[MUSIC] Hello, and welcome back. For the final lesson segment in this module, we're going to go over some common issues that can happen when we are coaching managers. Specifically, we're going to go over something I call coach the person in the room. By the end of this video, you'll have some practical strategies to employ with those managers that report to you. In this video, I want to talk with you about some of the common issues that happen when we are coaching managers, and specifically about something called coaching the person in the room. So in the last video, I was talking about that when an employee has a performance issue, managers are responsible for resolving the performance issue. And so if you're managing that manager, your job is to hold the manager accountable to resolving it, not holding the employee accountable to their improved performance. When we do that, we skip a whole level in the organization. And in some organizations, we actually call that skip leveling, okay? And so as the director, despite even though the fact that you know you could fix it, you have to let the manager be the one who resolves the issue. Otherwise, we completely remove the manager's credibility and ability to handle the situation. So one of the common things that happens when we're coaching managers is we, as directors, can get overly involved in the issue, and we can start to tell the manager specifically what to do, again, without coaching them. And that is not developing the coaching skill of the manager. We can also do something that I call, not coaching the person in the room. So I want you to imagine it's you and me in a room together. You're my director, and I'm the manager. We start talking about an employee who's not performing. As my director, you start asking me, well why aren't they performing? And I say, well, I don't know. And then you say, well what do you think the problem is? And as the manager, I say, I'm not really sure. I've tried all these things. And then as the director, you say, well do you think something's going on that's affecting them, and I say, gosh, I don't really know. I've tried talking to them but they haven't really said anything. And then you as the director say, well I think that maybe the reason they're not be performing is this. And as the manager, I say, yeah, I think the reason they're not performing is because of this. And so here we are, two people sitting in a room talking about this employee who's not there, and making all sorts of assumptions about why we don't think they're performing. [LAUGH] And here's what's not happening. We're not helping the employee by doing that, I can promise you that. [LAUGH] Nothing good comes from that. So when I say coach the person in the room, what I mean by that is, if I am a director and I have a manager whose employee's not performing, I need to coach the manager, not the employee. So, manager, you have an employee who is consistently late to work. What are you doing about it? Well I've talked to them and they've said that they're going to try to get to work on time, but they keep being late. Okay, what's your next step? I'm not really sure. Okay, what help do you need from me? Well, I think I need to escalate the conversation, but I don't know how to do that. Okay, let's roll play it. Awesome! So we roll played the conversation, and then as the director I'm going to say, okay manager, I'm going to hold you accountable to having that conversation by end of next week. Is that agreeable to you? Yes. What concern do you have about having this conversation? Well I'm worried that they might get defensive. Okay, well let's talk about that and let's role play how that might go. Okay? What other concerns do you have? Well I'm not really sure about the paper work I need to do. Okay, here are the steps you need to follow, contact this person in HR. So what I hope you're hearing in this sort of dialog outside of my head that I'm sharing with you is that I'm not talking about the employee and what's going to happen to the employee. What I'm talking about is what this manager needs to do. That's my responsibility as this manager's manager, is to hold them accountable and to coach them, okay? And that is probably the most common pitfall that directors or higher level managers get into when they're coaching managers. They forget that managers need development and coaching as well. Managers need to be held to expectations on what they're going to do with their staff. We can't just hold staff accountable by leapfrogging over the manager, right? So all of the tools that we've talked about as it relates to coaching, your practice, and your process, and the people, right? So do you have all the process stuff dialed in? Have you established mission and purpose, have you established vision, expectations, key performance indicators, one-on-one goals? Using coaching algebra to diagnose performance? Have we put all of that into practice? If the answer is yes to that, then we have to make sure that we have a one-on-one structure. If I manage managers, am I meeting with my managers once every 30 days? If so, do I have a set agenda for those managers? When I meet with those managers, am I talking to them about what they will be doing related to the performance issues on their team? Am I diagnosing the manager's skillset and mindset? Are there some things I need to develop in this manager and other things I just need to tactically hold them accountable to? All of it applies. So don't let the fact that we're skip leveling, right, we're coaching people who manage people, don't let that confuse the issue. because it's not any different. We still coach them, we still hold them accountable, but one of the key elements that we hold managers accountable to is the coaching and development of their team. That's essential if we really want to build a coaching culture. So in summary, we want to remember the common issues when we're managing and coaching managers. First of all is that notion of remembering to coach the person in the room, right? To not try and coach someone who's not there. Not try and fix an employee who's not there. We focus on the person we're actually having the coaching conversation with. And we also want to remember that it's very important to hold managers accountable for coaching, that that is part of their performance as a manager. Another common pitfall, is that we forget sometimes that managers need development and coaching, too. That all of us are on a trajectory to grow and develop, and by being the supportive leader that develops them, we help them do that, which helps maximize performance. And remember that if I'm coaching managers, it's the same thing. We want to have a process and a practice that is aligned with the coaching that we have in place for employees.
