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How much time is the right amount of time to spend coaching your employees?
June 13, 2007
In an average day, how much time do you spend coaching your employees? Let’s say you spend about an hour. Within that hour how much time is devoted to coaching your top performer vs. your bottom performer? My guess is that you are spending far more time, energy and effort with your bottom performer. I say this as I recall countless meetings with clients who have asked UKNY to help “solve” employee performance problems. Inevitably, our consultations are consumed with “Joe” who just doesn’t seem to get it or with “Susan” who is continually failing to meet a deadline. We might touch on “Betsy” who always delivers but it’s an “honorable mention” at best.
Consider this – companies are filled with employees who feel ignored, underutilized, disenchanted, or just plain bored. According to a recent survey from the Gallup organization, 70% of employees say they feel “not engaged” or “actively disengaged” at work. Odds are some of those employees are probably worth keeping especially considering the tight talent market. One way to increase engagement and retention is to provide ongoing coaching and support.
If we all agree coaching is important, how do we determine how much time is the right amount of time?
The truth is that it probably varies by individual, industry and amount of work experience. Although it may require less time than you think. For example, we can take a cue from Ken Blanchard’s One Minute Manager. As Ken suggests, there are “one-minute goals, one-minute praisings and one-minute reprimands.” Once goals are clearly established your coaching really can be one minute! Whether you spend a minute or an hour try and avoid the mistake we see so many managers make – devoting most or all of your time to the bottom performer and very little if any of your time with the top performer.
Rather than worry so much about the total amount of time you are able to devote to coaching focus instead on spreading out that time so that everyone on the team gets the attention they deserve - even if it is only one minute.
Posted by Gretchen Miller on June 13, 2007 | Comments (0)
