Coaching Performance
It is not a failure of leadership for you to need to be addressing performance with those you lead, it simply isn’t possible that everyone you lead is performing at an optimal level in every area of their responsibility.
There are three stages to coaching performance.
Before: Foundational
The supervisor must continually be reminded that all people want to be the best version of themselves even if they don’t respond that way.
Continually establishing:
Growth Mindset.
We are continually normalizing growth and learning for everyone all the time. “Being transformed into His image with ever increasing glory.”
Modeled by those in leadership
We are with you and for you.
We care deeply about YOU and not just your performance.
Part of our responsibility is performance.
During: Helpful Language
Establishing the need for growth in a particular area:
Start with 1 of;
We are united in our desire for________
I know you want _______and I do too.
We are both hoping for and working toward______
Then choose 1 of :
We are not yet there so…
The progress we are hoping for hasn’t yet been displayed...
We are not making progress we all desire to see at this point….
Diagnosing
“Anytime we are not getting the results we are looking for the reason likely falls into one or both of;
not investing our time and efforts in the right things
investing in the right things but not yet being as effective as needed while investing in that time.
The good news is that both of these can be learned and I am planning on spending concentrated time both diagnosing with you what adjustments are needed in these areas and helping you to become more effective.
The easier one to diagnose is looking at our calendars to determine whether you are investing in the right things that would lead to results in this area. So let’s start with that…”
After: Follow Up
Following any “hard” or performance related conversation ask the person to follow up with an email to you 3 or 4 days from now asking;
“I would love for you to send me your reflections from our meeting and how you plan to behave and think differently as a result of our time together by XXXX.. This does not need to be long or well written.”
This helps to:
Ensure their engagement
Give people who aren't great at processing in the moment a chance to process and respond
See if I communicated clearly what I think I communicated
Example Scenario
“For the last few times we have been together you have both mentioned feeling stuck in fundraising, which I totally understand. I know we would all love to be in a spot where you don’t have to spend your time and maybe more importantly so much emotional energy on financial health. I know that is not what you got into this for-- but I also trust that we are on the same page that this is a part of how God grows us spiritually. We would all love to have our whole existing budget raised in monthly giving so we can start dreaming about adding to our team.”
“I have no doubt about your commitment to that and your willingness to do what is needed, but despite these efforts we have not been making progress toward that. Generally when we are not getting the results we are desiring, in anything, we are either not doing the right things or aren’t as effective as we need to be when we are doing it. (Can insert non work examples here… i.e. physical fitness ). I want to be as helpful as I can be in these efforts without actually doing the work myself. In order to do that I am going to get a closer look at both of these categories- what you are doing and how you are doing it. This will be a temporary season of more intense coaching in this particular area so that you can hopefully move closer to that shared goal of reaching our budget in monthly giving-- and giving you the freedom to add to the team and spend your best energy on kids and leaders.”
“Does this make sense? Do you agree with that premise? How do you feel about this plan?”
….
“Here is what I am thinking; each week let’s touch base at the beginning of the week on what you will do toward increased financial health. We will then choose 2-3 of those things each week that we will coach on before hand and review after. “