Coaching Employees is Job #1

Whether you’re a team leader, a super­vi­sor, or con­tact cen­ter man­ager, coaching—giving feed­back to your employees—is one of the most impor­tant thing you do leader. As a leader, your job is to set goals, and guide your team toward those goals as you inspire them toward new heights.

The term coach­ing refers to the prac­tice of giv­ing feed­back to improve per­for­mance. Coach­ing can be one-way or two-way. One-way coach­ing is when you do all the talk­ing and two-way coach­ing is when you and an employee have a dis­cus­sion about per­for­mance. Most often, one-way coach­ing is brief, spon­ta­neous and timely, while two-way coach­ing is more likely to be sched­uled, longer in length, and off the floor in your office or con­fer­ence room. Over time you will be able to tweak your coach­ing tech­nique to best suit indi­vid­u­als and team needs.

Not only does coach­ing val­i­date an employ­ees’ job per­for­mance, it also shows that you take the suc­cess of your team and the com­pany seri­ously. Being seen as ded­i­cated to con­tin­ual improve­ment is very inspir­ing and will no doubt be moti­vat­ing for your staff.

Being a great coach comes nat­u­rally for some. But for the rest of us it requires some study, patience and prac­tice. Here are the two main skills to focus on:

Prais­ing

It’s hard to feel good about your­self and your job when all you hear are neg­a­tive com­ments. To ensure your employ­ees per­form at opti­mal lev­els they will need to hear words of
encour­age­ment and praise from you. There are many effec­tive ways to praise but we have found the below exer­cise most effective.

B = Behav­ior. Iden­tify pre­ferred behav­ior so the employee can con­tinue doing it.

E = Effect. Explain how the behav­ior con­tributed to the customer’s pos­i­tive expe­ri­ence, com­pany bot­tom line, or any­thing else that details why the behav­ior is desired.

T = Thanks. Always thank the employee. This shows appre­ci­a­tion and rein­forces that the employee per­formed well and encour­ages them to con­tinue per­form­ing in the same manner.

Cor­rect­ing

Although not as much fun as prais­ing, cor­rect­ing is a very impor­tant part of coach­ing. It is not easy to tell some­one that they did some­thing wrong or are not behav­ing per com­pany guide­lines, but avoid­ing such issues will affect your team’s pro­duc­tiv­ity and morale. Use this easy to remem­ber exer­cise to effec­tively cor­rect performance.

B = Behav­ior. Clearly point out the incor­rect behavior.

E = Effect. Explain the effect the incor­rect behav­ior had on the cus­tomer, call, etc.

E = Expec­ta­tion. Clearly state what you expect the employee to do dif­fer­ently next time.

S = Secure Com­mit­ment. Secure a com­mit­ment from the employee to try what you’ve asked.

Avoid Using “But”

In some cases, coach­ing ses­sions will involve both prais­ing and coach­ing. Always praise first. This will relax the employee and allow the employee to be more recep­tive to cor­rect­ing. How­ever, avoid using the word “but” as a tran­si­tion from prais­ing to cor­rect­ing. Using but will quickly negate all the pos­i­tive things you just said. Instead use a segue such as, “Now let’s talk about…” as a smooth tran­si­tion from prais­ing to correcting.

Use these skills reg­u­larly to praise and cor­rect your employ­ees and watch their per­for­mance improve.