Lecture 4 part 2: Coaching as a mangement style

Some of the basic ideas in 'coaching:'

• you need to be committed to the other person's success, as well as the success of the business or organization
• 'when you see it, say it!' -- recognize positive behaviors early & often
• use techniques like 'the two minute challenge' to combat negative behaviors -- keep the conversations private and focused, end with an action plan 

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from Tina:
"My branch manager, Carol, uses the coaching style of management.  She tells us when we are doing a great job--using the "when you see it, say it" method.  When there have been problems, she has always handled them discretely. As much as I love this method of management, I can say from experience, that there are some people with whom this form of management does not work. I don't think it has to do with the management style as much as it has to do with the personality and temperament of the employee. In the past year, we had to fire one employee.  It took over two years to get to this point, but we all worked on coaching her.  We would often find her reading magazines in the reading room, instead of shelving books or instead of shelving the books properly she would just lay them on top of the already shelved books.  We worked on goal setting, specific plans of action, written agreements on solution to the problems, but nothing worked.  We encouraged her when she did things right, and let her know what an important part of the team she was, but nothing worked.  Eventually, she sought legal counsel, which is why it took over a year and a half to terminate her.  Carol felt really bad, and so did I, but I am not sure what more we could have done.  We had one library aide who was literally doing all of the work, and one library aide who refused to even try to change."