Laura Poole - Perfect Phrases for Coaching Employee Performance: Hundreds of Ready-To-Use Phrases for Building Employee Engagement and Creating Star Performers

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PART ONE. PERFECT PHRASES FOR
COACHING PEOPLE IN NEW POSITIONS

PART TWO. PERFECT PHRASES FOR
COACHING EMPLOYEES

Employee performance is a constant concern in groups, teams, companies, and organizations of all kinds. We monitor it, review it, assess it, and strategize around it, always seeking the best we can get out of ourselves and those around us. In these times, when we want (or are forced) to do more with less, managers and everyone in the organization are striving to be more productive, create better results, and get recognition for what we have done. To get more from employees, we offer rewards and incentives, encouragement, motivationand even punishment when goals are not met or performance slacks off.

Coaching is a relatively new method for achieving professional development. In the business world, coaching has become popular over the past 15 years or so as a method to empower, engage, and develop employees and top talent. Managers are now being asked to be coaches to employees, in addition to being leaders, mentors, supervisors, and trainers. In an organization, one of the key expectations for coaching is to improve employee performance.

To do that in a sustainable, positive way, coaching techniques can help employees tap into their own knowledge, skills, and motivation, to become more efficient and effective contributors. The very act of coaching inspires engagement from employees because you are seeking their true thoughts, opinions, skills, and abilities and allowing these to come to the forefront. With judicious and appropriate use of coaching, employees can start firing on all cylinders, taking ownership and pride in their work.

Thus, this book was written to help you learn some coaching techniques, questions, and phrases to use with your employees to improve performance across the boardincluding your own.

This book is written for managers at nearly all levels of an organization, as well as entrepreneurs and community leaders. I assume that you, the reader, have some sort of leadership position in which you seek to improve the performance of employees you manage directly. You might find that these techniques work in other areas of your life, as well, such as during a charity fundraiser or when serving in professional association committees.

I begin with an introduction that outlines what coaching is, when to use it (and when not), how solution-focused coaching works, and other tools for getting the most out of this book. I recommend that you carefully read this introduction, as it sets the stage for optimal use of what follows. Refer back to it frequently. This rest of the book is divided into four major sections.

Part One is all about coaching new hires. Bringing a new employee up to speed presents a unique set of coaching challenges. Not only are you learning about your new team member, he or she is learning everything about the company and procedures, from square one. I offer some key questions and phrases you can use to guide their journeys as they come on board.

Part Two is about coaching existing employees, from general tips to finding coachable moments (such as performance review), goal-setting techniques, problem solving, change initiatives, and a crisis. I then discuss how to coach low, average, and top performers.

Part Three explores the unique aspects of coaching teams. This section covers everything from starting up and chartering teams to brainstorming, processes, performing, check-in, and project completion.

Part Four covers how to use coaching techniques with those who are higher in the chain of command. Note that you probably wont do direct coaching for your superiors, but you can certainly use some coaching-style questions and techniques to elicit the bigger picture, mission, vision, and goals. In turn, you can use this information to improve your own performance and communicate with those around you to keep everyone on the same page.