Staff Performance Appraisal and Coaching

"Coaching involves meetings/interaction. Someone helps someone else to learn something new".

At work this may involve

• a supervisor and a member of their team, indeed the latter may be coaching the supervisor
• a specialist may advise someone from another department
• a work colleague gives peer support to another

Words like "coach" or "mentor" is fine for the one doing the coaching - but the officialesse of such terms grates on the nerves. The same is true is for the "client" - the one being supported. Nonetheless this is a helper-client relationship which involves support, peer review and discussion - a conversation oriented towards learning. The form of help varies but one facet of it is that the coach avoids actually perform the task for the client. An unhealthy dependency relationship is easily created. More likely the "help" should enable the client to become independent and "take ownership" of the situation, the task and associated learning.

Coaching or mentoring may also be linked to

• the manager giving a colleague more time to learn to do a task
• relieving them of job pressures to give scope for learning/developing something new
• I/you may simply be referred to a manual or book which explains a procedure or method

All these are linked to coaching - even as preparation. However purposeful "coaching" activity is likely to involve more direct and organised interaction (working together and a structured, controlled dialogue) between coach and client.

Coaching and a hard, management focus

• tasks, problem-solving, improvement in performance and results.
• contribution to the organisation's effectiveness: quality, responsiveness, costs, competitiveness.

Here "coaching" as a process becomes a managerial tool rather than something useful in itself for the client in his/her own right (a somewhat cynical view).

  The Demands of Being a Coach  

It requires thought, proper shaping (targeting) and ability to follow-through. The coach and client need to understand the process and be skilful. Competence is needed. Participants ideally need to be able to review their own processes of interaction and learning.

Lets be clear - coaching activities can be based on an appointment, a scheduled activity but the activity can also be opportunistic - seizing on an opening to stimulate learning (as long as this itself is not an imposition).

Be aware that - too frequent efforts to push people into "coaching mode" will discredit the process.

  Coaching and Management Learning  

Many processes are involved in learning - coaching is one activity.

• Formal Training (Development) Needs Analysis
  We can try to identify learning needs formally using various methods e.g.
  • job analysis: agreeing duties, important "know-how" (skills and knowledge) etc. We may define key objectives, projects, action planning and discuss performance assessment processes.
  • we can discuss learning and performance in relation to rewards, promotion, job development and grading opportunity.

  
  However the ideal interpersonal conditions for a sound coaching relationship may be jeopardised where appraisal decisions are also on the table and job rewards are dependent on the outcomes of such evaluation.
  
  

• The Setting and Mindset for Coaching
  Where can coaching take place? In the car, on the train, in the factory, workshop, office, via Email and over the Internet?

  Clearly physical factors affect learning. It may be difficult to do coaching in a noisy, busy office with constant interruptions or in a smoky pub or workshop filled with risks that require constant attention.

  Beyond this, social and psychological factors influence learning greatly.

  • Do I like my boss (coach) do I trust her?
  • I am tired - I've had enough of this. I'm already stressed up to the eyeballs and do not need any more!
  • Why should I bother, given how this firm behaves towards me and others? The climate and culture is not conducive to learning.
  • I am being asked to learn something new which I will never be able to apply anyway given the very limited job I have to do!
    
    

• A Setting and Climate for Learning
  When deciding on settings in which coaching might work, ask
  • are the purposes and goals of the parties clear?
  • is the coaching method/system open to adaptation?
  • is there encouragement to learn through experience, reflection, theorising and experimentation or is there a blame culture? Learning is often about getting feedback on things done well and not so well done. Are work mistakes are ruthlessly criticised? Is support inconsistent? Is there a punishment centred climate?

  Avoidance and defence are natural, learned reactions. Are these what coaching is about?

• Cultural, age and male/female differences
  Individual feelings, needs and interpretations need to be understood and respected. There may be cultural, age and male/female differences - all significant to learning and expectations. Thus the notion of there being a single approach to coaching - with everyone eating from the same menu - is a dubious recipe.

• Genuine Positive Regard for the Other
  This imperative stems from the advice of development psychologist, Carl Rogers. Trust, acceptance and genuineness are essential for a sound coaching relationship.

  Would you really want spend hours coaching someone who you feel is a waste of of your energy?
  
  The needs, perceptions and motivations of the coach are a key ingredient. Of course, co-working/collaboration is more important rather than person-to-person rivalry yet rivalry is a natural human response and we would be naive to suggest otherwise. So little of the human relations management literature deals with the fact that there are some people we just do not want to be with or give anything to because we plainly do not like them.
  
  

• Transfers of Learning
  You can read a book on interviewing, participate in workshops, agree on the best principles and rehearse the scripts. But do you really transfer this learning to the job?

  Coaching is wasted without learning transfer - moving from the job role into "a conscious learning activity" and then moving back to the job role. These can be difficult transfers. Adjustment is needed. Forms of "debriefing" with the boss can assist greatly with absorption back into the job role. Yet the naivity of this suggestion needs more evaluation? What other "adjustment" processes may be evident?

  Assignment  

What is the contribution of coaching as a prior, concurrent or post-event process in each of the following?

• Training courses (external or internal),
• special assignments and projects,
• job rotation or temporary secondment say to another department/ organisation
• action learning activity
• representing the organisation to another firm
• atternding a conference or meeting
• doing a test run, a pilot, simulation, rehearsal
• joint activity with a local college or community/voluntary association
• an in-firm seminar, brainstorming group or quality circle?

  From Helper to Controller - Coaching Strategies  

1. identifying "the problem" and
2. moving towards a solution

Efforts can be driven by the coach or the learner or both. Various strategies become apparent and we can characterise these by using a typology or supposed continuum - such as the Tannenbaum-Schmidt Leadership Continuum.

• Directive
  -the manager initiates, defines the problem and directs the solution
  The manager may then be absorbed with monitoring/checking, feedback on standards, work progress, discipline, communication precision etc. Skill is needed for this to be successful and motivate rather than demotivate setting up barriers.

• Consultative A to B
  - the "client" initiates and the coach offers potential solution.
  The manager may want to help the learner but faces a dilemma. He/she says "I see the solution - why beat around the bush to reinvent the wheel". Post-solution reviews are important to discuss what was learnt.

• Consultative B to A
  - the manager initiates the problem, raises it with the client and then, as a coach, helps the client generate their own solution.

  The manager is in effect "initiating to empower" to "keep the ball in the others court". Problem parameters may need to be defined/clarified - but in effect the initiator does not have a strong need directly control and determine the actual outcome. There is still a need for feedback on progress.

• information source and process-consultant (non-directive)
  Learner/client identifies the problem and devises the solution. The coach's role is that of an information source and process-consultant - a friendly critic and catalyst - helping to clarify thoughts, resolve confusions and generate/evaluate solutions.

  Supervisory control is minimal. The manager may offer information and alternative perspectives - without pressing them. If the matter calls for standards to be set and a wider, say policy perspective to be applied then the manager/coach will still need to keep in touch with what is taking place and its outcomes.

Choice of behaviour (if this is conscious and controlled) of course will all depend on.... (the contingency management line, the law of the situation).

• the problem - scope, size, complexity, urgency
• relationship between manager and client
• experience and skills each brings to the situation
• preferred and most effective modes of interaction and expectations
• priority and time scales involved

The situation view says "weigh up the situation, choose mode of response (collection of behaviours), monitor/reflect on what you do and how well it works. Isn't this a wonderful and slick slogan!

So the "flexible coach" proposition is that a coach may sometimes be directive and effective in the way they help, sometimes non-directive. In "tough-minded management" circles the inclination may be more directive yet educationalists would argue that non-directive methods are preferable and secure better outcomes for the learner.

Duality: Help or control

Many managers face a duality problem in coaching which runs counter to development aspirations. Coaches can wear two possibly incompatible hats.

I want to help but I am accountable for his/her work. I have to maintain standards and get tasks done - within a policy remit. Deadlines have to be met.

To avoid the duality and to secure more client-centred outcomes, try to develop a more non-directive style. There are no clear sequences when it comes to actually "coaching". But we can generalise about some Coaching injunctions

  Assignment  

Evaluate your personal coaching style?

• Which style do you adopt most often - if any at all?
• Does it work, help? Why? If not, why not?
• Are you constrained in using an alternative approach? Which and why?
• Does a skill deficiency or deficiency of orientation on your part or on your client's part (e.g. a learning blockage) undermine opportunities for coaching and learning?
• How can you improve - be better?
• Should you back-off for a whole host of reasons?
  

© Created by Chris Jarvis for the BOLA Project.