Coaching and Counseling

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 Coaching vs. Counseling
Counseling stresses understanding.
Coaching stresses action.
Counseling asks why? (Why can't we be happy?")

Coaching asks how? (How can we

achieve happiness?")
Obstacles are prominent in counseling.
Opportunities are prominent in
coaching.

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Counseling is psychological.
Coaching is behavioral.
Counseling is therapy.
Coaching is education.
Counseling is cure-oriented.
Coaching is success-
oriented.
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Coach or Counselor?

Questioning to Questioning to
check learning raise awareness

Feedback on Same Core Feedback on

performance awareness
Skills

Organizational Individual aspect

aspect considered Important

Coaching Counseling

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• While managers can easily recognize the need for coaching when their
employees have new jobs, duties or tools, managers often fail to diagnose
the need for coaching when their employees are performing poorly. 
• Counseling is the appropriate response when employees’ motivation
problems are the cause of poor performance. 
• But, managers need to remember that not all performance problems are
due to a lack of motivation. 
• Poor performance can also be the result of misunderstandings or a lack
of skill. 
• Many of us can recall a situation when a manager chastised us for
screwing something up when all we really needed was a clarification
of what was expected.  How demoralizing!
       

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• Although coaching and counseling have different
purposes, they're interrelated. 
• Sometimes coaching reveals attitude problems, fears
or other factors that interfere with the willingness to
do one's job. 
• When such barriers to motivation are identified, managers
must shift into a counseling mode to resolve them before
engaging in coaching. 
• There's no point in working on employees' "Can't Do"
problems before resolving their "Won't Do" problems. 

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• By the same token, needs for coaching can also
emerge during counseling. 
• For instance, when an employee is intimidated by the
complexity of a task, that fear can be manifested in a
number of counterproductive work behaviors such as
procrastination. 
• Consequently, coaching is a remedy for some of the
motivation problems that managers identify when
counseling their employees.

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 Coaching Skills

• Develop a Better Understanding of the

Four Fundamental Coaching Skills:
• Observation
• Questioning
• Listening
• Giving Feedback

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 Observation

• Observe and Not Judge

• Do not judge the observed behaviors
• Do not put your experience into their
behavior
• Do not look at situations in a black
and white perspective
• Do not jump to conclusions

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 Question

• Ask Questions That Elicit Information

and Maintain a Dialogue
• Do not ask yes or no answers
• Ask open ended questions
• Ask questions that need information to
answer
• Ask probing questions to elicit further
information

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 Listen

• Listen to the Words and the Real

Message
• Listen to the emotions behind the
words
• Listen and watch the body language
• Talk only to ensure understanding for
what was heard

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 Feedback

• Provide Feedback That Structures

Future Behaviors
• Provide positive feedback even in
negative situations
• Ensure that any decisions are made by
the person you are coaching
• Show the importance of the whole, not
just the individual

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 Steps in Coaching

• There are four basic steps in coaching

• Assess
• Show and Explain
• Check for Understanding
• Follow up and Evaluate

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 Assess
• Put the employee at ease. 
• This step is important when the coaching session is a
response to poor performance--it's not as important in
other situations.
• Find out what they already know. 
• There are two reasons for this. 
• First, there's little use in telling them what they
already know. 
• Second, prior knowledge serves as the foundation for
new knowledge that's acquired. 

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• Hence, you want to link the "training" to what
they already know and correct any
misconceptions that could interfere with their
learning.

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 Show and Explain

• Present information or demonstrate

work methods. 
• This is the point where you deliver the
content of the training.
• Repeat. 
• Repetition enhances understanding
and retention.

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 Check for Understanding
• Evaluate learning. 
• Test whether the employee understands the information
or can perform the skill.
• This is more of a demonstrative kind of test.
• Provide feedback. 
• Let the employee know what they have successfully
learned and what they still need to learn.
• Correct. 
• Show the right answers or methods again.

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 Follow-up and Evaluate
• Evaluate performance on the job. 
• Periodically check to see whether the employee is using
the knowledge or skills effectively on the job.  Gradually
increase the interval at which you check.  The employee
should eventually take responsibility for monitoring their
own performance.
• Reward. 
• Provide praise or other rewards for successful acquisition
and use of the knowledge or skill.

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 Feedback

• Focus on the situation or issue, not the

person
• Appreciative to Constructive ratio should
be at least 2 to 1
• Use “I” instead of “You” when giving
constructive feedback
• Be specific and cite examples

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• Stay focused on issues that the person
can control
• Make a recommendation or suggestion
if appropriate
• When listening to responses, listen
openly
• Focus on content, not the person

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• What will you do if coaching fails
• Discussion

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 Counseling
• I don't think you can counsel your employees
effectively if you don't truly care about them,
because effective counseling can be hard
work. 
• Humans have emotions. 
• People profit from the positive emotions like
excitement and inspiration
• We also have to accept and manage effectively
the negative emotions such as anger, frustration,
worry and arrogance 

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• It takes work to deal with the negative side of
employees' emotions. 
• Managerial counseling requires listening
effectively and constructive communication. 
• It's a lot easier to just be a hard-nosed, "my-way-
or-the-highway" manager.  Managers who can
counsel their employees get the most out of
them in difficult circumstances.

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• Whether you are counseling or coaching in
response to poor performance, the goal is
the same
• to get that poorly performing employee's
performance back up to standards
• or back into conformance with the rules. 

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• What if you may come across a subordinate
who is manipulative?
• The best way to deal with them is to listen to
their story at least once. 
• Listening to their story and validating their feelings
doesn't mean that you accept their poor performance
or misconduct. 
• After you've listened to their story and empathized,
come up with a plan for improving performance. 

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• Avoid asking pointed questions or making
assumptions about your employees' personal lives. 
• Legally and ethically, employees have a variety of privacy
rights. 
• Focus on the work-related problem. 
• Even though the work-related problem is often the symptom
of a personal problem only discuss the personal issues if
the employee you're counseling raises them
• Refer the employee to professional counseling for anything
of a serious nature. 

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• Appropriate:
• You seem distracted at work and your
productivity has fallen off.  I really need you to be
more productive.  Is there anything I can help
you with?
• Inappropriate:
• Are you having marital problems?
• I think your drinking in the evenings is interfering
with your job performance.

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• You can only comment on what you
observe employees actually doing or the
results they achieve. 
• Making assumptions about personal
problems is very risky and sometimes
unfair. 
• For instance, diabetics have occasionally been
mistaken for alcoholics. 

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• Prior to meeting with the employee …
• Clarify exactly what the work-related problem is. 
Be as specific and task-related as possible.
• Determine what you think the cause might be.
• If it's due to motivation, attitude or emotions, counseling is
appropriate.
• If it's due to a lack of knowledge or skill, counseling is
unnecessary and coaching is appropriate.

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• Know whether and how you can refer
employees to your firm's employee
assistance program (EAP) or other
resources for help with personal
problems.

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• When meeting with the employee …
• Be pleasant and put the employee at ease as
much as possible under the circumstances.
• The situation is tense just as it is. This will allow the
employee to relax a little bit
• Ask if they would like some water, etc.

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• Describe the behaviors or aspects of
job performance that are insufficient
or unacceptable.
• It is a good idea to infer that they should
know this already, or to state the specific
rules, to fend off the common response
of “I didn’t know”

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• Ask the employee what he or she thinks
is causing the problem.
• Listen actively and communicate
supportively.
• Don’t interrupt and reflect understanding of
what is being said.

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• Once the employee has had time to tell his or
her story, ask the employee how he or she will
correct the performance problem.
• It is very important to have the employee discover
their own “solution”. Your job is just to guide them to
an effective one, not to advise one.
• If it is seen as necessary, let the employee know how
to get help with "any personal problems that might
affect their job performance." 
• But, be careful about making assumptions or asking
questions about their personal problems.

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• Help the employee make a realistic plan to
solve the problem.
• Again, don’t come up with the solution
yourself, it must be their idea.
• If it is not their idea, and it does not succeed, it
becomes easy to blame you, because you told
them to do it.

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• If the problem is important, jointly create and sign
an “FOSA” agreement.
• Facts: Give a factual account of the performance or
behavior.
• Objectives: Specifically explain how the employee's
behavior will need to improve and specify a time frame.
• Solutions: Document how the employee plans to solve
the problem.
• Actions: Describe the consequences for not achieving
the objective.

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• Plan a follow-up meeting to assess
whether the FOSA agreement's objectives
were met.
• No follow up is interpreted by the employee as
showing the issue really was not important.
• Explain that a follow-up report will be attached
to the FOSA, so he or she will get credit for
correcting the problem.

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• Have the follow-up meeting, and deliver
the agreed upon consequences (positive
or negative).

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