In any particular work environment, there are many varying personalities and behaviors. The beauty in these differences is that they bring out ideas and opinions that help shape an organization and its goals. However, what happens when an individual in a high-ranking, leadership role fails to meet a company’s standard because of their traits and actions? Although there are many approaches to guiding a manager or supervisor into a more productive mindset, one that has extensive research of proving effective is action coaching. As defined by Dotlich and Cairo (1999), action coaching is “a process that fosters self-awareness and that results in the motivation to change, as well as the guidance needed if change is to take place in ways that meet organizational needs” (p. 18). Although traditional coaching styles share the common goal of self-awareness, action coaching goes a step further and uses self-awareness as a way to change the unproductive behavior the individual is exhibiting, rather than using it as an end point. Action coaching is a personalized approach that helps connect the relationship between the individual and organization through strategic action planning which leads to performance development and growth (Dotlich and Cairo, 1999, p. 21).
Jill was the individual chosen for this coaching project for several reasons. First, she exhibits many unproductive behaviors that are present in someone who could be described as a poor leader. Second, she lacks emotional intelligence crucial for someone in her position. Lastly, her direct staff and therefore the organization she works for is affected by her ineffective leadership abilities, which leads to a decrease in retention rates due to dissatisfaction of employees.
Jill is a kind and very likable person outside of the organization where she holds the position of night shift manager. The goal of the coaching project in this situation is to help Jill understand the outcomes of her actions and behaviors. Self-awareness produced by evidence from employee turnover rates and examples provided from 360-degree reviews within the organization is key to the change in behavior toward Jill’s staff and performance as a manager.
ill has been with this company for over ten years, even graduating from the Medical Laboratory Science program that is offered within the organization. She started as a phlebotomist, graduated to a medical technologist, and has reached her goal as a laboratory manager.
Since she has been through all of the steps of the laboratory up to her position, it could be assumed that Jill understands the sometimes hectic, overwhelming workflow or the issues that can arise while working in the laboratory. However, since being made manager a few years ago, Jill has become very inaccessible. She rarely comes out of her office, usually only for mandatory meetings. When the staff working on the bench are struggling with the workload and call her for assistance, she makes up excuses as to why she cannot help and suggests we call the other managers and supervisors in the office.
While attending meetings with the management staff, I have noticed that Jill is always agreeing with fellow managers and supervisors, even when she may not agree with the decisions being made. Jill does not like confrontation, especially with those above her rank in the laboratory, and therefore does not stand up for what she believes in or for what her staff are requesting.
Given the characteristics and specific types of Jill’s leadership style, I have assembled two key tools I believe will bring self-awareness and eventually performance break-throughs that will help not only Jill, but her staff and the organization as a whole. First, I would collect the 360-degree feedback reviews from Jill’s staff. 360-degree reviews are used by direct reports to assess their manager or supervisors’ leadership traits and rank their abilities in order to provide feedback in an anonymous manner. Those is management positions can use these reviews in comparison to their own self-evaluations to assess where they can grow and develop as leaders. According to Gritzo, Fusfeld, & Carpenter (2017), who based their study on the correlation between 360-degree reviews and leader’s self-evaluations, comparing the two assessments allows managers and supervisors to discover their personal blind spots and insecurities. Blind spots are defined in the study as leadership traits and skills where the manager’s opinion of themselves is higher than how other perceive them, where insecurities are when the direct reports’ reviews of them is higher than what they rated themselves (Gritzo, Fusfeld, & Carpenter, 2017, p. 49). In short, the relationship between a leader’s self-evaluation and their direct reports’ assessments can make a manager aware of their personal actions and behaviors and how they affect others.
The second tool I would use to implement an action coaching plan for Jill would be the correlation between her lack of relationships with her staff and employee turnover rates. As described by Reina, Rogers, Peterson, Bryon, & Hom (2018), “managers must examine their own behaviors as a contributor to talent loss and recognize that their behaviors toward employees are central to employee turnover.” By examining the increased turnover rates for direct reports under Jill, she can understand the need for not just a professional relationship, but an emotional on, with her staff.
The validity of the tools I have chosen to use for this specific action coaching plan can be found in many peer-reviewed research articles. In 2017, Kim, Tam, Kim, and Rhee used an online survey to measure organization justice, supervisory justice, authoritarian organizational culture and organization-employee relationship quality to gather data in order to understand the primary reasons for employee turnover. Although authoritarian organizational culture was the strongest indicator for turnover, “the study also redirects scholarly attention to supervisory justice as a predictor of organization-employee relationship quality, emphasizing the important role of internal communication manager in managing supervisor-subordinate relationships and employee retention/turnover” (Kim, Tam, Kim & Rhee, 2017, p. 320). There is also evidence within the study indicating that support from and relationships with managers affects an employee’s motivation, which also correlates with turnover rates. Another study used the social exchange theory (SET) to determine the relationship between employee engagement and turnover rates. The results from this study indicated that an employee-manager relationship is vital for increased retention rates, because it influences the employee’s future career plans within the company (Covella, McCarthy, Kaifi, & Cocoran, 2017, p. 8).
The 360-degree reviews would also prove successful for this action coaching plan. One study offered the effectiveness of providing a manager with an understanding of their own personal emotional intelligence. By reviewing the evaluations of their direct reports, managers can develop self-awareness of their actions and behavior, which is a primary step in the initial stages of the action coaching plan (Gregory, Robbins, Schwaitzberg & Harmon, 2016, p. 3568).
In order to have a more organized approach while coaching Jill, I would use the five steps of action coaching.
Let’s take a look at each of the steps in details.
Step 1 – Clarify the goal
The first step in your strategy is to specify your client’s goal in an objective and measurable way. In order to know if your client has reached their goal, you and your client must know exactly what outcome they want and be able to measure progress in a quantitative way. When your client is clear, you are clear. Your client knows that you are clear and the goal will start to take on a new level of reality.
Step 2 – Make the goal real
Our subconscious doesn’t know the difference between imagination and reality. The chemical reactions in our brains are the same whether an experience is actually happening to us or whether we are imagining it in our minds. And the more you can imagine a scenario using all 5 senses, the more impact it will have.
For this step, have your client imagine in detail what it will be like when he meets his goal. Where will they be? What are their surroundings? What are they doing? What sounds would they hear? What would it smell like?
Step 3 – Strategize the action steps for achieving the goal
Now that a clear and measurable goal is in place, the next step in the coaching strategy is to work with your client to develop a plan to reach their goal. What are the first things they need to do and what is the timeframe it needs to be completed?
Your coaching strategy might be to start at the end and work backwards from the goal to figure out the best actions for them to take. It’s highly unlikely your clients goals are going to just fall in their lap. They will need to take focused action to achieve their goal.
Step 4 – Your coaching strategy must include accountability for your client
Step 4 in the coaching strategy is to hold your client accountable for each step along the way to their goal. Keep track of their commitments and make sure they stick to them. Being accountable for their actions will make your client feel empowered by their progress. This will result in your client gaining important confidence in their ability to reach their goal with each action step they complete successfully.
Step 5 – Celebrate each step toward the goal
Last but not least, is to acknowledging every step your client takes on the way to his goal. This is an essential part of the 5 step coaching coaching strategy. Some of the coaching strategy steps are easier than others, but they all contribute to making impossible goals happen for your clients. In this step, you should make sure your client understands that celebrating what he has already achieved is necessary and will provide motivation for achieving more.
Jill was chosen for this action coaching project because of her loner and pleaser unproductive behaviors, as well as her worrier tendencies caused by the friendships she has developed with other managerial staff (Dotlich & Cairo, 1999, p. 96). Factual evidence collected from 360-degree reviews and turnover rates from her direct reports will allow Jill or any coaching subject with the same unwanted behaviors to become self-aware of their personality and actions. Through careful steps developed within the action coaching plan and evidence validated with recent peer-reviewed literature, Jill’s unproductive behaviors can be identified, reviewed, and modified to match the goals of the organization and the needs of her staff.
