Process Essay: A Coaching Plan For Success
David
MGMT 2125 Performance Management
April 2, 2012
A Coaching Plan for Success
Coaching employees can be emotional, frustrating and overwhelming if you do not approach the situation with confidence, knowledge and facts. Dealing with an employee that feels they have done nothing wrong is even harder. Having evidence of the infraction and taking a sympathetic approach sometimes works better than throwing all the cards on the table and demanding a resolution.
Currently I have an employee, we will call her Mary. Mary performs her job incredibly well, when she finally gets to work. She is late each day, anywhere from three minutes to sometimes a half an hour. Her job requires that she be at her desk at 8:15. Other …show more content…
employees have to cover for her when she is not at her desk at the assigned time. Those that cover for her, see that she does not receive any consequences and are frustrated with her actions and the way that management handles her tardiness. After several informal meetings with Mary, she gets better with getting to work on time, but continues to have punctuality issues.
Getting her agreement that a problem exists
A Veridan Behavioral Health article (Kathryn Patricelli) states that coaching makes use of consequences to motivate change. Keeping this in mind, I scheduled a formal meeting with Mary, with a defined coaching plan.[1] I have derived several possible solutions as well as detailed documentation[2] to present to her. I developed the plan using the SMART guidelines as referenced in Management (Williams) which says to be effective a plan must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. The conversation will begin by finding out the reasons that Mary has for coming to work late. I have chosen a mutual location in a small conference room rather than my office. I begin the conversation with Mary by acknowledging the excellent job she did on a PowerPoint presentation that she worked on regarding cost changes that our branch would like to implement and present to our regional manager. She was very excited to learn that I was pleased with the presentation and wanted to know if there was anything else that she could do to help. This seemed to be a good opportunity to bring up the issue of her tardiness. “Mary, your position with our company as a front line administrative assistant is not only important to the sales force, warehouse and customers, but also to our extended management team that reaches as high as the president of our company.” “Your PowerPoint presentation is just an example of the fine work that you produce each day.” “I do however have a concern with your tardiness each morning.” “Are you are aware of your required reporting time? Mary, “I thought that I was getting to work on time, no one has formally said anything to me.” “Do you remember the conversation that we had last week about reporting time is 8:15AM? Mary, “Since we were just standing at the time clock, I just thought you were making a comment.” “Did you not look at the clock and notice that it was 8:17 AM?” Mary, “Yeah, but again, I just thought you were talking, to talk.” “Okay, to make things clear, the company policy states that our work day begins each day at 8:15 AM.” Mary, “oh, so you think I have a problem with being late?” “Mary, here are copies of the last four week’s time cards for you, can you tell me what you see?” Mary, “8:05, 8:17, 8:22, 8:15, 8:27, 8:16, 8:30, 8:18, 8:23, 8:14, wow, I am late three or four days a week.” “ My point, you do an awesome job while you are here, but your co-workers have to cover for you in the mornings when the phones are ringing and you are not here to answer them.” Mary, “I am sorry, I didn’t realize until now that there was a problem. What do you suggest?” “I am glad that you asked, let’s talk a little more and come up with a plan.” Based on her perception of the situation, she didn’t think her tardiness was a problem. After reviewing the time sheet documentation with her, she agreed that she has a time management problem.
Mutually discuss alternative solutions
In continuing our conversation, Mary takes her teenager to school each morning.
She states that because the child doesn’t prepare the night before, he is usually late getting ready. By the time they arrive at school there is traffic and this throws her timing off. If there are other delays, then she too is delayed even further. Because no one said anything to her, she did not realize that her tardiness was an issue. In Why Employees Don’t Do What They are Supposed to do and what to Do about it (Fournies), Fournies states that employees think they are performing if no one tells them differently. Until now, Mary believed that management was glad that she came to work, regardless of the time. The next step in coaching based on the techniques used in Coaching for Improved Work Performance (Fournies, Coaching for Improved Work Performance) alternative solutions were discussed. Since the teenager is a part of the equation, the child must get up and get ready sooner, if she is to take the child to school. Another alternative is for the student to ride the bus to school, so that she does not have to go through the traffic and can use an alternate route. She also added that being more prepared herself in the morning could also help the situation. We also discussed having her come to work thirty minutes later and getting off thirty minutes later. Already having a very active family life after work, she was not sure if this alternative would work for her. Mary agreed to go home and discuss the situation with her family that
evening.
Mutually agree on action to be taken to solve the problem
We both agreed that we would give her a week to ten days to make the change. It was suggested that she not just try to get to work on time, but maybe as much as ten minutes early, so that she is not feeling pressured or rushed. Feeling good about the resolutions that were agreed upon, I told Mary that I would check with her in a day or two just to see how the talk went with the family.
Follow up to measure results
At my place of employment, attendance is tracked on a daily basis. On the first day following the meeting, Mary arrived to work three minutes early. On the second day following the meeting, she arrived six minutes early. Continuing to follow the coaching techniques, I checked in with Mary just to see what changes she made in her daily routine. I went to her desk. “Good morning Mary. I noticed on the payroll report for the past two days that you have been here early.” “What did you work out with the family?” Mary, “I am glad that you asked. It seems that my son didn’t realize that he was making me late for work each day.” “ I am continuing to take John to school, but I set a specific time to leave home that will still allow me to go to the school and still get to work on time.” “The first day, I allowed him an extra two minutes. The second day, I went to the car, and told him that if he was not in the car by the time I put my things in, I would leave him.” Mary noted that these actions raised her son’s awareness of the situation as well. Mary, “I appreciate the offer of the later starting time; however, 8:15 AM works better for my family. I will work hard to get to work on time. If there is a problem in the future, I would like to leave the coming in at a later time option as a possibility, rather than losing my job.” “I appreciate your letting me know that, if you foresee a problem, just come to me and we will discuss it.”
Reinforce any achievement when it occurs
Over the next ten days, I continued to monitor her progress. During the ten days, Mary was late one additional time, due to weather related issues. She promptly came in the office to discuss her tardiness, rather than just slipping in. At that point, I realized that working with her on the problem made the situation better, rather than having to take drastic measures to potentially have to release her from her job. I monitored her progress over a three month period, and checked with her often and complimented her on punctuality. She reported that since that initial meeting, the teenage son is now driving, and she has had to work with him on punctuality issues as well.
The Face to Face discussion (Fournies, Coaching for Improved Work Performance) is used to redirect an employee’s behavior to solve a performance problem. In Mary’s case, she chose to realize that there was an attendance issue, and work with me on a solution, rather than use excuses and do nothing about the problem. She indicated to me that my willingness to work with her strengthened our working relationship and that she has more respect for me as a manager. Now that I have had the opportunity to help solve Mary’s attendance issue, I realize that I know her better as a person as well. I have since incorporated a more friendly approach into my management style. I too have begun using the daily reminder used in (Fournies, Why Employees Don 't Do What they 're suppose to do...and What to do about it), that” all the people working for me are millionaires and don’t have to work for me one minute longer than they want to.” With this thought in mind, and the success with Mary, I have experienced success with a coaching plan and will use this as a guide for future encounters. The Face to Face discussion does not have to be a dreaded action before the doom, but should be implemented at an early stage, for the best success.
Works Cited
Fournies, Ferdinand F. Coaching for Improved Work Performance. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
—. Why Employees Don 't Do What they 're suppose to do...and What to do about it. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
Kathryn Patricelli, MA. "Coaching and Performance Appraisals." 7 September 2005. Veridan Behavorial Health . .
Williams, Chuck. MSD100: Management. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2009.
Exhibit 1- Coaching Discussion Plan
Exhibit 2- Excel time sheet document and graph
-----------------------
[1] Exhibit 1
[2] Exhibit 2
MGMT 2125 Performance Management
April 2, 2012
A Coaching Plan for Success
Coaching employees can be emotional, frustrating and overwhelming if you do not approach the situation with confidence, knowledge and facts. Dealing with an employee that feels they have done nothing wrong is even harder. Having evidence of the infraction and taking a sympathetic approach sometimes works better than throwing all the cards on the table and demanding a resolution.
Currently I have an employee, we will call her Mary. Mary performs her job incredibly well, when she finally gets to work. She is late each day, anywhere from three minutes to sometimes a half an hour. Her job requires that she be at her desk at 8:15. Other …show more content…
employees have to cover for her when she is not at her desk at the assigned time. Those that cover for her, see that she does not receive any consequences and are frustrated with her actions and the way that management handles her tardiness. After several informal meetings with Mary, she gets better with getting to work on time, but continues to have punctuality issues.
Getting her agreement that a problem exists
A Veridan Behavioral Health article (Kathryn Patricelli) states that coaching makes use of consequences to motivate change. Keeping this in mind, I scheduled a formal meeting with Mary, with a defined coaching plan.[1] I have derived several possible solutions as well as detailed documentation[2] to present to her. I developed the plan using the SMART guidelines as referenced in Management (Williams) which says to be effective a plan must be specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and timely. The conversation will begin by finding out the reasons that Mary has for coming to work late. I have chosen a mutual location in a small conference room rather than my office. I begin the conversation with Mary by acknowledging the excellent job she did on a PowerPoint presentation that she worked on regarding cost changes that our branch would like to implement and present to our regional manager. She was very excited to learn that I was pleased with the presentation and wanted to know if there was anything else that she could do to help. This seemed to be a good opportunity to bring up the issue of her tardiness. “Mary, your position with our company as a front line administrative assistant is not only important to the sales force, warehouse and customers, but also to our extended management team that reaches as high as the president of our company.” “Your PowerPoint presentation is just an example of the fine work that you produce each day.” “I do however have a concern with your tardiness each morning.” “Are you are aware of your required reporting time? Mary, “I thought that I was getting to work on time, no one has formally said anything to me.” “Do you remember the conversation that we had last week about reporting time is 8:15AM? Mary, “Since we were just standing at the time clock, I just thought you were making a comment.” “Did you not look at the clock and notice that it was 8:17 AM?” Mary, “Yeah, but again, I just thought you were talking, to talk.” “Okay, to make things clear, the company policy states that our work day begins each day at 8:15 AM.” Mary, “oh, so you think I have a problem with being late?” “Mary, here are copies of the last four week’s time cards for you, can you tell me what you see?” Mary, “8:05, 8:17, 8:22, 8:15, 8:27, 8:16, 8:30, 8:18, 8:23, 8:14, wow, I am late three or four days a week.” “ My point, you do an awesome job while you are here, but your co-workers have to cover for you in the mornings when the phones are ringing and you are not here to answer them.” Mary, “I am sorry, I didn’t realize until now that there was a problem. What do you suggest?” “I am glad that you asked, let’s talk a little more and come up with a plan.” Based on her perception of the situation, she didn’t think her tardiness was a problem. After reviewing the time sheet documentation with her, she agreed that she has a time management problem.
Mutually discuss alternative solutions
In continuing our conversation, Mary takes her teenager to school each morning.
She states that because the child doesn’t prepare the night before, he is usually late getting ready. By the time they arrive at school there is traffic and this throws her timing off. If there are other delays, then she too is delayed even further. Because no one said anything to her, she did not realize that her tardiness was an issue. In Why Employees Don’t Do What They are Supposed to do and what to Do about it (Fournies), Fournies states that employees think they are performing if no one tells them differently. Until now, Mary believed that management was glad that she came to work, regardless of the time. The next step in coaching based on the techniques used in Coaching for Improved Work Performance (Fournies, Coaching for Improved Work Performance) alternative solutions were discussed. Since the teenager is a part of the equation, the child must get up and get ready sooner, if she is to take the child to school. Another alternative is for the student to ride the bus to school, so that she does not have to go through the traffic and can use an alternate route. She also added that being more prepared herself in the morning could also help the situation. We also discussed having her come to work thirty minutes later and getting off thirty minutes later. Already having a very active family life after work, she was not sure if this alternative would work for her. Mary agreed to go home and discuss the situation with her family that
evening.
Mutually agree on action to be taken to solve the problem
We both agreed that we would give her a week to ten days to make the change. It was suggested that she not just try to get to work on time, but maybe as much as ten minutes early, so that she is not feeling pressured or rushed. Feeling good about the resolutions that were agreed upon, I told Mary that I would check with her in a day or two just to see how the talk went with the family.
Follow up to measure results
At my place of employment, attendance is tracked on a daily basis. On the first day following the meeting, Mary arrived to work three minutes early. On the second day following the meeting, she arrived six minutes early. Continuing to follow the coaching techniques, I checked in with Mary just to see what changes she made in her daily routine. I went to her desk. “Good morning Mary. I noticed on the payroll report for the past two days that you have been here early.” “What did you work out with the family?” Mary, “I am glad that you asked. It seems that my son didn’t realize that he was making me late for work each day.” “ I am continuing to take John to school, but I set a specific time to leave home that will still allow me to go to the school and still get to work on time.” “The first day, I allowed him an extra two minutes. The second day, I went to the car, and told him that if he was not in the car by the time I put my things in, I would leave him.” Mary noted that these actions raised her son’s awareness of the situation as well. Mary, “I appreciate the offer of the later starting time; however, 8:15 AM works better for my family. I will work hard to get to work on time. If there is a problem in the future, I would like to leave the coming in at a later time option as a possibility, rather than losing my job.” “I appreciate your letting me know that, if you foresee a problem, just come to me and we will discuss it.”
Reinforce any achievement when it occurs
Over the next ten days, I continued to monitor her progress. During the ten days, Mary was late one additional time, due to weather related issues. She promptly came in the office to discuss her tardiness, rather than just slipping in. At that point, I realized that working with her on the problem made the situation better, rather than having to take drastic measures to potentially have to release her from her job. I monitored her progress over a three month period, and checked with her often and complimented her on punctuality. She reported that since that initial meeting, the teenage son is now driving, and she has had to work with him on punctuality issues as well.
The Face to Face discussion (Fournies, Coaching for Improved Work Performance) is used to redirect an employee’s behavior to solve a performance problem. In Mary’s case, she chose to realize that there was an attendance issue, and work with me on a solution, rather than use excuses and do nothing about the problem. She indicated to me that my willingness to work with her strengthened our working relationship and that she has more respect for me as a manager. Now that I have had the opportunity to help solve Mary’s attendance issue, I realize that I know her better as a person as well. I have since incorporated a more friendly approach into my management style. I too have begun using the daily reminder used in (Fournies, Why Employees Don 't Do What they 're suppose to do...and What to do about it), that” all the people working for me are millionaires and don’t have to work for me one minute longer than they want to.” With this thought in mind, and the success with Mary, I have experienced success with a coaching plan and will use this as a guide for future encounters. The Face to Face discussion does not have to be a dreaded action before the doom, but should be implemented at an early stage, for the best success.
Works Cited
Fournies, Ferdinand F. Coaching for Improved Work Performance. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2000.
—. Why Employees Don 't Do What they 're suppose to do...and What to do about it. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2007.
Kathryn Patricelli, MA. "Coaching and Performance Appraisals." 7 September 2005. Veridan Behavorial Health . .
Williams, Chuck. MSD100: Management. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2009.
Exhibit 1- Coaching Discussion Plan
Exhibit 2- Excel time sheet document and graph
-----------------------
[1] Exhibit 1
[2] Exhibit 2