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Performance Improvement Strategies
Steps in Performance Improvement Coaching
By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com Guide
See More About:
performance improvement
coaching
performance management
performance improvement plans (pips)
employee management
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Do you have the responsibility for supervising the work of others? If so, you know that employees
don't always do what you want them to do. On the one hand, they act as if they are competent
professionals.
On the other, they procrastinate, miss deadlines, and wait for instructions. They blame others when
their work is unsuccessful. And worst of all, employees become defensive when you try to coach them
to successful performance improvement through excellent, goal-accomplishing work.
So, what's a supervisor to do? Performance improvement is your answer. You must begin by finding
out exactly why the employee is not meeting your expectations. Perhaps the employee is unclear
about what you want him to do. He may lack the time, tools, talent, training, or temperament
required to effectively perform the job.
He may disagree with your requirements or expectations. Regardless, you won't have a performing,
engaged employee until you identify what is wrong with the employee's functioning.
Diagnosing Performance Improvement Opportunities and Problems
When an employee is failing at work, I ask the W. Edwards Deming question, “What about the work
system is causing the person to fail?” Most frequently, if the employee knows what they are supposed
to do, I find the answer is time, tools, training, temperament or talent. The easiest to solve, and
the ones most affecting employee retention, are tools, time and training. The employee must
have the tools, time and training necessary to do their job well – or they will move to an employer
who provides them.
Performance Improvement Questions
These are the key questions that you and the employee will want to answer to diagnose performance
problems that result in the need for you to seek performance improvement. This checklist for
employee performance improvement will help diagnose the performance issue.
What about the work system is causing the person to fail?
Does the employee know exactly what you want him to do? Does he know the goals and the
outcomes expected? Does he share the picture you have for the end result?
Does the employee have confidence in her competence to perform the tasks associated with the
goal? In my experience, procrastination is often the result of an employee lacking confidence in her
ability to produce the required outcome. Or procrastination can result from the employee being
overwhelmed with the magnitude of the task.
Is the employee practicing effective work management? As an example, does he break large tasks
into small chunks of doable actions? Does he have a method for tracking project progress and to do
lists?

3. Have you established a critical path for the employee's work? This is the identification of the major
milestones in a project at which you'd like feedback from the employee. Do you keep your
commitment to attend the meetings at which this feedback is provided?
Does the employee have the appropriate and needed people working with him or the team to
accomplish the project? Are other members of the team keeping their commitments and if not, is
there something the employee can do to help them?
Does the employee understand how her work fits into the larger scheme of things in the company?
Does she appreciate the value her work is adding to the company's success?
Is the employee clear about what constitutes success in your company? Perhaps he thinks that
what he is contributing is good work and that you are a picky, overly-managing supervisor.
Does the employee feel valued and recognized for the work she is contributing. Does she feel fairly
compensated for her contribution?
Understanding these issues in performance improvement enables a manager to help an employee
succeed. When you follow these steps and answer these questions in a performance improvement
mode, the employee can be helped to succeed. Best wishes with your performance improvement.
Performance improvement is the best tool you have to encourage and coach employee success at
work.
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:
First, commend the employee on any significant duty that has been carried out well - this will help set
the tone of the meeting and help diffuse any hostility. Be careful, though, not to sound patronizing.
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.

4. 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:
Finish with another positive comment. In my view, it is vital to end the conversation on a positive note
because the last thing said is what is remembered the longest. Dignity is everything. If you destroy
this, you undermine the employee's self-confidence which will reduce her commitment to change and
create hostility and general apathy. While the employee still feels valued, she will want to change. If
the employee feels under valued she just won't care.
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.
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