I was working with a group of leaders in our year-long Coach Approach to Leadership program. They were working diligently to adopt the COACH APPROACH MINDSET.
They were in the habit of doing the following:
***Hire someone for a new role
***Get them trained and ready to do their job
***Let them “have at it” until review time
Can you guess what might be wrong with this picture?
If you said #3, you’re exactly right!
As we were working with them, they began to understand how important it is to build REGULAR RELATIONAL and RESULTS FOCUSED TOUCHPOINTS and CHECK-INS!
And how important it is NOT to wait for 6 months or a year to have these conversations.
Many employees coming into the organization may have industry knowledge, but that doesn’t mean they don’t need regular support and touchpoints to feel integrated, engaged, understood, and supported in their work and as part of the team.
This company had one employee, in particular, going through the review process. The previous review hadn’t gone really well.
As a result of the Coach Approach to Leadership program, the manager of this employee decided to schedule a check-in meeting before the 90-day review.
AS A RESULT: this employee expressed some challenges they were facing, and the manager was able to address the challenges BEFORE the 90-day review. The employee had been at risk of quitting (and the manager was not aware of it).
Because of this conversation, this high-potential employee (one that the company did NOT want to lose) did not leave the company. He was ‘saved’ from being a turnover statistic because the leader took the extra time to practice being a coach leader.
We recommend that COACH LEADERS in organizations make it a regular BUSINESS PRACTICE to have at least a monthly one-on-one with their direct reports. Bi-weekly or weekly conversations are even better.
It’s important to see this activity as not just an HR practice that happens once a year in a review, but an important and on-going BUSINESS PRACTICE that will improve bottom-line results, for the following reasons:
- Employees will have what they need SOONER to do their job BETTER.
- Mistakes and miscommunications will be corrected BEFORE they build and cost the company time, energy, or relational capital.
- Employees will be more engaged and loyal to the company over time, ELIMINATING expensive and culture-damaging TURNOVER.
If you’re interested in learning COACH LEADER best practices like this one, click the link in the comments to set up a call with me. I’d love to work with you and your leaders!
#leadership #leadershipeffectiveness #leaders #leadbyexample #coaching #employeeengagement #growth #results#emotionalintelligence #leadershipdevelopment
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