Development Vs Pink Slip
- There is nothing like a ‘problem employee’, as s/he is an employee. Is there something like a ‘problem child’? No! Only problem parenting? As such a wrong fitment, or wrong recruitment, or even wrong induction, training?
- As for pink slip: S/he needs help, surely. It is the organization’s responsibility to ensure the appropriate help is given. If it was wrong recruitment or issues related to ethics/ values, or legal, it may be better to let go. More as an exception.
- Does s/he needs coaching? NO. Coaching is not to fix anything. For that s/he needs something else. Mentoring, guiding, telling, training, counseling, therapy, etc. Once s/he overcomes the situations, then s/he may be ready for coaching. Not before.
Coaching is different from mentoring, guiding, , telling, therapy, counselling.
‘coaching should ideally be a genuine effort to boost the performance of a high-potential professional, not a last-ditch, box-checking effort to say “we tried everything” before firing the person’. Last ditch effort or not, coaching is not the intervention.
If as coaches we encourage these ‘last-ditch efforts’, we would reduce coaching to transactional interventions, not transformational impact.
Coaching is for leaders. Coaching is to‘maximize potential, personal & professional’ (ICF)
‘Coaching support for soft skills’
- coaching is not merely a support, it is partnering.
- coaching is not to enhance ‘soft skills’, as it is commonly understood. It is about life skills. (Again not as in ‘life’ coaching, as the world generally understands.) Within the life, the bulk of it would be executive leadership skills for the leader-coachee, corporate sponsored or self-sponsored.
Hence the goals of the engagement have to transcend mere incremental benefits to fine-tune leadership skills. It has to be far more transformational. Else both coach & coachee are playing small. Sponsor organization, the leader should not allow that.
According to research on effective learning, to improve performance, people need three things:
- a clear goal – Coaching will look at more than the reluctance to speak up or speaking too much
- A genuine desire to achieve that goal – Ready to be coached, to trust the process and ready to take actions needed to make the shift
- The feedback that indicates what they are doing well and not doing well (#HBRAscend) – Feedback in a constructive way, or feedforward. All are integral to the coaching journey.
We, at Regal Unlimited offer executive leadership coaching for corporate leaders, entrepreneurs and professional, to maximize their personal & professional potential. To schedule a demo, write to info@regalunlimited.com
