Leadership Lessons: Coaching During Tough Times

With an increasingly diverse workforce, economically tough times, competitive demands and greater pressures of doing more with less, leaders are becoming stressed out, and in some cases they are mixed up about how to cope in the current climate.

In these times, employees at all levels need more communication and honest feedback through coaching. In some cases, employees are not even aware that their productivity has tapered off, and managers may wonder whether they are coachable. Right now, your leadership may be one of the most important elements of management, as well as for the culture of your organization.

With the current economic business environment predicted to last well into 2009, the idea that coaching is needed rests on a long-term commitment to employees. Team leaders should be keen to help their team members perform their best by motivating them, encouraging them, listening to them, shaping their values, challenging them, facilitating their needs and inspiring excellence.

A recent Northeast Human Resources Association survey indicated that more than 70 percent of human resources professionals in the Northeast believe that their employees are overloaded and distracted at work. And those distractions lead to loss of productivity.

Key Priorities

A survey of 514 employed U.S. workers in October 2008 shows that employees are witnessing how the current economic climate is impacting the companies where they work. Twenty-six percent of respondents said they believed that layoffs would occur, and 62 percent said their companies would have trouble meeting goals. This reiterates the fact that many companies may have declining engagement of employees, and this is forcing employees to wonder whether they will be able to meet their personal and professional goals.

"The focus of [managing talent] in the past has been on rehabilitating poor performers," said Laura Lea Clinton, GPHR, director of HR management for CARE USA. "The trend will reverse to a focus on the continued engagement and retention of top performers."

The Society of Human Resource Management's (SHRM) December 2008 report, "Key Priorities for the HR Profession Through 2015," states that coaching is a training method organizations can use to retain the knowledge of more experienced or skilled workers so younger employees can benefit from their knowledge and experience. This is key during these economic hard times.

Can You Relate?

It is 5 a.m. and Sheila is up at the crack of dawn waking her kids and sending them off to school. Sheila hurries to get herself ready and out the door for the morning commute. On the way to work, she receives a call from her boss informing her that an 8 a.m. emergency meeting has been called. She slides in the door with just enough time to make take the elevator and grab a stiff cup of coffee.

Sheila manages a team of account representatives. In the emergency meeting, she learns that the company's biggest client has laid off 400 workers. With the client cutting back, Sheila's boss says she'll have to reduce her staff by moving two people to another team. Meanwhile, Sheila has 10 other accounts, with major work coming due on projects over the next two weeks. Facing a disgruntled and deflated team, she wonders if she can step up to the plate and coach them through the change.

Already beaten down from her own company's downsizing the previous month, Sheila wonders whether she's still considered a good performer. She's not confident that she's up for the challenge of restructuring her staff and workload.

Moreover, she's not getting a warm and fuzzy feeling from her boss, whose last words were, "We've got to do what we have to do to stay afloat ourselves. If you want to keep working, just do it." Sheila isn't sure what the priorities are anymore. All she is thinking about is the extra hours she'll be working. Sheila is stressed out and in danger of shutting down.

The Value of Coaching

Research suggests that the main causes of stress in Americans' lives are juggling work and their personal lives, lack of job security, people issues, and workload. Generation Y and Baby Boomers alike take unplanned days off from work as a way to deal with stress, which increases over time.

The value of coaching can be measured in the overall improved performance of individuals and teams. Coaching helps people through transitions, clarifies priorities, boosts team members' morale and helps positively shape attitudes. A team leader who cares enough about his or her team members to help and train them will gain their trust, cooperation and confidence.

Coaching helps employees move beyond their limitations. They grow with their own sense of satisfaction as a vital part of the team and the organization, and they are optimistic about their future in the organization. Isn't that what you want --- positive, enthusiastic employees serving the customer?

Coaching is a valuable way to build teamwork through communication, shared goals and collaboration. It also keeps the team focused on running the business and serving customers.

With Vital Learning's Coaching Job Skills program, your managers and team leaders will learn the coaching process that is so often neglected. They will learn how to identify coachable performance problems early, before problems become out of hand. They will also learn to communicate in coaching terms that improve employee performance and productivity. For general supervisory leadership skills, we continue to offer you the award-winning series by Vital Learning. Available in Classroom, Online, or Blended delivery options, the Vital Learning curriculum includes the following essential topics.

• Delegating - understanding when to use delegation and how to make it motivating
• Complaints - being able to effectively manage complaints
  
• Coaching - knowing how to productively coach job skills
  
• Project Management - being able to run projects, both on-time and on-budget
  
• Conflict - understanding how to successfully resolve conflict
  
• Hiring Winning Talent- knowing what to do to consistently hire the right talent
  
• Providing Feedback - understanding how to establish performance goals and standards and give feedback
  
• And more...