Reference no: EM132308260

CRITIQUING A COACHING MEETING:

The following exchange took place between Charlene Rowe, human resources manager, and one of her senior team members, Leonard Busche.

Rowe 1: Come in, Leonard, have a seat. [Leonard sits down.] I suppose you’re wondering why I wanted us to get together. Busche 1: Yes, I guess I am, Charlene. Rowe 2: Leonard, yesterday something happened that I want to know your feelings about. It’s about the quality steering report I asked you to put together for my committee meeting yesterday afternoon. Busche 2: [Somewhat defensively] What about it? Rowe 3: To be quite frank, Leonard, I was too embar- rassed to distribute it at the meeting. It just wasn’t up to your usual standards. For one thing, it seemed superficial in that it described only a few of the pro- grams we’d benchmarked, rather than all seven. Since this will be the major document the committee will use as a reference, we needed coverage of all the visits we’ve made. Also, some of the most important processes were not included—like J&J’s 360-degree feedback system and Motorola’s team incentives. Busche 3: [only half joking] Gee, it seems as if I may need a union steward in here with me. [Leonard is a salaried, nonunion employee.] Rowe 4: No, Leonard, I don’t mean to give that impres- sion. It’s just that this job isn’t like you at all, and that concerned me. You’ve always done exceptional work in putting together material like this for me. For all I know, it might have been my own fault, a misunderstanding between us. I wanted to meet and get your perspective on the situation. Busche 4: Well, there isn’t much to say. I guess I should have figured it wouldn’t be of much help. [Getting a little emotional] I wasn’t tickled about it either. Rowe 5: You weren’t pleased with it yourself? Busche 5: No, I wasn’t. Charlene, that report would have taken about 8 to 10 hours for me to do it up right. Do you know how long I had? About four hours, that’s all. I couldn’t do much in four hours. Rowe 6: So you didn’t get to put in the time on the report Busche 6: No, I didn’t. In fact, you weren’t the only one embarrassed by it. But I can’t promise it’ll be the last lousy job.... I just can’t handle everything that comes my way. I know we’re a service department [human resources], but we’re not the little outfit we were five years ago. I just can’t keep up. Rowe 7: It sounds as if the quality report is only part of the problem. Busche 7: That’s exactly what I’m saying. I’m expected to do everybody’s odds and ends besides my regular job in training and safety. I’ve got the two accidents we’re investigating from two weeks ago and all that paperwork. We’re approaching our deadlines on the new training manuals. I’m heading up the newsletter committee that puts out our first edition next month. Then, you gave me the quality report with one week’s notice. I would have gotten it done, but last week Bushman [vice president and general man- ager] asked me to be his facilitator. I had to put in some eight hours observing his meetings with the budget committee. So the quality report was lousy, I know. But if things continue as they are, it won’t be the last. I hate it more than you do. Rowe 8: Leonard, you know how we’ve all come to expect so much from you. Granted, we are a service department, but in retrospect, I wish you’d confided in me about this. I could have simply pushed back my quality committee meeting, which is what I essentially did, anyway. What can we do to help you? Busche 8: How can we help? [Flippant] Oh, give me an assistant. Rowe 9: Is additional help the answer? Busche 9: I don’t know the answer to that. I think what’s really got me upset is Bushman. He didn’t ask me to facilitate, he told me to. I should have turned him down, but I guess I haven’t got the guts to say “no” to a vice president. But then, I didn’t want to let you down, either. Rowe 10: I think it’s terrific that Bushman values your abilities. Politically, it’s in both of our interests for you to act as Bushman’s facilitator. That is, if you want to do it. Busche 10: Oh, I don’t mind facilitating for Bushman. He needs a lot of help and he knows it. It would normally be a real compliment for me; it was just the timing that was bad. Rowe 11: Leonard, you have a lot of things going on that I didn’t know about. Maybe I’m the one who has to do some changing. I can see why, given your schedule the past two weeks, taking on that quality project was too much. It wasn’t fair to you. Leonard, I need to feel confident that your work for me from now on will be what I can count on. What can we do to prevent this from happening again? Busche 11: I could probably do a better job of letting you know what I’ve got going on. I could also be more honest with you. I just hate saying I can’t do something, especially to my boss. You probably didn’t know the newsletter was eating up my time last week, as were the safety problems. I guess I could keep you more up to date. I could also be more direct and tell you if I honestly don’t have the time to take something on and do a good job. But it’s hard for me to say no. Rowe 12: Okay, let’s give this a try. You’ll give me a brief typed report on projects other than your nor- mal training and safety activities. If you’re skeptical about a commitment request from outside the department, you’ll discuss it with me before taking it on. You’re also agreeing to level with me about whether you have time to commit to special projects that I throw your way. We’ll try this process for a month and see what happens. Is that acceptable? Busche 12: Yep, that sounds acceptable. Hopefully, I’ll not get caught up in a bind like this again.

Exhibit 11-4 Suggestions for Confronting Poor Performance

1. Describe the performance situation in specific detail.

2. Seek and listen to the team member’s point of view.

3. Get agreement on the problem.

4. Try to get the employee’s involvement in determining a solution.

5. Agree on a plan of action to improve performance.

6. Summarize the agreement and reinforce the changed behavior.

7. Plan for follow-up, if needed

Questions

1. What type of coaching function was reflected in Rowe’s meeting with Busche?

2. In terms of effectiveness on a 1-10 scale, with 1 being “poor” and 10 being “excellent,” what score would you assign to Rowe’s handling of the session? Why?

3. Identify specific transcript comments by Rowe that reflect the following coaching skills: (a) reflecting, (b) pinpointing, (c) probing, (d) affirming, and (e) confirming.

4. To what extent did the meeting reflect the seven suggestions for confronting poor performance (Exhibit 11-4)?