Coaching on the Squishy Stuff
Employees are hired for their technical expertise, but whether they succeed or fail has a lot to do with the squishy stuff: interpersonal skills, ability to establish credibility, ability to win support for ideas without resorting to power plays, ability to foster strong relationships with colleagues, ability to motivate staff.
The squishy stuff is critical to any employee's success and yet managers frequently delay addressing performance problems that are squishy--because, well, they're squishy. Hard to define, hard to address, hard to solve for.
When I had a staff of 65, I never had difficulty addressing performance problems with my staff when the issue was cut and dry: missing a deadline, work quality where hard metrics were involved, attendance or punctuality issues that had a negative impact. The squishy stuff was always harder.
Here are some tips for addressing the squishier issues that create business problems in the workplace.
- Thoughtfully name the issue and describe the impact.
- Recognize that you don't have to be able to solve the problem for the employee. Your job as the manager is to...
- Bring the issue to the employee's attention and shift the responsibility for improvement onto their shoulders.
- Focus on the required change, the required outcome.
Thoughtfully name the issue and describe the impact
Put some effort into defining the issue. Squishy issues require more thinking to define well It's also important that you speak to the impact. Here are some examples:
|
Issue |
Impact |
|
1. Poor relationship building skills demonstrated by the use of unfriendly or unhelpful language, making demands of co-workers rather than requests, lack of flexibility or belief that his way is the only right way |
Decreases collaboration, creates unnecessary tension, distracts co-workers from the job at hand, decreases productivity, may require intervention from manager. |
|
2. Lack of professional maturity as demonstrated by occasionally focusing more on socializing than work, inappropriate conversations or disruptive behavior. |
Distracts co-workers form the job at hand, decreases productivity, damages one’s own personal reputation, inappropriate conversations may expose the company to liability. |
|
3. Consistently puts individual results ahead of team results as demonstrated by unwillingness to support team members, speaks frequently about her own accomplishments, does not point out others’ successes. |
Decreases collaboration, creates feelings of distrust among co-workers, does not promote followership among co-workers. |
Recognize that you don't have to be able to solve the employee's problem for them
Anger management? Credibility with senior staff? Poor relationship building skills? How can you solve for that for another person. While it's great if you can offer the employee some possible solutions: an in-house training workshop, free counseling through the EAP, it's not your job to have a solution as much as it is your job to point out the gaps between actual and expected performance, make it clear that the gap needs to be closed, and shift that responsibility onto the shoulder's of the employee in question.
Shift the responsibility for improvement onto your staff member's shoulders by focusing on the required change or outcomes
Here are some examples of how you can focus on the desired change:
|
Issue |
Desired Change |
|
Poor relationship building skills demonstrated by the use of unfriendly or unhelpful language, making demands of co-workers rather than requests, lack of flexibility or belief that his way is the only right way |
I need to see you building stronger relationships with peers. Success will be measured by my observations of your interactions with peers and a decrease in the number of unresolved conflicts involving you that are brought to my attention. |
|
Lack of professional maturity as demonstrated by occasionally focusing more on socializing than work, inappropriate conversations or disruptive behavior. |
I need to see you showing a better balance of socializing and focus on work and better judgment concerning what’s appropriate in the workplace. |
|
Consistently puts individual results ahead of team results as demonstrated by unwillingness to support team members, speaks frequently about her own accomplishments, does not point out others’ successes. |
I need to see you putting team results ahead of your individual success. Success will be measured by my observations of your interactions with peers, a decrease in the amount of self-promotion that you do, and an increase in the times you sincerely point out the contributions of others. |
In conclusion, while managers frequently shy away from addressing the squishier issues, they can be as important, and sometimes more important, than those performance issues that can be described using hard data. It's important for managers to demonstrate the necessary managerial courage and take the time to think through how to present these issues. The sooner you can shift the responsibility for improvement onto the appropriate shoulders--your staff member's--the better for you, for that staff member, for the team, and for the organization as a whole.
