The Next 10 Days

Most of my homework assignments contain a key question focused on making something better. For example. an assignment in my "Participative Management (Building High Performance Teams)" program looks at a weaker team player and asks what the manager will do going forward (as a coach and mentor) to strengthen the weaker team player.

All too often the answer involves generalities such as "I can give him feedback on his performance;" "I can talk with her about her negative attitude;" "I can give him some new assignments;" "I can let her try managing a special project;" "I can encourage him to share his ideas;" "I can delegate some responsibilities to her;" and so forth.

My feedback on these generalized answers is usually along these lines: "Good start. But you lack specifics. What can you specifically do in the next 10 business days to move forward in your coaching efforts with her/him?"

When an employee has performance issues and requires coaching from you, the overviews and the generalities give you a sense of direction and focus. But in and of themselves they don't create specific actions that you can commit to, plan for and implement to get the situation off the dime and moving forward.

About me: For 25 years, Dan Pelley has presented supervisory management development programs in Rhode Island (RI), Massachusetts (MA) and Connecticut (CT). He is the 2004 recipient of the Richard Fontaine Award for Teaching Excellence awarded by Quinebaug Valley Community College in Danielson, CT.

Copyright © 2009 Daniel W. Pelley
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