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Expert Insights

Coaching to Develop Employee Performance

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2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved.

Coaching to Develop Employee Performance. Copyright 2009 by Profiles International. Printed and bound in the United States of America. All rights reserved. No part of the report may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems without written permission from the publisher. Publisher Profiles Research Institute Dario Priolo, Managing Director 5205 Lake Shore Drive Waco, Texas 76710-1732 Profiles International (800) 960-9612 www.profilesinternational.com www.americasmostproductive.com

Acknowledgements CEO, Co-founder, Profiles International: Jim Sirbasku President, Co-founder, Profiles International: Bud Haney Editor-in-Chief: Dario Priolo Managing Editor: AshleyDawn Sheppard Creative Director: Megan Bullard Research Director: Natalie Hefner

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Introduction
Managing to ensure superb performance from all employees is crucial, especially during times of economic turbulence. Fortunately, this kind of management is more enjoyable than most tasks and results in increased organizational value. Coach early and often. Early, to catch potential problems before they happen. Often, because continuous interest and feedback virtually guarantees better performance. Coaching provides counsel in real time and identifies clear goals in the context of the employees job. Effective managers catch problems early and often so that they can provide continual feedback and guarantee better performance. They do not rely on yearly reviews to direct their leadership. Efficient managers provide clear goals in the context of the employees job.

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The Power of Coaching: Training & Development

1. How to Transform Managers into Coaches


The transformation from manager to coaches takes effort and a few easy steps. It is important for managers to remember that one size does not fit all. Each employee is different, and employees work differently. The better the manager understands the employee, the more effective the coaching and the results will be. How do you transform managers into coaches? Building and changing the corporate culture begins with the leaders adoption of a system, definition of the system and modeling of the system. Top leaders coach managers to be the kind of leaders the organization wants. Two of the competencies of a coach include: An ability to identify people who fit the job An ability to create strategies for employee development that inspire people to perform and achieve These competencies set the foundation for development, but even the most able manager requires help in these areas. No manager is equipped with essential knowledge about every employee. Successful coaching requires specialized knowledge about: Each employees unique characteristics Each employees attributes in the context of his job and in the context of the work environment Each employees fit with his job, manager and teams

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The Power of Coaching: Training & Development

2. Implementing coaching-based performance management


Coaching-based performance management is essential for maximum productivity. First, acknowledge that good performance rarely happens by accident. Many employers find it unnecessary to worry about job training or good job fit as long as they find an employee with a good job history. According to a survey of more than 1,000 people last year, including managers and leaders, 90 percent believe that leaders have little influence over employee behavior. This is not surprising, given that many leaders often view performance training as unnecessary. Profiles has developed a coaching-based performance management methodology that provides key insights about each employee. This step-by-step approach shows how to leverage knowledge to improve employee performance. This approach works because leaders are able to use it continuously and proactively from the beginning of each employees career. This process is incomplete unless each of the following factors are in place: Understanding employee fit and compatibility in current job Understanding motivation and stress and conflict behaviors Optimizing working relationship with direct supervisor Optimizing relationships with their work teams Optimizing their leadership skills

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2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved.

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The Power of Coaching: Training & Development

3. The Motivational Coach


Motivational coaching enables successful employee development. Coaches play an important role in helping employees successfully maneuver company difficulties such as turnover, budget reductions and cost reductions. Coaches need to understand how each employee will react to the constant ups and downs of the specific work environment. A Profiles assessment will take the guesswork out of determining how each individual might react in a specific situation. Profiles assessments measure: Need for control Social influence Patience and collaborative preferences

Focus on precision and quality Motivational intensity and focus on change

Coaching is the most potent tool for inducing lasting personal change.

Source: Ivy Business Journal

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The Power of Coaching: Training & Development 4. The Coaching Relationship and Team Dynamics
Understanding relationships improves team dynamics. Relationships directly impact productivity, and they can create improvements for the organization if potential conflict points in the relationship are identified early. Defining conflict points will enable leaders and team members to work together to avoid or solve issues. Clearly defining points of conflict also helps managers determine the best way to effectively communicate with each employee. Coaches and leaders should also carefully consider their own attributes . An assessment provides specific recommendations for managers and employees to effectively communicate with each other. The assessment will: Examine the working relationship between employee and manager to predict compatibility Identify similarities and differences in styles, and detect how these similarities and different might result in conflict Provide specific recommendations for mangers and employees to achieve maximum productivity in the workplace

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The Power of Coaching: Training & Development 5. Coaching to Develop


Developing employees generates leadership. The final step in coaching-based performance management determines leadership capabilities. Specific leadership competencies and skills are examined in order to identify leadership potential. The assessments will calculate personal development, communication, leadership ability, adaptability, relationship building, task management, production, and the development of others. Motivating employees to perform to their maximum potential is the responsibility of the leaders of the organization. Once a manager discovers the value of coaching early and often, as opposed to conducting annual reviews, he will be able to increase efficiency and productivity in his employees. The most effective approach requires: Coaching tailored to the individual with a goal of increasing productivity Coaching based on insight about the employees competencies within the context of his job, as well as his ability to work with his team and manager

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Summary: The Power of Coaching: Training & Development


1. Transform your managers into coaches
2. Implement coaching-based performance management
Need to improve your customer loyalty? Profiles International has helped thousands of organizations retain customers, build extreme loyalty and generate more predictable revenue streams. Contact us at 1.800.960.9612 to speak with an assessment expert who will show you how put these powerful tools to work in your organization.

3. Develop the motivational coach 4. Assess the coaching relationship and team dynamics 5. Coach to develop

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About Profiles International Products of Interest

PXT The ProfileXT is a total person assessment that has a myriad of uses. It measures job-related qualities that make a person productivethinking and reasoning style, behavioral traits, and occupational interests. These qualities in an individual directly affect her productivity and the productivity of her entire team. An added benefit? The ProfileXT provides 10 reports from one fifty-minute assessment: individual report, placement report, succession planning report, candidate matching report, coaching report, job analysis report, sales placement report, sales management report, summary reports, and graph reports.

CheckPoint Management System combines direct feedback from direct reports, peers, supervisors, and customers, with a personalized program for developing specific leadership skills based on that feedback. This assessment process highlights a managers job performance in 8 skill clusters: leadership, communication, personal development, development of others, production, task management, relationships, and adaptability. The CheckPoint 360 uncovers the following productivity killers: ineffective management practices, poor communication, inadequate leadership skills, distrust of management, inability to delegate, low motivation, lack of commitment, low performance standards, and workplace conflicts.

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2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved.

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About Profiles International Products of Interest

Another key to driving performance is having a consistent company message. CSP Customer Service Profile measures key characteristics of exceptional customer service. How much easier is it to drive performance when the people engaging the customer on a daily basis are all on the same page? The CSP looks at what our current and future employees believe is a high level of customer service, while at the same time showing us where they align (or not) with our companys perspective.

The use of superior talent management practices can easily identify a potential need for additional people, or for better use of existing resources. With efficient selection and on-boarding practices, both new people and incumbents become more productive in a short amount of time. SOSII Step One Survey II can help give new employees the head start they need from day one. By making sure prospective applicants are a fit for our corporate culture before joining the team, we can know in advance how they can assimilate into a work environment in the optimum amount of time. Insight into an applicants work ethic, honesty, integrity, propensity for substance abuse, and attitudes on theft (including property, data, and the most expensive commoditytime), can give a much-needed preview into how well this person will mesh with a companys current culture and climate.

Profiles WorkForce Compatibility is a powerful tool that measures critical workplace compatibility information between a manager (executive, director, supervisor, team leader) and his employees. PWC is used to increase productivity, identify and close compatibility gaps between manager and employee, improve communications between manager and employee, raise the level of engagement, and reduce employee turnover.
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2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved.

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About Profiles International

Additional Reports from Profiles Research Institute


Americas Most Productive Companies
In economics, productivity is a measure of output per unit of input. For purposes of this study, we defined labor productivity in terms of revenue produced per full-time employee. Calculating this required us to analyze financial data from over 1,600 publicly traded companies that we then organized into over 175 subindustry groups. We then identified the companies that ranked highest in each category and took a closer look at the practices that enable them to out-produce their peers. By understanding these practices, we hope to educate ourselves and our clients about the practices that can help them run more efficiently and become more competitive in the marketplace.

5 Critical Management Derailers: Symptoms and Remedies


Why do front-line managers fail and what can be done to avoid failure? We polled our experts to identify our top five most common management derailers. They are: 1. Poor interpersonal and communication skills 2. Inadequate leadership skills 3. Resistance to change 4. Inability to deliver expected results 5. Inability to see beyond their functional silo This report elaborates on these five issues and offers some common sense advice for helping your managers avoid them.

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2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved.

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About Profiles International

Additional Reports from Profiles Research Institute


Selection Strategies for Reorganization, Redeployment and Recovery: Comprehensive Report of Findings
Profiles International researchers conducted a comprehensive review of organizational design and talent management practices to identify over 50 best practices in the context of organizational restructuring. We then asked several experts to rank order their top 20 best practices from this list. From this, we determined our Top 10 best practices list.

Selection Strategies for Reorganization, Redeployment and Recovery: C-level vs. Non-C-level Comparison Report
Profiles International researchers conducted a comprehensive review of organizational design and talent management practices to identify over 50 best practices in the context of organizational restructuring. We then asked several experts to rank order their top 20 best practices from this list. From this, we determined our Top 10 best practices list. From these Top 10 best practices we designed a brief 10-question survey to poll our clients on how well they believed their organizations followed these practices and how well they would be prepared for a major reorganization and redeployment event. Nearly 800 people (over 30% in companies with over 500 employees ; 50% of participants had Director-level roles or higher) participated in the study. Our findings highlight some considerable differences between the perspective of C-suite and non-C-suite participants on nearly every dimension we measured. This heightens concerns that the C-suite may be out of touch with what is actually happening on the front lines as it relates to reorganizing and redeploying talent in the midst of change.

www.profilesinternational.com
2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved.

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About Profiles International

Additional Reports from Profiles Research Institute


Four Essential Tactics for Optimizing Organizational Talent
Now more than ever you have the opportunity to optimize your organizational talent. While cost-cutting may be inevitable, its important to avoid some of the common traps that will put you at a disadvantage when the economy turns around. The bottom line is that you need to know your human capital inventory well enough to make the best decision. Our researchers have identified four essential tactics to optimize your organizational talent. These are: 1. 2. 3. 4. Remove your chronic underperformers Remove your bad apples Uncover your hidden gems Never stop your hunt for high quality outside hires

This paper elaborates on these four essential tactics.

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2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Profiles International helps organizations worldwide create high -performing workforces.
www.profilesinternational.com Through our comprehensive employment assessments and innovative talent management solutions, our clients gain a competitive advantage by selecting the right people and managing them to their www.americasmostproductive.com full potential. (800) 960-9612 Where We Are (254) 751-1644 Profiles serves 122 countries around the globe and has material in 32 languages.

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Profiles International www.profilesinternational.com (800) 960-9612

2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved. 2009 Profiles International, Inc. All rights reserved.

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