The New Manager’s Starting 5 Lesson 4: Coach – Counsel – Cut

The New Manager’s Starting 5 Lesson 4: Coach – Counsel – Cut

Management can be the most rewarding and enjoyable profession. Yet at the same time, it can be frustrating and downright gut-wrenching…and that’s just the people side of things.
The first three lessons of this series were designed to lay a platform for what is ultimately your primary role, to help the team improve individually and collectively.

Lesson 1: It’s about results!
Lesson 2: It’s not about you!
Lesson 3: Set Expectations Up Front

Next as a Manager, it is important to develop your ability to Coach, Counsel and, unfortunately, sometimes Cut people. The 3C’s are huge topics on their own – each worthy of its own book. However, here are some simple guidelines to get you started:

Coach

You should always be searching for improvement with your team – and to achieve this keep two coaching principles in mind.

1. Process

Whether it is for the team collectively or an individual, you need to establish a consistent and straightforward Coaching process.

    a) Identify a specific area or topic of focus.
    b) Be clear about the improvement required and apply a measure to it.
    c) Get the individual’s feedback on how they think they might improve. Then give your guidance.
    d) Confirm a specific follow up time to review the area concerned.

Before you finish, confirm understanding by asking the individual to summarize the key points of the discussion.

2.  The Challenge Zone

The question for the manager/coach is how to challenge your people without breaking their spirit. If you set the bar too high they will lose confidence. Set it too low and they just don’t improve. This DOES NOT mean you shouldn’t set BIG GOALS. What it means is that you need to break it down, positioning the current challenge so it is just outside their comfort zone. Tommy Hafey, legendary Australian Rules Football coach has a sound approach to meeting big goals and objectives.

“You need to start with small goals for each player and the team, then build up from there. The goal is always to bring out their best, and to improve on the past.”

Counsel

Despite your best efforts there will be underperformers.  In this context let’s just look at how to approach the underperformer when coaching has not worked.

1.    Your Intent

It is rare, extremely rare, that someone intentionally performs poorly, so approach the discussion with the intent of helping, not demoralizing the person concerned.

2.    Be Clear

You need to be crystal clear on three things.

a.    Your expectations of the level of performance or behavior required.
b.    Your assessment and examples of why their current performance doesn’t meet those expectations.
c.     The consequences of not meeting those standards.

3.    Understand Why?

Once you have these on the table, try to get to the heart of the issue. Why is the performance as it is? Ask their opinion, give yours, but be thorough. Ask as many questions as you can to peal back the onion until you are satisfied you are at the heart of the issue. Then, as you would when you are coaching, set some simple achievable goals and a very specific timeline for achieving them.   If no improvement is seen – it will likely require a reassessment of the individuals “fit” for that role…or for the organization.

Cut

Ask anyone who has been in a Leadership position and they will tell you THE most difficult thing to do, is to fire someone. As tough as it is, the biggest mistake a manager can make is to keep someone on the team who is clearly letting the team down and has done so consistently, despite your best effort to arrest the situation. As a manager you need to face a couple of brutal facts. Sometimes people are just not cut out for the job and despite your best efforts you cannot fix the problem. Some folks either just won’t respond to you, do not have the necessary talent for the job, or are just simply un-coachable. Your primary responsibility is to the team. If you allow a situation to develop that damages team performance and you don’t do anything about it, you are not doing your job. BUT if you have to cut somebody you must do it with all the dignity, professionalism and compassion you can muster. Whether you like the person or not, even if they have caused you great pain, they have their own demons, and like everyone else they want to be accepted. Being fired is a pretty big rejection.

A Final Point:

In our experience managers, sometimes without knowing it, become consumed by an under-performing team member. They will devote endless hours of time, effort and emotion with just that one person.
Without knowing it they are ignoring the needs of those in the team that are performing well. They too need your attention and engagement, don’t get so consumed with the problem child that the others start to doubt your interest in them. Coach everyone regardless of his or her performance level. Even the best performer deserves your attention.