Assignment
The Situation
You took over as manager of your team approximately 6 months ago. For the first 3 months, one of your employees, Chase, exhibited great engagement and motivation. For example, they would often volunteer suggestions for improving processes, initiate team get-togethers and celebrations, and consistently greet you and team members warmly and with a smile.
Over the last 2 months, however, you have noticed a change. Chase is now completing their assigned tasks competently (though they have missed a couple of deadlines) but has ceased to participate in team brainstorming sessions or generate new ideas for improving team processes. They have been self-isolating lately and have even asked to be excused from opportunities outside of work hours to socialize with the team-something for which they previously showed great enthusiasm. You have asked them several times if something is bothering them, but each time, they stated that things were fine and ended the conversation as soon as possible. You are concerned that if these warning signs are not attended to, Chase's performance may slip further.
You have asked Chase to meet with you today to discuss your observations and concerns. To prepare for this conversation, your senior leader has asked you to analyse and submit and use the Coaching Conversation Checklist to ensure your conversation is productive. The checklist will guide you through the steps to a successful conversation and will provide space for you to write out key statements (such as the purpose of the conversation) or specific questions you want to be prepared to ask during your meeting.
You have also taken the step of consulting HR to ensure you are fully prepared for the conversation. They reminded you that the company has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) available to all employees at no cost to them. The EAP is a workplace benefit that confidentially provides a range of services to employees to assist with personal problems that may be impacting work performance. Issues they can help with include substance abuse, social service referrals, and short-term counseling, to name a few. HR provided you with contact information and materials you can share with Chase if it seems appropriate. You are also prepared to make appropriate adjustments to Chase's work schedule and workload if it will be helpful, such as providing a more flexible work schedule, making arrangements for Chase's workload to be covered so they can use some accumulated paid time off (PTO), or making some adjustments to Chase's current workload and deadlines. While you are prepared to work with Chase using any of these resources that seem appropriate, you do not want to pry unnecessarily into their personal affairs. You also want to make clear that the primary purpose of the conversation is to discuss performance-related observations and concerns and come away with a clear plan for performance improvement and monitoring. Specifically, you want to ensure there are no more missed deadlines (indicating work progress will need to be tracked and monitored before the deadlines occur) and that Chase both attends and actively participates in team brainstorming and process improvement sessions.
Task
1) Frame the content and process for the coaching conversation and set a tone of mutual exploration and problem solving.
2) Welcome Chase warmly and thank them for meeting with you today.
3) State the purpose of the conversation in one sentence, followed by your suggestion for how the conversation will proceed and a clear statement of the desired outcome (Remember that you want to provide appropriate support for any issues Chase may be facing, but your primary goal is to ensure their performance does not continue to deteriorate.:
4) Get Chase's agreement to proceed as outlined, or else agree with specific changes to the process:
Understand the Current Situation
1) Open the discussion by sharing one or two specific behavioral observations of the shift in behavior that you have noticed. Attend carefully to tone of voice as well as wording to ensure your observations are clear, behavioral, and non-judgmental:
2) State your concern and/or interpretation of the behavior change and ask for more information, using an open-ended question:
3) Be prepared with at least three additional, open-ended questions to elicit more information:
Explore Desired Outcomes:
1) Ask what strategies or resources have been considered
2) Clarify what's important to the coachee, while being clear about success factors that must be met on your end:
3) Clarify what's important to the coachee, while being clear about success factors that must be met on your end: