Coaching for under-performance? Manage it!

Leading people can be both the most rewarding and the most exhausting part of leadership. Being able to recognize when and which leadership skills to leverage can make all the difference!?

In my experience, coaching high performers and performance managing direct reports who are not meeting expectations are two distinct approaches that require different skill sets and approaches.

Let’s start with?coaching?high performers.

Coaching high performers is about providing support and guidance to individuals who are already excelling in their roles. These individuals are often self-motivated and driven, always looking for ways to improve their performance.?

Coaching high performers involves challenging them to take on new responsibilities and helping them set goals and develop plans to achieve them. It is critical to provide regular feedback, acknowledgement, and support to help them realize their potential.

These are the skills you might need to leverage when you realize you are coaching a high-performer:

• Coaching Skills: Strong coaching skills allow you to actively listen to your high performer and ask powerful questions to encourage reflection and processing toward their own solutions.?
• Emotional Intelligence: Being attuned to the unique emotional needs of your high performers to individualize your approach to align with individual values, dispositions, and motivators.
• Strategic Thinking: Being able to think strategically to provide your high performers with challenging goals, delegate intentionally for development, and provide opportunities to develop emerging skills.
• Mentoring Skills: Being able to mentor your high performers, find sponsors, and provide guidance on how to navigate the organization to advance their career goals.
• Flexibility: Being flexible and creative in your approach to adapt to the unique needs of each individual and provide the intentional support and resources they need to succeed.

What's different about?managing?performance?

Performance management, by contrast,?involves setting expectations, providing direct, candid feedback, and holding direct reports accountable for meeting expectations.?

When a direct report is not meeting expectations or underperforming, coaching is not enough to support them. Something is getting in the way of their performance and you need to get to the bottom of what that is.?

The first step is to determine if the root cause is a won’t or a can’t. Is your report frustrated, bored, overwhelmed, or just disengaged? Asking open-ended questions can be helpful in this case, but letting the report know that you are concerned and what is at stake here is the first and most important step.?

After that, it is essential to identify the root cause of the performance issue and develop a plan to address it. This may involve setting new goals, providing additional training or resources, or initiating a disciplinary process if necessary.

Besides being prepared to be comfortable making someone else uncomfortable, these are some of the skills you might leverage in this conversation:

• Empathy: Leaders must be empathetic when performance managing direct reports who are not meeting expectations. They seek to understand the reasons behind the poor performance and provide support and resources to help the direct report improve.
• Directness: Leaders must be direct when performance managing direct reports who are not meeting expectations. They must clearly communicate expectations and the risks or consequences of not meeting them.
• Active Listening Skills: Leaders must actively listen to their direct reports to identify the root cause of the performance issue and develop an appropriate plan to address it.
• Accountability: Leaders must hold their direct reports accountable for meeting expectations. They should provide regular feedback and follow up to ensure progress is being made.
• Conflict Resolution: Leaders must be able to manage conflicts that arise during the performance management process. They must be able to de-escalate tense situations and find solutions that work for everyone involved.

When you realize you're coaching a high-performing individual or managing an underperforming direct report, it's essential to have the right skills to navigate these different situations effectively.

If you’re finding yourself exhausted by people leadership, it might be time to re-energize yourself as a leader. Perhaps it's time to invest in yourself to leverage the skills you need to thrive!