The document provides guidance on conducting effective coaching and counseling sessions. It outlines a 7 step process: 1) friendly greeting, 2) manager states facts, 3) employee explains, 4) manager explains interpretation, 5) manager presents relevant rules and policies, 6) the parties create an action plan, 7) review of the session. The goal is to have an open discussion to understand issues, identify solutions, and set expectations in a supportive manner.
9. 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.
13. 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:
15. 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
24. • 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
27. 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.
29. 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.
32. • 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
35. • 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?
37. 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
43. • 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.