gave were perfectly adequate - you just didn't understand"
B "That might be your view, but everyone knows that you give hopelessly unclear instructions"
and on... and on....
Not very easy for either party is it?!?!?! And do you think things will improve in the future? Of course not!
One way some people give feedback is the 'tell them something good, tell them something that needs improving' technique. While this has its merits, if used too often the recipient can completely tune out of the good stuff, waiting for the bad...
So what is the new way I'm talking about?
Well it's important that you focus on:
FACT - what ACTUALLY did the person do? Make this completely factual - try not to judge.
FEELING - how did this make YOU feel? Try to be specific. If it made you feel 'concerned', then concerned about what?
PAUSE - give time for the feedback to sink in. Don't feel the need to fill in the silence.
CLARIFY - respond to any questions they may have to clarify either the fact or your feelings.
ACTION - be ready to suggest concrete action steps they can take to develop themselves.
Okay, so let's play the scenario again, but using the new approach to giving feedback.
A - I would like to talk about the last report. I noticed that the first draft you gave to me had some errors in the financial section and the conclusions were not supported by the facts you had presented. (See how both of these FACTS can be supported by the evidence. A presents to B the first draft of the report).
A (continues) - This made me feel that you were not paying sufficient attention to getting the numbers right, so made me doubt the facts in the rest of the report. (See how A has talked about his FEELINGS. B cannot argue and try to disprove that A FELT that way)
A and B - (pause)
B - It was late when I finished the report, so I didn't have chance to check the numbers thoroughly before the report was bound - how bad were they?
A - I noticed a few minor errors, but one major one which drove the analysis to produce a significantly incorrect result - that made me want to check over all the numbers. (Again, A is using FACT and saying how he FELT)
B - Okay, I can see how you would feel like that. (This is important - this process allows B to validate A's feelings about the situation, without saying that he agrees he should have done something differently - i.e., both parties' reputations are intact)
A - My suggestion is that you take more time to check the financial analysis as you write the report, rather than leave it to the end. I think it is more important for the analysis to be correct than for the document to be bound.
B - Thanks, I'll bear that in mind next time.
See how that went?
In no way did B feel evaluated, or judged - he was merely informed of how A FELT about what B had done. This allowed for a much more open and constructive dialogue about what could be improved in the future.
Try it out, and let me know how you get on!!
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