Coaching: Not just for under-performers

In the the past 6 months, I have terminated my consumer relationship with both my Cable and Car insurance companies. I now “hear” from both companies on a regular basis wanting to know why I left and what it would take to get back my business. In short, they ignored me whilst things were going well and only paid attention after the relationship soured. If only they had paid this much attention to me when I was their customer……I’d probably still be. There are analogous phenomena that occurs in the work place around coaching. Too many managers tend to equate “coaching” to strictly trying to fix something and/or someone that isn’t performing at expected levels. This focus of energy on mostly under-performers is generally unproductive for all involved. The manager is likely not enjoying it and employee probably feels picked on. Not to mention the other members of the team that are not being coached, because they are doing well. Coaching should be for everybody. It strictly should be about how can you help your people continue and/or improve on their work performance.