Leadership – The most useful question when coaching a staff member
Recently, I have been reading through and practicing the techniques in successfully coaching staff on their development. I found these techniques from Michael Bungay Stanier’s The Coaching Habits. Sometimes I have very direct conversations and practice in technical skills with staff. For example, when they need improvements in performance, such as practicing effective diagnosis and treatment planning. However, when we are working more on their personal development rather than their technical skills, this open approach has been amazing in plucking out issues that are a major concern to them. However, often they are not even on my radar as being an issue. These issues are often a major cause of anxiety for the staff member. Yet, I am not even aware of it, because I haven’t asked the right question.
The first question – What’s on your mind?
I asked this question when working on the development of a senior clinical staff member. Her performance is good and her technical skills are not an issue. However, the answer to this question was surprising.
Her biggest concern is that on a few of her shifts, officially the shift finishes at 2.45pm. However, leaving at this time means that she is late picking up her children from school. This made her feel like she was “failing” as both a parent because she was always late in picking up her children and “failing” as a clinician. She felt like this because she couldn’t focus on her task at work because she was thinking about her needs as a parent.
I had no idea this was such a concern. If I hadn’t asked the question, what’s on your mind, this issue would never have come to the surface.
The second part of the question that I asked was, what’s the real challenge here for you?
I didn’t assume that I knew what the real problem in her mind was. I let her articulate and discuss it in her own words.
Again, the response was surprising. Her biggest challenge was her “anxiety” about finding out what her colleagues thought of her and approaching this issue with her manager. From this point, I let her discuss the ways she can approach this issue with the other staff and what the potential responses and actions could be. I did not step in and tell her what I would do in her situation, as this would disempower her. Instead I gave her space to talk through her own options and come up with her own conclusions. This resulted in real personal development on her part and the confidence to handle her own professional interpersonal conversations.
And what else?
A coaching conversation I had with a branch manager several months ago aimed to go deeper into what the real issue was for him and how he would resolve the issue.
His biggest concern at the time was that he had too much work and that the administrative side of the business was taking up too much time. This was compared to looking after and dealing with the patient issues, which was his passion and where he wanted to spend most of his energy.
To go deeper, I asked the question, what is the real issue here for you?
His answer, again surprising, was that the administration staff didn’t know/did not do the tasks required. This then fell on his shoulders, requiring more time and effort.
And what else?
Because the previous administrative staff member made mistakes, he “mistrusted” the current administrative staff members. Therefore he believed that he had to take full control of their training to make sure “they did it right” so that he had less work to do in the future. As he was already time poor, their training was not completed and nor was he the best person to do the training. The other senior administrative staff members knew the job much better than he did and could train the staff more effectively.
The real reason here: lack of trust, leading to poor decision making and ultimately much more unnecessary work.
The outcome, was that he spoke to the senior administrative staff and organised training with the right people for the right tasks. He also spoke to his administrative staff about his concerns and his needs, resulting in them being able to do their job properly and him having more time in front of patients and doing the job he loves.
What if there is a real performance issue?
Sometimes, there are real technical issues that need to be addressed. The most common with the clinical staff is practicing treatment planning. This requires time, patience, practice and more practice.
I have worked on this recently with a junior staff member, however, again still worked at exploring what the “real issue” was for him. His concern was a lack of basic clinical knowledge, however, the real issue was not his lack of knowledge, but his practice of reflecting on his conclusions and writing his plans with a clear mind. Rather than rushing out a plan to do it “quickly”, putting it down, looking at it later with a fresh set of eyes allowed him to write clearer, well structured plans that would result in a better outcome for the patient.
So, what else for me?
I am still working on letting the staff member’s personal issues guide the direction of their development. However, I am taking that bit of a step back, letting them tell me “what’s on their mind” rather than stepping in and “being the hero”. This has allowed better communication with staff members about their actual needs and ultimately better development, even when I walk into these conversations with a bit of uncertainty.
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