Episode #295: High Performer Coaching

Coaching high performers is tricky. They have talent, ability and are already highly motivated. They usually have a pretty healthy ego as well and have probably been mentally trying out your chair, to see how it fits them. Interestingly enough, this is the group the boss pays the least attention to. The under performer gets all the time, because the leader is trying to fix something that is broken. The issue here is even if you get a 100% lift, it hardly registers, because it is coming from so far down at the bottom. The high performers however are where the big results reside, but they are thought not to need any coaching. Ask yourself, “How much time do I invest every week coaching my top performers?”.

If we look however into the world of sports all the top performers get tonnes of coaching. The elite level of performance demands it and demands an elite coach. Why aren’t we applying the same logic to business? The first problem is we have mentally ruled them out from “needing” coaching, because they are usually highly self sufficient and self contained. This is good but top level athletes are the same and yet they get taken care of by their coaches to take them to the maximum of performance. We should be looking at how we can take out high performers in business to their maximum level of performance too.

Here is a coaching model for high performers.

1. Listen, observe, evaluate

If we think about it, a high performer challenges us to come up with interventions that will raise their performance even further. A low performer’s situation is easy, but not so with the best of the best. We have to be an intuitive observer and make lightening fast assessments about actions and behaviors that are inconsistent with or not moving this person closer to achieving the organization’s goals. Stretching a top performer will raise the performance level of the entire group. We have to coach them directly in their experience, competence and confidence levels.

2. Identify An Opportunity

We must choose our battles wisely when dealing with talented people. We don’t dwell on negatives, instead we look for quickly identifying the critical factor, that specific behavior, that must change before anything else can change. When we see an opportunity to coach we must trust our judgment and instincts.

3. Cushion

A cushion is a verbal or non-verbal message that softens the environment and creates more receptivity to the coaching. When you have established trust with the person, something as simple as using their name while smiling, in a soft tone of voice works well. It is always good to start with praise. Don’t be general with the praise though. “You are doing a great job” is in fact pretty lousy praise. We need to be referring to something specific. Their jobs have multiple facets and so which particular part of their job are we referring to? What precisely did they do, that was good? When we make the intervention, we do it very softly. We could ask, “May I make a suggestion?”; “How about this angle…”;“What would happen if…”. Or try a statement such as, “Try this…” or Let’s test this…”.

4. Provide Context, Action, Benefit

As soon as we specify an action we want them to take, we run into trouble. They are smart individuals, who have analysed situations, found the best path forward and risen to the top. As soon as they hear our suggestion they go into critic mode. They start thinking about why that won’t work, why that is wrong, etc. We need to start by explaining the why, but deliver that in the form of the background to our thinking, producing the context for them, that got us to this way of thinking in the first place.

The best way to explain the context is in the form of a story. This should be chock full of people, places, situations they know, so they can mentally go into the story. The context itself has their minds racing toward a conclusion or a solution. It will probably be the same one we have reached, based on everyone’s shared knowledge of the background.

At this point we bring forward our recommendation for them and then bridge straight into the benefits to them of taking that course of action. Then we shut up and let them tell us what they think. We don’t finish their sentences, cut them off, contradict them. We hear them out in full. This may be killing you, but please persevere. Feeling that you are being fully listened to, is an important relationship builder.

5. Reinforce

Now we go into detective mode, looking for clues of them doing well with the new suggestion. Reinforced behavior becomes repeated behavior. It could be as simple as a big smile and an enthusiastic, “Excellent” , followed by a pin point summary of just what was in fact excellent. A strong strength recognition response will often be just the encouragement the person needs to keep moving forward. It might be a lunch or a dinner. These things are about the boss giving their most valuable resource – their time.

High performers are not used to being coached. They however have latent and still untapped potential that the leader can help unleash. Ego and pride are barriers and makes the methodology chosen critical to success. Try these five steps to high performer coaching to get the best results with the least amount of friction.