How to Activate Employee Initiative
Last month, Carla, a manager that I’ve been working with for several months, shared this story with me: "One day, a few weeks ago, I was being bombarded with Instant Messages, e-mails, phone calls, and knocks on my door with various 'burning issues' that all required my immediate attention. I finally realized that I had trained my staff to come to me for everything. They were doing exactly what I had trained them to do, and I don't have a minute for my own work or for myself. However, I figure that this is just an opportunity to re-train them to be more independent and capable of acting on their own."
Without realizing it, Carla had just described the essence and the benefit of what we call Coaching on the Go™. This is about applying the science of coaching and adult learning to everyday interactions as a way to build performance, agility and individual capacity.
Carla is part of a management team that is dispersed across a number of offices here in the U.S. So far, we’ve concentrated on helping these managers implement programmatic coaching programs. Programmatic coaching is when the coach and the coachee work together on long-term developmental goals. Typically, these sessions are at least monthly and they have the focus of helping the employee move consistently towards their goals.
How Coaching on the Go™ makes a difference
I asked Carla how using the Coaching on the Go™ approach had helped her, she shared with me the following:
- First, it has helped her to free up more of her time so that she can do more of the programmatic coaching, as well as her managerial duties.
- Second, she has noticed that her team has a new found sense of empowerment: they don’t need her for everything! They have come to realize that they can answer their own questions and think through situations. Now, before they even go to Carla, they have thought through the options and found what they believe to be the best option. With very few exceptions, Carla agrees with their evaluation and assessment.
- Third, her team seems a bit more energized. What she has done (without even knowing it) is she has found a way to tap into intrinsic motivators.Adults like a certain amount of autonomy.
Putting Coaching on the Go™ to work
So, how can you, like Carla, use Coaching on the Go™ to build capacity and agility? Here’s what Carla did:
Instead of immediately answering when her team had a request, she asked them to think the situation through. For example, she asked questions like: What do you think is important about this situation? What is the goal? Who else is involved and what do they care about? What are the options available? Of those options which do think is best? What are the potential consequences?
In other words, she was asking the questions to them that she would normally ask herself in approaching these decisions.
Without realizing it, Carla is building the Emotional Intelligence of her team, specifically in the areas of self-awareness, self-management and self-direction. The following is from a white paper on the Six Seconds website. (To help people put the theory of emotional intelligence into practice, Six Seconds developed this three-part model in 1997. The model draws on the work of Peter Salovey, Ph.D. (one of Six Seconds’ advisory board members), and John Mayer, Ph.D. who first defined EQ as a scientific concept. It is a simple model that is easily remembered.)
Know Yourself (self-awareness)
- Enhance Emotional Literacy: recognize and appropriately express emotion
- Recognize Patterns: identify reactions and choices
Choose Yourself (self-management)
- Apply Consequential Thinking: evaluate the costs and benefits of choices before acting
- Navigate Emotions: learn from and transform feelings
- Increase Optimism: identify multiple options for changing the future
- Engage Intrinsic Motivation: build internal energy and drive
Give Yourself (self-direction)
- Increase Empathy: respond appropriately to others’ feelings
- Pursue Noble Goals: align daily choices with principles and purpose
I’ve italicized the competencies that I think Carla’s approach has had a direct effect upon. Here’s how I see it:
Self-Awareness
Recognize Patterns: identify reactions and choices. Over the past six months, what I’ve observed is that Carla’s team has become much better at being able to recognize their own reactions to events and how those first reactions they have are not always the most beneficial. By building this skill, they are becoming better at avoiding just getting caught up in the emotion of the moment and instead actively making choices about moving forward. (Much of this work came about during their programmatic coaching, and it has been enhanced through the Coaching on the Go™.)
Self-Management
Apply Consequential Thinking: evaluate the costs and benefits of choices before acting
This has been increased exponentially by Carla’s approach in using Coaching on the Go™.
Navigate Emotions: learn from and transform feelings
You’ve likely noticed that this one is only partially italicized. That’s not a typo! I think that they have come a long way in learning from their emotions: what might trigger an emotion, what does that emotion tell them about the situation, etc.
Increase Optimism: identify multiple options for changing the future
We tend to feel more optimistic when we feel like we have some choice and that our choices can actually make a difference. This is a significant change that I’ve seen in Carla’s team. To be sure, they are not a bunch of Pollyannas! They’ve been through lay-offs and changes (some of which have been quite hard). However, they don’t fall into despair. They look at their options and make choices for how they want to proceed.
Engage Intrinsic Motivation: build internal energy and drive
Because Carla has helped them have more autonomy, they are more intrinsically motivated. She has also done a good job in her programmatic coaching of helping them understand what drives them and gives them energy.
Self-Direction
Increase Empathy: respond appropriately to others’ feelings
By asking them to consider other people involved, what’s important to them, and how they might respond, Carla is helping them increase their empathy. Another key element of building empathy is to work on our own self-awareness and self-management. As we become more aware of what we are experiencing, we begin to tap into those around us. Consequently, Carla’s team is functioning better and smoother.
It is important to note that while Carla has set aside time every month for the programmatic coaching (approximately an hour or so per team lead), she has not had to allocate additional time for Coaching on the Go™. She has received a tremendous payoff on her investment.
The real payoff, however, might be how she feels about what she is accomplishing. She told me recently that she feels like she is now really making a difference for her team and for the people that her team serves. I’m happy for her as she richly deserves it!
© 2011 Bobbi Kahler. All rights reserved. Developing Leaders, Creating Possibilities: Kahler Leadership Group
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