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In this video, we're going to talk about coaching the manager to improve their
performance, as indicated by their employees' performance.
We're going to discuss how the managers who report to you must be held accountable
to their own coaching, if we really want to create a culture of coaching.
And we'll discuss how coaching can be done, both with them and
how that can ultimately affect the overall performance of the team.
So here's a common scenario, right?
So let's say you're a director and you have a manager who reports to you and
the manager has an employee.
The employee isn't performing, so the manager comes to the director and says,
hey, I have this employee who's not performing.
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And in my perspective, and
the way that I sort of see this work as a director, using this example,
your responsibility is to hold the manager accountable for the performance.
Managers hold employees accountable, your job is to hold the manager accountable.
But unfortunately, and all too often, that does not happen.
And so what ends up happening is we have managers who are ineffective, and
then they have employees who don't perform.
And the employees are the ones who get terminated or fired.
And the manager, the ineffective manager, just keeps being there because no one
is holding the manager accountable to the failed performance of their employees.
Now every manager is going to have an employee who doesn't perform
from time to time, that's normal.
That's just human being stuff.
But if you, and I know you know these people,
there are managers who've been managers for years,
who have had sub par teams for years and the manager keeps being a manager.
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In fact, sometimes they get promoted.
[LAUGH] Which I've never understood.
So let's stop that cycle.
Let's make that agreement.
How about that?
So if you're a director and you have a manager whose team has employees
on it that aren't performing, your job, as the director, is to coach the manager,
not on what will the employee do, but
on how will the manager approach this to solve it?
Okay, so first of all, we have some very clean tools that you, as a director,
can use with a manager.
We can do tactical versus developmental accountability.
What has the manager done?
What does the manager think they can do to move forward?
Is this a tactical issue?
Is this a developmental issue, if it is, let's figure out the plan.
And I would like to see you execute on that moving forward, and
you work with a timeline and a deadline for the manager.
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Are they willing to have the conversation they just don't know how, or are they so
uncomfortable and they dont want to, right?
So then if that's the case, as the director, your job is to teach them to do
skills transfer, to do some role plays to really help them with that practice.
And to help them really think about how they could go about
this conversation in the future.
Very, very important things for you to think about with this manager, as it
relates to how well are they going about the business of coaching their staff.
So do we help managers think about okay, if an employee is late, manager,
this is a tactical issue, right?
How can you go about the conversation with this employee to address the issue?
If it's more developmental how can you go about the conversation with the employee
to accomplish the end.
If this is a skills transfer issue, manager, how will you teach this
employee what they need to learn, and what's the followup plan?
If this is a mindset issue, manager, how will you coach this employee to think
differently about the situation so they get a different result?
Be careful, director,
because you've been a manager and you're going to want to fix the problem.
This is where we get into trouble with our managers, is we start to tell them what to
do, just like we did with employees, and it's not effective.
We're not developing the skill of the manager.
So in the construct of director coaching manager,
managers need to know that when they come to you they are going to get coaching.
[LAUGH] Not going to get told what to do, or get all their answers from you, right?
That there is a development process that's happening for them, just as much as there
should be a development process happening for the employees, right?
So in the next video, I want to talk to you about something called,
coach the person in the room.
This is a very important element that relates to coaching managers, so
I'm excited to share it with you.
So, in summary, manager's performance is indicated by employee performance.
If I manage managers, one of the key elements I have to hold those managers
accountable to is the performance of each individual on their team.
We need to hold managers accountable for their coaching activity and behavior.
Do they have a consistent practice in place as well?
Are we using coaching algebra to diagnose manager performance?
And lastly, do we have a developmental process in place for managers?
We want to really think about the fact that managers have such a greater impact
on your team than one individual employee.
And so, are you thoughtful about how you're really investing in this management
team to get the results that you're looking for for the organization overall?
Kris PlachyCEO and Founder & Instructor, Leadership Coach, LLC &
