Coaching and Counseling for Peak Performance

COURSE OBJECTIVES
• Increase productivity by creating a work environment that promotes learning.
• Build employee confidence by recognizing and tapping into their individual
strengths.
• Gain valuable feedback from your team through improved communication
skills.
• Promote and build trust and rapport by responding to behaviors rather than
personalities.
• Learn how to prepare for coaching and counseling sessions.
• Generate outstanding results by helping each person contribute his or her
best.
• Learn how to minimize conflict by employing effective, easy to use problem
solving techniques.
• Create a positive learning environment by recognizing and working with
individual learning styles.
• Encourage individual and team performances by recognizing individual work
habits.
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The What & Why of Coaching and
Counseling

Coaching & Counseling; The Difference
A common area of confusion for people helpers
these days is in making the determination between
coaching or counseling. Both are important skills
that can bring transformational life change to
clients however they are not the same. More and
more professionals are hearing about the growing
profession of life coaching and may want to expand
their skill set to offer more comprehensive services
to meet the growing needs of their clients.

Coaching & Counseling; The Difference
Counselors can gain certification to offer
coaching services, or a coach could gain the training
to offer professional counseling, but they are not
the same… not by a long shot!
Professionals need to know the difference so
they can rapidly guide people God entrusts to their
care. Here’s a quick comparison to guide you in not
only knowing the difference between these two
important disciplines, but in making sure that you
are working ethically and appropriately.

The Differences Between These Two Powerful
Professions
• Counseling is more focused on solving painful problems from the
past.
• Coaching is more about finding creative ways to reach your
potential in the future.
• Counseling guides clients toward experiencing relief through
recovery.
• Coaching is driven by one word- results in people’s lives.
• Counseling helps people to build supports to stabilize their life.
• Coaching guides clients toward strategic ways to maximize their
life.
• Counseling develops healthy emotions and relationships to
experience peace.
• Coaching builds healthy patterns with accountability to experience
personal power.

When to Coach and When to Counsel
A good manager is both a coach and a counselor.
Generally, coaching should precede counseling.
• As a coach, a manager:
Identifies an employee's need for instruction and direction
And, this need is usually directly related to his or her
performance or career goals. Coaching is collaborative. It
relies on mutual, progressive goal-setting, personal
feedback, and an ongoing, supportive relationship.
You coach to help retain employees and to show you
care about your employees as individuals. It's best to coach
when a new procedure is introduced, a job is changed,
and/or a skill gap is identified.

When to Coach and When to Counsel
• As a counselor, a manager:
 First identifies a problem that interferes with an
employee's work performance and then helps the
employee to define specifically what behavior he
or she needs to change in order to improve his or
her performance or resolve a problem.

So, the difference between coach and counselor is
subtle, but important. And, as Sharon Armstrong further
shares in her book, "The Essential HR Handbook," a good
manager who is both a coach and a counselor:
• Motivates employees to do good work.
• Reinforces good performance.
• Encourages employees to stretch.
• Sets clear expectations.
• Provides positive feedback on an ongoing basis.
• Provides constructive feedback on a timely basis.
• Acknowledges employees' progress toward their goals.

Increasing Your Coaching &
Counseling Effectiveness

Preparing for a Coaching or Counseling
Session
At this point you should have filled out the
checklists describing work situations that may require
coaching or counseling included earlier and should
know which type of session you need to conduct.
Hopefully you have already analyzed whether you are
dealing with a skill, motivational, or resource deficit.
Once the initial assessment is complete, you need to
develop your plan of action.

Coaching/Counseling Session Checklist
For your next coaching/counseling session you have to prepare by completing
each of the following steps:
• Consider how many sessions will be needed, the degree of trust, and the
employee's confidence level.
• Be clear about your reason for the session and define your goals.
• Review the work goals and past performance of the employee.
• Give the employee notice of the time and place.
• Allow a minimum of 30 minutes for the session.
• Remove all distractions (phone, visitors, etc.) from the meeting place.
• Remove physical barriers between yourself and the employee (e.g., don't sit
behind a desk).
• Write out what I plan to say and rehearse it. (Use the guidelines on the next page
and on the third page following this one. You may want to keep your notes in front
of you during the session to avoid the feeling of losing control.)
• Plan to take notes to document the session, and develop a record of the corrective
action plans and performance improvements.

Pitfalls to Avoid
What else lies at the heart of coaching/counseling? It’s the
ability to actively listen. It’s the ability to resist ‘leaping in’ with a
solution too soon. It’s the ability to help team members discover
what they don’t know they know. That’s all! Sounds simple
doesn’t it?.
Yet many managers are confused about what coaching is. In my
work with many clients I’ve identified the 18 Classic Traps that
the inexperienced or ineffective manager/coach falls into:

 Not spotting the opportunities to coach.
 Thinking that coaching is time consuming
 Not recognizing that a coaching conversation can be as short
as 5 minutes
 Thinking that coaching is a formal process and not recognizing
all the informal (the 3C’s – corridor coaching conversations))
opportunities that exist.
 Jumping into Solution Mode too quickly
 Not asking enough questions
 Not asking the right questions – not probing deeply enough
 Treating symptoms and not helping the team member identify
root cause.

 Not liking silence or using silence wisely
 Not listening – having a preoccupation with the process or having
‘selective hearing’
 Guiding the coachee to come up with the solution the manager
wants and then thinking that the coachee hasn’t recognized they’ve
been manipulated
 Listening to what’s being said and ignoring what’s not being said
 Thinking that coaching is telling
 Talking too much – as a general rule of thumb the team member
(coachee) should do far more talking than the coach
 Being too busy to coach
 Only holding coaching conversations at appraisal or performance
review time
 Not using coaching to enable reflection on things that have gone
well for team members (learning from success)
 Thinking that coaching is appropriate for every occasion – it isn’t

Effective skills for Coaching and
Counseling sessions
In conducting the counseling session, the manager/instructor
must maintain exemplary professional bearing. Professional
bearing includes such characteristics as good body posture;
appropriate eye contact; calm, yet deliberate voice patterns;
good listening skills; and a general air of confidence and sensitive
concern.

Step 1: Friendly greeting by the manager/instructor
• The first step in the counseling session is to inconspicuously
invite the co-worker/learner into the office or other
appropriate location where the conversation will not be
overheard. It might begin like this: "Joe, grab a cup of coffee
and come on in for a few minutes." The manager/instruc-
tor's tone of voice would be low key and friendly.
• Inappropriate, unprofessional opening behavior on the part
of the manager/instructor might include loud yelling,
swearing, derogatory statements, and body language that
indicates anger. Here is an example of inappropriate
behavior. Au instructor yells across the automotive
laboratory so all of the students can hear: "Hey Joe, get in
here. I'm going to ream you out for another one of your
stupid mistakes!"
• It is important to note that a positive opening has the
tendency to reduce the probability that a co-worker's or
learner's anxiety will reach a level that may hinder open
communication.

Step 2: Manager/Instructor Briefly States Facts
• The concern for employee/learner openness will continue into Step 2. In this
step the goal is to begin the problem identification process by briefly stating
factual observations. Noting that a learner during the last two weeks (ten
class meetings) has been late to class eight times, and that this tardiness has
ranged from 5 to 20 minutes, is a factual observation. However, it would
not be a factual observation if the instructor characterized the learner as a
"lazy person." The latter is a conclusion that probably will evoke a defensive
posture in the co-worker/learner. If the co-worker/learner becomes
defensive, open communication will be significantly inhibited; likewise, an
accurate definition of the underlying cause of the learner's tardiness may be
difficult to define. Keeping Step 2 as brief as possible also has a tendency to
hold the co-worker/learner's anxiety to a manageable level.

Step 3: Co-Worker/Learner Explains
• The third step begins with the manager/instructor asking the co-worker/learner to
explain the facts presented in Step 2. The statement might be like this: "Joe, can
you please explain to me why you have been late for class so much in the last
couple of weeks?"
• As soon as the co-worker/learner begins to respond, the manager/instructor
becomes a careful listener. This attitude of careful listening promotes open
communication. It also helps set the ground rule that when one person talks the
other person listens; thus, there should never be a situation in which both people
are talking at the same time and neither party is listening. Of course, if necessary,
the manager/instructor should not hesitate to prompt or cue the co-
worker/learner if the explanation lacks sufficient substance or bogs down.
Prompting might be like this: "Is there anything else you can tell me?" Or, "I’m not
sure I understand what you are saying; could you give more detail?"
• When the co-worker/learner makes a statement such as "that’s about it," it may
be appropriate to move to Step 4. This type of statement, combined with the co-
worker/learner's tendency to repeat him/herself, lends more support to move on
to Step 4.

Step 4: The Manager/instructor Explains.
• Step 4 begins with the manager/instructor reviewing the main points presented by the
• co-worker/learner in Step 3. This review is important to ensure that the two parties
understand the key aspects of the problem the same way. The manager/instructor
might want to add an interpretation after reviewing the main points. If the
manager/instructor senses that this interpretation has opened an avenue for new
information, he/she may want to recycle back to Step 3.
• Here is how a Step 4 review might be presented: "Joe, let me see if I understand what
you have said. You have been on time for every class until two weeks ago, when the
baby sitter for your two children was hospitalized. Now you are having to use relatives
as temporary baby sitters and they live a great distance from your home, your wife's
work, and our school. Am I correct, that is why you have been late eight times in the
last two weeks?"
• Once again, good eye contact and a calm presence are fundamental. The
manager/instructor should speak only when the co-worker/learner is paying attention.
It is important to note that, if at any time the co-worker/learner begins to reveal deep-
seated emotional problems, the manager/instructor should not attempt to assume the
role of a therapist. This point will be discussed in greater detail in Step 6.

Step 5: Presentation of Rules, Regulations, and
Laws
• After the manager/instructor and co-worker/learner come to a initial
understanding of the problem, the next step is to review appropriate job-
related rules, regulations, standard operating procedures (SOPs), policies,
instructions, laws, and executive orders. This step also includes laws and
executive orders affecting job discrimination, for example, the Americans
with Disabilities Act and sexual harassment
• Managers and instructors must possess a good understanding of their
organizations' rules, regulations, and SOPs; they must also be well aware
of the ever-increasing federal and state laws, as well as executive orders
affecting the work environment and employee rights. Managers and
instructors Should also understand those aspects of collective bargaining
agreements that may have implications when advising co-workers involved
in organizational T&D/HRD programs.

• One of the serious mistakes often made by managers and instructors is to tell the co-
worker/learner that they disagree with the organization's or school's policy. Some truly
disagree, while others say they disagree simply to get closer to the co-worker/learner.
Managers and instructors rarely gain any advantage by stating that they disagree with rules,
regulations, SOPs, and laws; in fact, they are likely to erode the respect the co-
workers/learners may hold for them. Managers and instructors must remember that they
represent their organizations and institutions, and they are responsible for fulfilling their
assigned duties. Ensuring that co-workers/learners adhere to rules and other standards is
part of their job.
• In the fifth step, the manager/instructor states the rules, regulations, SOPs, laws, and
executive orders that relate to the co-worker/learner's job-related performance. The "heart-
to-heart" counseling method is specifically designed to catch problems early before they
become serious, necessitating more formal disciplinary action. This is particularly true in
cases involving safety, substance abuse, and discrimination.
• Here is an example of how a manager/instructor might conduct Step 5: "Joe, as you may
recall, on the first day of instruction we reviewed in detail our school's rules and regulations.
Two days later you passed a written test on those rules and regulations. Being on time is
particularly important because we have on-going health and safety instruction at the
beginning of each class and periodic quizzes. Thus, we cannot make exceptions to this
important rule. Do you understand?"
• If the co-worker/learner understands the organization’s rules and other standards, then the
manager/instructor moves quickly on to Step 6, the action plan.

Step 6: The Action Plan.
• Many times the problem is solved by the time the manager/instructor and
• co-worker/learner complete Step 5. These situations often occur because
most people want to be responsible for their actions, and the "heart-to-
heart" counseling session becomes a reminder of their job or school
responsibilities. However, there are times when an action plan should or
must be established. These instances occur in cases requiring professional
counseling, retraining, or follow-up.
• To implement many action plans, the manager/instructor must be aware
of the resources at their disposal. These resources include the
organization's employee assistance program (EAP), the T&D/HRD
department, and the school's testing office, counseling center, health
center, and disabled students' center. Often another co-worker or student
may be used as a coach or role model.

• In the case of Joe's tardiness, the plan of action might go like
this: "Joe, why don’t you take this weekend and work out your
child care problem. It appears that you are going from one
relative to another and you may not be aware of your driving
time and traffic problems. With a little planning this weekend,
you should be able to work out this temporary problem.
Okay? Just before class on Monday come by my office and let
me know how you solved the problem."
• You will note that the instructor in this case established a
follow-up meeting. A follow-up plan with specific milestones
(e.g., dates and times) is important in many cases. (Follow-up
plans are sometimes called administrative controls.) The
follow-up plan is important to ensure that the co-
worker/learner makes appropriate progress. If the co-
workers/learners fail to meet standards such as rules, laws, or
competencies stipulated in a policy manual, job

Step 7: Review of the Counseling Session
• Now that the problem has been identified and an action plan
established, the manager/instructor can turn to a quick
review of the counseling session. The quick review is to
double check that the manager/ instructor and the co-
worker/learner have a common understanding of what has
been covered and agreed upon. In a sense, it is like the
summary at the end of a lesson. It might begin like this: "Joe,
let's recap what we have talked about today".

Step 8: Positive, Supportive Closing.
• The "heart-to-heart" counseling session ends
with a positive, supportive closing. It should be
brief and to the point. Step 8 might be met with a
statement such as this: "Mary, learning how to
don a breathing apparatus can take a little time. If
you put the time in on drilling to master this task,
we will be there to work with you. Thanks for
coming to see me.

Learning to Counsel
• Counseling takes time to learn, but it must be learned for a
manager of human resources to be effective. Unfortunately it
is not a competency for which managers are formally
prepared, including managers of learning environments. Most
of the time, industries and schools expect their managers and
instructors to pick it up "as they go along." Sometimes a flier
comes across their desks for a workshop on handling the
difficult employee. Other times they learn the hard way when
an employee or student is injured unnecessarily. Some
managers and instructors learn when they are giving a
deposition in preparation for litigation.
• The eight steps presented here are a model. Some
managers/instructors might use other models to achieve the
same end. The key point is that managers need to work with
employees and students so they become productive workers.

Successfully Coaching &
Counseling Others

Identify Four major learning
styles
• The learning activities and the instructional sequence that
accommodate four major learning styles identified in the
literature. The sequence used is modeled after the 4MAT
System developed by Bernice McCarthy, author of 4MAT in
Action: Creative Lesson Plans for Teaching to Learning Styles
with Right/Left Mode Techniques.
• This cycle of learning is based on a number of premises. First,
different individuals perceive and process experience in
different preferred ways. These preferences comprise our
unique learning styles. Essential to quality learning is an
awareness in the learner of his/her own preferred mode,
becoming comfortable with his/her own best ways of
learning, and being helped to develop a learning repertoire,
through experience with alternative modes.

The fact that a student may have a preferred, most-comfortable mode
does not mean she/he cannot function effectively in others. In fact, the
student who has the flexibility to move easily from one mode to another to fit
the requirements of the situation is at a definite advantage over those who
limit themselves to only one style of thinking and learning. The four learning
styles identified by McCarthy are:
• Type 1: Innovative Learners are primarily interested in personal meaning.
They need to have reasons for learning--ideally, reasons that connect new
information with personal experience and establish that information's
usefulness in daily life. Some of the many instructional modes effective
with this learner type are cooperative learning, brainstorming, and
integration of content areas (e.g., science with social studies, writing with
the arts, etc.).
• Type 2: Analytic Learners are primarily interested in acquiring facts in
order to deepen their understanding of concepts and processes. They are
capable of learning effectively from lectures, and enjoy independent
research, analysis of data, and hearing what "the experts" have to say.

• Type 3: Common Sense Learners are primarily
interested in how things work; they want to "get in
and try it." Concrete, experiential learning activities
work best for them--using manipulative, hands-on
tasks, kinesthetic experience, etc.
• Type 4: Dynamic Learners are primarily interested in
self-directed discovery. They rely heavily on their
own intuition, and seek to teach both themselves
and others. Any type of independent study is
effective for these learners. They also enjoy
simulations, role play, and games.

• Traditionally, instructional techniques commonly used in public
schools best address the needs of the Type 2 Analytic Learner, with
heavy emphasis on linear sequential processing of information.
• This curriculum is designed so that all styles are addressed, in order
that more than one type of student may be permitted to both
"shine" and "stretch." That is, each lesson contains "something for
everybody," so each student not only finds the mode of greatest
comfort for him/her, but is challenged to adapt to other, less
comfortable but equally valuable modes.
• The instructional sequence suggested by Bernice McCarthy and used
in this curriculum teaches to the four styles using both right- and left-
brain processing techniques. This integration of styles and processing
modes ensures that we are educating the "whole brain."
• The diagram below illustrates the 4MAT cycle of learning. It
represents graphically the teacher behaviors appropriate to each
stage and style, and provides a framework for planning any lesson or
unit, for any age level or content area

Counseling and Addressing Performance
Problems
• Fact: No matter how carefully you recruit and
select your employees, there will inevitably be a
few who are unable or unwilling to meet
performance expectations.
• Fact: In employee surveys and leadership
assessments across a wide variety of
organizations, one of the most consistent
supervisory issues is that managers do not
address poor-performing employees.

• When these two facts collide, you have a workplace where
the poor performance of a few is tolerated and where those
employees who are capable performers become increasingly
disenchanted and disengaged.
• Why are supervisors reluctant to address poor performance?
Several reasons may be at play: It is not an easy task to work
through a performance issue with an employee. The
employee may get upset when confronted. The supervisor
may believe the employee will not change, even if confronted,
so why bother? Performance expectations may never have
been clear to begin with. The employee may "out argue" the
supervisor or file a grievance, etc.

• But here is the issue: If you, as the supervisor, let poor
performance continue unaddressed, you will need to work
harder yourself to make up for the slack created by a poor
performer. Your unit's performance will go downhill as the
poor performer's coworkers become disgruntled. At some
point, you may decide to live with the status quo you have
created due to inaction, and just accept the fact that you
manage an underperforming unit and fatalistically
acknowledge the poor performer's continued existence as
"just the way it is." This is not a happy ending!
• So, how can it be made easier for you to address performance
problems and increase the likelihood that poor performers
will either improve or leave?

The purpose of counseling is not to punish poor performing
employees but to let them know that their performance is not meeting
expectations, and then help them raise their performance to the
expected level.
Some general principles apply across all situations in which there is
a perceived performance problem:
• Address the problem quickly — Do not let a performance problem
linger. Counsel the employee as soon as you know there is a
problem. You do not need to wait until a scheduled "interim
review" or the end-of-year appraisal. One of the cardinal sins of
supervision is to save up evidence of poor performance throughout
the year and dump it on the employee in the annual appraisal
discussion. This is one case where saving is not good. Use your
evidence as soon as you acquire it! Deal with it while it is fresh.
Counseling Discussions

• Look for the cause — To solve a problem, first find
the cause. Why is the employee missing deadlines?
Why are there consistently too many errors in the
employee's work? Why is the employee late to work
so often? Problem-solve to help the employee
identify the cause of the performance problem. Then
ask: What will you do differently to address the cause
and bring your performance up to expectations?

• Place accountability where it belongs — If the cause of the
employee's performance problem lies with the employee (for
example, frequent lateness is due to the employee's difficulty
in waking up in the morning), then the employee needs to be
held accountable for addressing the cause and correcting the
problem. On the other hand, if the cause is located in the
work process or equipment (for example, missing deadlines is
due to an overly cumbersome work flow), then accountability
for fixing the problem will rest with the supervisor.

• State a fact and then inquire — This is a very effective
method for engaging the employee during the counseling
discussion in solving a performance problem. Using specific
facts, neutrally inquire about the problem behavior. For
example:
– Fact: I have noticed that your numbers have dropped during the last
month.
– Inquiry: Can we talk about how that might have happened?
– Fact: I have noticed that you have been late for work three days out of
every five for the past two weeks. Your leave record shows a pattern of
using sick and vacation leave within the month that it's accrued.
– Inquiry: What is making it difficult for you to be at work during your
regular work hours?

Corrective Action Plans
• Corrective action plans are short-term action plans for
bringing employees' performance up to expectations in their
current jobs. You should prepare a corrective action plan
whenever an employee's performance falls below
expectations. The performance problem should be a
persistent problem, not an isolated or one- off incident.
• Begin documenting the problem as soon as it is noticed and
document any discussions of the problem with the employee.
The reason for documenting is that, if the problem continues
despite the supervisor's and the employee's efforts to correct
it, it may be necessary to take disciplinary action.

• Supervisors should keep notes concerning performance
observations and follow-up discussions. To complete the
documentation loop, the corrective action plan should be
attached to the end-of-cycle appraisal and the ongoing
documentation of the performance issue should be
summarized in the appraisal.
• The corrective action plan can be a standardized form or a
memo. Its format is not important so long as it includes the
following information:
 What is the problem? — Concisely describe what needs
improvement, why, and the consequences of failure to improve
 How will improvement be measured? — Describe how you will
know when the employee's performance has risen to the point
where it meets expectations. Refer to the specific results
expectation or behavioral expectation on the employee's work
plan that is in question.

• What will the employee do? — Describe the action steps the
employee has agreed to take to improve performance. Note
the target dates for completing these actions.
• Are any resources required? — Describe any resources the
employee will need to carry out the actions agreed upon or
any support you have agreed to provide.
• When will the supervisor follow up? — State when you will
meet again with the employee to check on progress. Schedule
and conduct follow-up discussions at frequent intervals. If a
long interval is set for a follow-up meeting, you are
communicating an expectation that it will take a while for the
employee to make the change. Tighter time frames place a
greater sense of urgency on the need to change.

Corrective action plans can be difficult to write,
especially if you do not have to write them often,
which we hope is the case. It is always good to have
some models to refer to.

The End

Coaching and Counseling for Peak Performance

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Coaching and Counseling for Peak Performance