One of the services I frequently provide organizations is a process called “Executive Coaching.” The process consists of me working with, or coaching/counseling, usually a senior person in a company. Most commonly the person coached is perceived by his or her boss as needing to improve in some area of performance. Or, the person has demonstrated difficulty in being effective within the organization.  I typically work with a person for six months, sometimes longer. During this time we meet at least monthly and discuss personal leadership/managerial effectiveness along with other issues that usually surface during the discussions.

I find executive coaching to be a challenge and an incredible training experience, not only for the person I’m coaching, but for me as well. Many techniques and principles I teach in workshops have been learned in coaching sessions.  It’s interesting how the differences in people create such a wide variety of behaviors, feelings and attitudes.  But I guess that’s what makes us human beings and not animals.

I would like to describe two people whom I have coached in recent months. Obviously, I must conceal their identities, but the people and their situations are real. There are leadership principles represented in these cases that are so compelling to me that I welcome this opportunity to share them in this article.

The first person is a store manager of a regional grocery chain. He has been a store manager for over 15 years and from a first impression a person could assume that he is effective.  He has a public persona of charisma and up-tempo happiness.  I’m sure that many customers know who he is and might even believe he is a good manager.  The truth is, however, that his boss is very close to terminating him.  Let me describe why termination is a near possibility, because after we understand why, we can learn from his mistakes.

The district manager and the store employees have a very different opinion of this manager. instead of a charismatic leader, they see a person who procrastinates, doesn’t follow-through on assignments, gets lost in the trees and can’t see the forest, is a poor delegator, and either avoids confrontation at all cost, or is overly dictatorial and sometimes even abusive.

Now remember; this store manager is clearly aware that his continued employment is in serious jeopardy; he has been told by his district manager that if specific issues don’t immediately improve that he could lose his job.  So if you were in this manager’s position, what would you do? How would you behave? What would you do to save your job? Those are questions I think I would ask myself, if I were in that position. Wouldn’t you?

Nonetheless, in a recent coaching session I conducted with the district manager, I watched this store manager say anything he could to please his boss. Rather than taking notes on what he needs to do differently, he spent his time trying to say whatever he could to merely get through the meeting and leave the room. It seemed to me that the prudent thing for him to do would have been to make a list of specific action items that needed to be accomplished in order to improve his job situation; instead, he nodded agreement to everything he heard and did whatever he could to shorten the meeting. Although he had a note pad and pen in front of him, he didn’t use them. When asked for a deadline to complete an assignment, his response was, “I’ll have to get back to you on that.” His nervousness was apparent and lie was obviously uncomfortable with the two of us trying to pin him down on specifics. At one point I observed him rocking back and forth in his chair—a clear indication of profound agitation. After the manager left the room the district manager turned to me and said, “He doesn’t get it. And I didn’t get any impression that anything will be different tomorrow than it was yesterday. I’m locked into a course of action that I don’t want to do.”

Why? Why did the manager behave this way? What could be motivating him to be so self-destructive?  Before I give my interpretation of the answer, let me describe the second person. She has 35 employees and is the manager of an important department in a manufacturing company. With a master’s degree in engineering and almost 27 years of experience, she commands an impressive salary and position in her company.

Her problem is that she behaves like she is seven feet tall and bulletproof! She is openly defiant of her boss’s instructions and on occasion says things that approach insubordination. For example, her boss told her a few months ago that she needed to attend an important planning meeting in Mexico. When she concocted an excuse why she couldn’t attend on a specific date, her boss changed the date of the meeting to be more convenient for her schedule. So out of a dozen people to attend the meeting eleven adjusted their calendars to agree with this woman’s wishes.

Then, believe it or not, a week before the meeting in Mexico this massager announced to her boss, “The Mexico meeting is unnecessary and stupid. I’m not going!” Let me repeat the same questions I asked about my first example: Why? Why did she behave this way? What could be motivating her to be so self-destructive?

After her announcement I had an unfortunate conversation with this second manager’s boss. He said that he is fed up with her lack of cooperation and unprofessional behavior. He concluded by adding, “If you can’t get her back on track, I only have one final option, and she’s not going to like it.”

So why? Why do some people choose to behave in such indescribable ways? What could cause a person with a great job, including future career possibilities, to either fail to act (as in my first example) or openly rebel against all reason (as in my second example)? What do you think? Have you experienced someone similar to either of these managers?

Put yourself in my position for a minute, what would you do if you were coaching either of these managers? How would you approach the situation to effect change? What techniques or tactics might work better than another? Or, what about this question: is either of these managers salvageable? Are they worth saving? Is it best for all parties to merely terminate the person and start over again with a replacement? Think about these answers and in Part No I’ll describe what actually happened.

Read Part 2 >>

Competition, Winning, and Business

Your company probably has its own corporate scoreboard, but do you know where it is? If not, ask around and see if you can find it. Company scoreboards will manifest themselves in how the company shows its stakeholders the business’ earnings. Businesses need to make a profit. Companies that don’t make a profit won’t stick around, so, making a profit is a focal point for all for profit organizations. What about at the individual level? Individual performance is also measured in this way, but rather than a scoreboard, some companies use and individual “score card.” A scorecard shows how and in what ways each individual is accountable for performance that increases the bottom line. Scorecards drive results and have a tremendous impact on the bottom line and help people become more engaged in competing for “wins” at both the personal and organizational level. Asking individual members of the organization to develop a scorecard to visibly show and track performance will inspire better performance across the company and make positive changes in the following ways:

1. Hold people accountable for what they do while at work and how they contribute to the bottom line profits.

2. Help individuals see that they earn a pay check for authentic achievement, not for mindless activity.

3. Help individuals understand how each person contributes in their role to the organization’s overall profitability.

Scorecards will drive bottom-line results and create bottom-line leadership as individual contributors think more deeply about their own unique areas of the business. Keeping score of their successes on a regular basis (daily, weekly, monthly) can help people feel more energetic at work and increase their interest in organizational success over the long term. In your next weekly meeting ask everyone this simple question: Did you win or lose this week? Followed this question with, “What were you responsible for in terms of helping our company grow and be more profitable?” Using scorecards, asking questions, and engaging the entire workforce is powerful stuff, critical to the organization’s performance.

This same drama plays out on a much smaller scale with leaders and their individual team members.  Expectations play a big part of an effective relationship.  The only problem is that all too frequently expectations in the mind of the leader versus expectations in the mind of the follower are unclear, confusing, and ambiguous.  Yet, everyone wants to know what is expected of them.  We want to be clear about our obligations and duties.  We want to be able to anticipate the outcomes and requirements necessary to be a good performer and add value to an organization.

Expectations bind us together; they are the fabric that forms a relationship.  Expectations play a key role in building trust and confidence as we anticipate the probability of someone executing necessary duties.  When trust is high, we value and leverage our relationships more.  When expectations are not achieved our trust bank account is depleted.

Expectations are a key driver in the motivation and engagement levels of people.  When people understand expectations and buy in to them, they work harder to fulfill those expectations just like a company does in the financial market.  People want to know what is expected of them so they are then able to make decisions about the intensity and discretionary performance they are willing to give towards a task or job.  When coaches create a two-way agreement with their team members about expectations, they set the stage for the extraordinary performance necessary in a highly competitive world

CMOE is an advocate of a simple process that we call “the alignment meeting” as a tool to define and clarify expectations.  The alignment meeting or discussion should occur periodically with any team to maintain a clear picture of everyone’s expectations.  These alignment meetings only take one or two hours with a typical team.  They should occur more often for teams that are in a state of change or are in conflict, and less often for stable and harmonious teams.  Every time CMOE associates have facilitated an alignment meeting, the topic of feedback coaching and mentoring always surfaces.  People have a thirst to know how they are doing, where they stand, and where they are going.  They don’t want to be a non-performing asset in the enterprises portfolio of resources.  Most people want to be productive contributors, but in order to do that, they need information, feedback, and guidance from a coach.  This dynamic creates a “perfect storm” for the leader.  If the leader is able to capitalize on the need people have for feedback on their performance, and solidify an “expectation’s agreement,” the leader will then be in a position where people seek out and expect coaching and feedback.  This creates a legitimate reason to coach people on key factors that will drive performance for the team and the individual.  Coaching then becomes one of the central expectations of the team’s culture.  When a leader needs to courageously engage anyone on the team about an important topic or situation, they have an expectation platform or a “license” to operate from.  The leader has an understanding that it is their duty and obligation to share information, direction, and feedback.  It becomes the normal thing to do; no one feels singled out or targeted.  In turn, when feedback is lacking, people on the team are more likely to ask for it and hold the leader more accountable to perform coaching tasks.

The license to coach makes it easier to give and receive coaching.  It becomes a natural process.  Everyone buys into it because everyone understands that to run a business, you need to be able to talk to people about their performance.  When leaders create a license to coach by bringing sound skills to the process, people will excel and even exceed your wildest expectations.