Michael Heath - Management

Marcus Tullius Cicero, Ancient Roman philosopher

On the day itself, make sure you go through the following steps:

■ Clarify with the trainee(s) what they are about to learn.Tell them the objective you prepared for the session.

■ Demonstrate the skill.Let them see the whole skill. Then repeat it slowly. Explain what you are doing and why it’s important.

■ Do the exercise together.This isn’t always possible. But if you can go through it at the same time it’s a great way to transfer a skill.

■ Ask them to do the exercise alone.Also ask them to talk through the process. Listen out for what they say – and what they miss out!

■ Give helpful feedback.Direct your feedback at the skill and not the trainee. Make sure you praise and encourage throughout.

■ Follow up after the session.When you see them doing the skill ensure you continue to give encouragement and feedback. Especially for larger, more demanding tasks.

Of course, you don’t always have to give feedback. Sometimes just asking “Why do you think that happened?” or “What do you need to change?” gets the answers you want. Asking good questions gets the trainees to talk through the skill. The more they talk – and think – it through, the more they understand.

Training builds relationships and demonstrates your commitment to staff.

Responsibility and ownership – if every employee demonstrated these two qualities, how much easier management would be! One way that will really encourage these qualities is coaching.

Don’t confuse coaching with training. Training is about putting knowledge into someone. Coaching is drawing knowledge out with questions that inspire the coachee to think through and solve issues from their own experience. One great coaching technique is GROW, pioneered in John Whitmore’s book Coaching for Performance .

“When I want to, I perform better than when I have to”

John Whitmore, racing driver and performance coach

case studyPierre was an outstanding salesperson. However, he ran into trouble when he was asked to coach other salespeople. He became impatient when waiting for answers to his coaching questions – the coachees simply weren’t as fast in their thought processes as him. Eventually he started to prompt the coachees with answers he was looking for. He even began to ask questions that they could only say yes or no to. Great performers do not always make great coaches.

■ G = Goal.What is the goal that you want the coachee to achieve? Is it a short-term or long-term goal? Will you share the goal with the employee?

■ R = Reality.What is happening now? How aware is your coachee of the behaviours they are currently employing? What are the underlying reasons for their behaviours?

■ O = Options.What are the alternative behaviours available to the coachee? What are the merits – or disadvantages – of each option?

■ W = Will (or way forward).What option have you chosen and how will you achieve it? What are the obstacles that you must overcome? What help will you need?

Coaching is all about asking questions in a structured, searching way. For instance, during the ‘Reality’ stage, I might ask, “So what’s happening now?” “Why do you think that’s happening?” “What effect is that having on your work?”

These questions make the coachee analyse the situation and come up with their own solutions. After all, we all prefer our own solutions to problems!

Coaching is a powerful way of building accountability in your people.

“How am I doing?” This question is so important. People want feedback but they want it to be delivered sensitively and effectively.

Sometime we give feedback that’s positive and says: “I love what you’ve done, keep doing it!” Sometimes we give feedback to make someone even better at what they are doing: “I like this but adjusting this would really help”. Of course it’s the second type of feedback, developmental feedback, that most managers struggle with.

If you have to give feedback to improve someone’s performance then go with these six simple steps.

1 Clarify why the behaviour is happening.“‘Renu, I noticed that you haven’t started preparing your presentation.”

2 Confirm what your understanding was.“I thought we agreed that you’d have a session plan completed yesterday.”

3 First recap the benefits of the agreed behaviours.“You’ll remember we agreed that it would help you decide how much time to dedicate to each area?”

one minute wonderHow often do you seek feedback from those around you? How accurate is that feedback? How well has it been delivered? How receptive are you to development feedback that helps you to grow?

4 State your concern.“I’m concerned that you might fall behind and have too much to do before the presentation itself.”

5 Ask the employee to confirm.“What was your understanding when we last spoke about this point?”

6 Conclude with a positive statement.“It’s your big opportunity Renu, let’s make sure that the senior team realise how great your project went.”

You must give feedback as close to the event as you can. I call this ‘fresh feedback’. There’s a time when feedback is ripe and a time when it’s too far past its sell-by date! And sometimes you have to assess how receptive the employee will be. If Renu’s presentation was a disaster then you may want to wait until she is more receptive to receiving feedback.

One last point: make your feedback specific. Talk about behaviours that people can change and make sure that you never use feedback as an excuse for a personal attack.

Well delivered feedback removes blind spots in people’s performance and increases motivation.

You can’t do everything. You’ve got to share your work where you can. Not only does it take the pressure off you, you’ll find staff enjoy the new responsibilities you’ve given them. So show your trust in people – follow these seven ‘must-do’ delegation tips:

1 Think carefully about who you’re going to delegate to.Don’t overload the highest performer. Make sure everyone has the skills to do what you’re asking them to do.

2 Meet quickly with the people you’ve chosen.They’ll need more time than you to prepare for the task. What might take you a day to achieve might take someone else a week!

one minute wonderThink about the last time your own boss delegated a task to you. What can you learn from the way you were delegated to? How will it change the way you delegate to others?

3 Set aside plenty of time to talk through the task.Others may not be as quick in understanding it as you. Allow plenty of time to make things clear.

4 Be clear about about the end result.If you only want a one-page report then say so. Be precise about what you’re asking someone to do.

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