Coach For Engagement, Productivity and Satisfaction

"Doing performance coaching right means 42% higher productivity."

(Bersin report: High-Impact Performance Management: Using Goals to Focus the 21st-Century Workforce)

The jury is not still out, the key to the care and feeding of great employees is coaching them clearly, positively and often.

In fact, based on a recent survey, the Zenger Folkman group (authors of the Exceptional Leadership book) noted that employees had a preference for receiving corrective feedback 3 times the level of their preference for receiving positive feedback!

Are you avoiding that corrective feedback? You are actually doing more harm ignoring your staff than just being honest and coaching them where they need it.

Some Zenger Folkman statistics- based on the best and worst leaders (as givers of feedback):

Engagement measure	Worst leaders (Little feedback) (10th percentile)	Top leaders (Weekly coaching conversations) (90th percentile)
Intent to quit	42%	15%
Perceived opportunities	33%	70%
Feel fairly treated	28%	73%

If you avoid giving feedback (corrective or positive) then this has a dramatic negative impact on the performance of your team.

10-15 minute Weekly Coaching Conversations are powerful as you can see by the study above. These informal conversations build trust and improve communications immensely. How many times have employees come into your office and quit and you had no clue?

I've had clients who started these one on one conversation and told me they were taken aback by what they learned. How things they thought had been communicated in group huddles were totally misunderstood. One on one the employee feels more comfortable asking questions and real understanding is the result.

Ask them what they failed at the week before and what they learned. Ask what their big win was. Ask what they are focused on next week. Ask what their goals are. And most importantly how can you help them achieve them. Discuss specific things they could be working on to reach their goals, improve their performance, etc. Things you saw last week they did well.

These sessions with your direct reports can be the most valuable 10-15 minutes you spend each week.