Coaching Your Direct Reports
Tony Cody, Technology Management Director at Banner Health, shares tips on how to communicate and coach your direct reports.
Tue Jun 04 2019
One of the hardest things for any leader to do is to have a difficult conversation that leads to a formal correction of their employee. If this isn’t hard on the leader, then he is probably in the wrong position. It is the leader’s job to always put the need of the patients, facility and the team first. If you approach these situations with the right attitude and right mindset then you can help bring up the performance of the individual and the team as a whole.
I refer to this as coaching and not managing. In the HTM career field, we have educated, intelligent and skilled individuals. Coaching them up is an effective means to improve performance and increase engagement.
- Be direct and professional – set the tone.
- Be understanding – a performance improvement discussion can be stressful. It is very important to remain calm and not reactive.
- Build them up - design a "performance improvement plan" that helps them address the short coming. Do not make it punitive!
- Be encouraging and optimistic – encourage them to embrace the "performance improvement plan."
- Follow up – set regular 1-on-1 follow ups to communicate their progress.
Being coached properly made a huge impact on my career. I had someone give me a second chance and set me on a path to be successful. My advice is to always give them the support and tools to succeed, but remember it is the individual’s decision to either embrace or reject. If they embrace the plan and improve as a technician, then everyone wins. If they choose to reject the plan and it leads to termination, although tragic, it is their choice. If you are a good leader you will beat yourself up and second guess your decisions. Try to remember to cut yourself some slack as well.