COACHING AND FEEDBACK

Successful coaching and feedback can bring a positive support culture and drive team members to their full potential.

1 | BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN PEOPLE

FOUR CAPABILITY SUCCESS FACTORS

What are the four Capability Success Factors?

1. Engage every level of the organization

   • This means not just confining continuing capability development to lower level employees but also working from the top down; those at the top are should be engaged in capability building.

   • By working from the top down, you can align the goals of capability at the top level with the more nitty-gritty type capability building that will be necessary for middle management and lower level employees.

2. Create excitement and pride

   • Make it clear that capability-building is not equal to taking on more fruitless responsibility for the employee, it is a growth opportunity.

   • Celebrate your organizations wins, as well as the wins of your individual employees.

   • Make efforts to build comradery.

3. Apply a range of learning techniques

   • Most "students" will learn best on the job/hands-on.

   • Some require a more classroom approach.

   • Some may need a more textbook type approach.

   • Others may benefit from more consistent sit along and one-on-one time with a mentor to learn.

   • Most will require a combination of these things.

4. Institutionalized through HR

   • Capability building lends to building new processes that should be made policy

   • Capability building may also be built into metrics that are used for compensation conversations and promotions.

2 | DELIVERING CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK

Delivering Feedback in the right way brings buy-in, change, and positive moral.

KEY STEPS FOR CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK

1. Build trust and comradery 

   • Make your employee feel seen:

     • Talk about their personal life.

     • Ask what their goals are.

   • Be human:

     • Share some personal experiences when appropriate.

     • Share funny antic dotes.

2. Open up with positive feedback the individual does well or is excelling at.  There is always something.

   • Talk about goals that have been hit.

     • If the employee isn't hitting a goal but is making progress, highlight that. 

     • Don't discourage them from continuing to improve simply because they have not yet reached their goal.

3. Deliver the negative feedback in a way that is objective and "big-picture."

   • Often the negative feedback is simply over timelines or costs, and it can be easily simplified to that.

   • Do not make it a personal statement:

     • Don't talk about how it makes you look to your boss or how it affects others on an individual bases.

     • Only talk about how it affects operations in objective ways like costs, timelines, etc.

   • Don't use inflammatory language.

     • Don't cast judgment or blame.

     • Making mistakes is part of development, make it clear that mistakes do not define the employees value to the company.

   • Share some times that you have made mistakes.

     • Again, be human and be considerate.

4. Give them an opportunity to speak.  Listen and be receptive.

   • Give active listening queues like nodding, eye contact, etc.

   • Don't interrupt.

   • Make sure they have said everything they have to say, but don't force them to speak.

5. Together come up with a game plan (sometimes in the form of a Personal Improvement Plan) for improvement.  

   • Tell them you will write this all up in an email so you there is no misunderstanding.  

   • Tell them to look it over and let you know if they have any questions or concerns.

6. Make it clear that these personal plans or goals are subject to change when it is appropriate.

   • Let the employee know that if the goals need to change, they should bring it up in the next check in

   • Put more ownership of these goals on the employee so they feel empowered and can effectively capability-build on their own.

3 | CHECK-IN AGENDA

We have check-ins to be supportive in development, personal growth, and set goals in what they deliver for themselves and the company.

CHECK-IN  (ONE ON ONE) STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE

Discuss for at least 30 minutes every 2 weeks at the minimum in a one on one session:

1. KPIs:

   • Develop items that will hold them accountable to the product they deliver.  

   • Make them measurable.  

   • Make it transparent how they are progressing over time.  

   • Set goals, deliver feedback as needed.

2. Quarterly Initiatives:

   • Set goals or agenda that they can meet to execute by.  

   • This can be team goals, personal goals, problems to solve, processes to build, etc.

3. Personal Growth:

   • This is “We Power People”. Be truly involved with where they want to go and be long term.  

   • Place opportunities on them that will help the grow to be better and more competitive in getting there quicker.