How to Coach a High Performer to Go Even Higher

 

When discussing coaching, most leaders first think of it when working with employees who have missed the mark. Leaders don't always think about coaching employees who want to perform even better.

Coaching isn’t merely about holding people to the fire or making sure they do what they say they will do. Coaching is about helping people become the very best version of themselves so they can make their biggest and best contributions. Often the biggest challenge of leading others is helping them see they need to improve.

Here are three tips to help you raise your coaching game as you help high performers raise theirs.

1.      Identify the Gap

For underperformers, the gap is the space between expectation and performance. For high performers, the gap is the space between where they are and where they want to be.

Begin by asking your employee where he sees his own gaps. Ask questions like “Where do you feel like you can grow?” or “What do you need to take yourself to the next level?” or “What’s the next step in your career and what do you need to get there?” or, my favorite, “If you were competing with yourself for your current role, what would you need to win?”

If your employee has a difficult time answering your questions, offer gentle recommendations or insights that encourage him to think and allow him to choose: “Here are a few things that have worked for me—do you think any of these approaches might work for you?”

You might also focus on your employee’s processes rather than his performance. Performance accountability evaluates individuals based on outcomes. Good outcomes are not always the result of good decisions or processes. Process accountability evaluates individuals on their decision-making process. Adam Grant says, “Focusing on results might be good for short-term performance, but it can be an obstacle to long-term learning.” Ask your employee, “Are there processes that can be improved?” “What habits if changed could lead to consistently better results?”

When you and your employee take the time to define the gap, you together develop a clearer vision. This is vital because if you can’t see the gap, you can’t build the bridge.

2.      Build the Bridge

Now that you have a clear picture of your employee’s gap, you can help her begin to bridge that gap. When building any bridge—but especially a bridge to greatness—it’s important to identify roles.

You are both key stakeholders. But in order to optimize performance and ultimate construction, it’s important that your employee act as lead architect and engineer. You serve more as the general contractor and consultant. You oversee and manage the coordination of the project and provide anything needed to bring it to completion.

As the general contractor, start by establishing parameters or boundaries. What constraints will there be as you work on a development plan? Is there a budget? Timeline? What resources are available?

With parameters in place, let your employee now take the lead on how to build the bridge. No one better understands what she must do to close the gap, to build the bridge, than him. Work together to brainstorm and craft a plan.

3.      Provide Support

With a plan in place, remember that life is complicated. It won’t be the sureness of the plan that will lead to success, but rather the ability to be flexible as you execute the plan and adapt as necessary. There will be plenty of competing projects and priorities along the way. Provide support by doing two things:

·      Establish regular check-ins. Make sure you regularly and consistently meet to discuss how things are going. These should be check-ins, NOT check-ups. Allow your employee to return and report. Ask whether and how she needs your help.

·      Acknowledge growth and recognize small wins. Personal and professional development can be challenging because there isn’t a definitive result, outcome, or arrival. Look for and create opportunities to recognize growth and development. This can be done both publicly and privately. The goal is to reinforce particular behaviors, practices, or activities that result in better performance and better results.

Greatness is a lifelong pursuit, a way of living rather than something we arrive at. As leaders we have the wonderful opportunity to assist others in that effort. And we can help them align performance with potential by holding them accountable through coaching in the ways I’ve outlined above.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...

 Interested in learning how to develop your organization's culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact:

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, energy storage and facilities management, distribution centers, food production facilities, title companies, wealth management firms, third-party maintenance companies, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.

 

 

Transform Your Team's Performance with the 1% Better Rule

 

How Small And Simple Actions Everyday Lead to Big Results

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Inches Make the Champion.”   

                           —Vince Lombardi, Hall of Fame Football Coach

When water is at 211 degrees, it is hot. At 212 degrees, it boils. And with water boiling comes steam…and with steam you can power a train.

Applying one percent, or in this case one extra degree, of temperature to water means the difference between something that is simply very hot and something that generates enough force to power a machine—a beautifully uncomplicated metaphor that ideally should feed our every endeavor—consistently pushing us to give the 1% extra effort in every task, and action we undertake.

Small differences in performance can lead to very unequal distributions when repeated over time. The people and organizations that can do the right things, more consistently are more likely to maintain a slight edge and accumulate disproportionate rewards over time.

You only need to be slightly better than your competition, but if you are able to maintain a slight edge today and tomorrow and the day after that, then you can repeat the process of winning by just a little bit over and over again.

This is called the 1% Better Rule. The 1% Better Rule states that over time the majority of the rewards in a given field will accumulate to the people, teams, and organizations that maintain a 1 percent advantage over the alternatives. You don't need to be twice as good to get twice the results. You just need to be slightly better.

Kaizen is a Japanese word that embodies the 1% Better Rule. Kaizen translated into English means good change. In the 1960’s, products made in Japan were considered junk. The Kaizen philosophy helped Japanese companies learn to  manufacture some of the best products in the world. This resulted in the Japanese gaining significant market share of vehicles and electronics.

The 1% Better Rule is not merely a reference to the fact that small differences accumulate into significant advantages, but also to the idea that those who are 1% better rule their respective fields and reap the rewards.

Here are some amazing examples from the field of sports:

Golf

·         2.28—the average margin of victory in strokes at the Masters (.57 strokes per day)

·         76%—additional prize dollars on average for winning first place at the Masters.

Horse Racing

·         4.55—average margin of victory in lengths at the Kentucky Derby.

·         260%—additional prize dollars on average for winning first place at the Kentucky Derby.

Auto Racing

·         0.082—average margin of victory in seconds at the Daytona 500.

·         53%—additional prize dollars on average for winning first place at Daytona.

Many years ago when asked what the most powerful force in the universe was, Albert Einstein said, “compound interest.” There’s a force at work in all of us that’s  just as powerful. Just as compound interest allows your money to grow on itself,  Incremental improvement allows your skills and productivity to grow on themselves.

In short, if you want to improve your skills, it’s not about some one-time transformative event or conference. No, your best approach is to get a little bit better everyday. You can’t make quantum leap improvements each day (there are certainly situations where a new idea, technique or approach may in a short time drastically improve your skills or abilities, but you can’t rely on these occurring regularly.) If you want to get 10% better at a particular leadership skill in the next 30 days, that might seem daunting.  But can you get 1% better every day for a month? That seems easier and more realistic. We can all get 1% better each day.

So let’s do the math. We’ll just use the working days and assume 20 working days in the next thirty (even though there are plenty of ways to work on leadership development every day).  At the end of our 30 days, we will have improved by: 20.81%. This is certainly a powerful concept for us personally and should cause you to be excited and ready to start learning, but this is just the start.

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The power of incremental improvement is perhaps the most when considered as an organizational leadership development idea. Ask yourself this question: What would happen to productivity, operational excellence and results overall if everyone on my team improved by 1% each day? Now you don’t have one person improving 20.81% in a month, but EVERYONE improving by that amount!

And this is just month one.

Want a strategic leadership initiative? Recent research has revealed that leadership is a set of 22 core skills. Build a process, tools and expectations to help everyone in your organization work on a single skill each month, with the goal of getting 1% better each day. Then, move to another skill next month. 

Here's a 1% better action leaders can take right now: Thank someone or "catch someone doing something right" once more each business day and that will equal 200 more times each year. In the book, "How Full is Your Bucket," the authors reveal how 1% better actions like a 30-second praise can positively affect your relationships, productivity, and health. Click here to download the 6-page book summary.

The 1% better rule is not only a message of action--it's a message of persistence and additional action--the continual application of effort to whatever task or activity you undertake in order to achieve not only the primary objective you seek, but reap the exponential rewards that are possible with the 1% extra effort.

Small positive change can add up to big bucks as the examples from golf, horse racing and auto racing so clearly illustrate.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step...
Interested in learning how to develop your organization's culture, employee engagement and leadership capability? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact:

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, distribution centers, food production facilities, title companies, wealth management firms, third-party maintenance companies, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth.

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.