Marty Brounstein

Cheat Sheet / Updated 06-05-2023

Organizations thrive when employees are given the opportunity and supported to do their best work. To inspire and build commitment from your employees, you, as a manager, need to fully commit to prioritizing coaching and mentoring as part of your job — not something you intend to do or as time allows. This Cheat Sheet helps you get started.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-25-2022

Effective communications involves listening as well as speaking. When you speak to a group, how you deliver your message plays a part in how it’s received. In the workplace, effective communication techniques can help foster positive relationships — just be sure to avoid some communication pitfalls so that you don’t undermine your good work.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Performance feedback can be given two ways: through constructive feedback or through praise and criticism. Don't fall into the trap of giving praise and criticism on employee performance. Constructive feedback is information-specific, issue-focused, and based on observations. It comes in two varieties: Praise and criticism are both personal judgments about a performance effort or outcome, with praise being a favorable judgment and criticism, an unfavorable judgment. Information given is general and vague, focused on the person, and based on opinions or feelings. Be direct when delivering your message. Get to the point and avoid beating around the bush. Both negative and positive feedback should be given in a straightforward manner. Avoid "need to" phrases, which send implied messages that something that didn't go well. For example, "Jane, you need to get your reports turned in on time, and you need to spell check them." This message is not really performance feedback. It implies that Jane did not do something well with her reports, but it doesn't report exactly what happened. Providing clarity on what occurred is the aim of feedback. Be sincere and avoid giving mixed messages. Sincerity says that you mean what you say with care and respect. Mixed messages are referred to as "yes, but" messages. For example, "John, you have worked hard on this project, but. . . ." What follows is something the person is not doing well and is the real point of the message. The word "but," along with its cousins "however" and "although," when said in the middle of a thought, create contradictions or mixed messages. In essence, putting "but" in the middle tells the other person, "Don't believe a thing I said before." In positive feedback situations, express appreciation. Appreciation alone is praise. Yet when you add it to the specifics of constructive feedback, your message carries an extra oomph of sincerity. For example: "Sue, your handling of all the processing work while John did the callbacks made for an efficient effort and showed good teamwork. Everything you did was accurate, as well. Thanks so much for helping out. Such initiative is a real value to the team." In negative feedback situations, express concern. A tone of concern communicates a sense of importance and care and provides the appropriate level of sincerity to the message. Tones such as anger, frustration, disappointment, and the ever-popular sarcasm tend to color the language of the message and turn attempts at negative feedback into criticism. The content of the message gets lost in the noise and harshness. The purpose of negative feedback is to create awareness that can lead to correction or improvement in performance. If you can't give negative feedback in a helpful manner, in the language and tone of concern, you defeat its purpose. Give the feedback person-to-person, not through messengers of technology. The nature of constructive feedback is verbal and informal. That can be done only by talking live to the employee, either face-to-face — or by phone when you physically can't be together. State observations, not interpretations. Observations are what you see occur; interpretations are your analysis or opinion of what you see occur. Tell what you've noticed, not what you think of it, and report the behavior you notice at a concrete level, instead of as a characterization of the behavior. Observations have a far more factual and nonjudgmental aspect than do interpretations. Positive feedback is news or input to an employee about an effort well done. Negative feedback is news to an employee about an effort that needs improvement. Negative feedback doesn't mean a terrible performance, but rather a performance in which the outcomes delivered should be better. So negative is not a negative word in this case. The guidelines for giving constructive feedback fall into four categories: content, manner, timing, and frequency. Content Content is what you say in the constructive feedback. In your first sentence, identify the topic or issue that the feedback will be about. Provide the specifics of what occurred. Without the specifics, you only have praise or criticism. Start each key point with an "I" message, such as, "I have noticed," "I have observed," "I have seen," or when the need exists to pass on feedback from others, "I have had reported to me." "I" messages help you be issue-focused and get into the specifics. Manner Manner is how you say the constructive feedback. As you may know, how you say something often carries more weight than what you have to say — manner is an important element when giving feedback. Timing Timing answers this question: When do you give an employee feedback for a performance effort worth acknowledging? The answer is ASAP (as soon as possible). Feedback is meant to be given in real-time, as close as possible to when the performance incident occurs so that the events are fresh in everyone's minds. When feedback is given well after the fact, the value of the constructive feedback is lessened. When giving negative feedback, you may want to apply a different timeline: ASAR (as soon as reasonable/ready — that is, when you're ready). Sometimes when an incident happens, you aren't feeling too good about it, and you need time to cool off and get your thoughts in order before you give negative feedback (so that your manner displays a tone of concern). Doing that may mean giving the feedback tomorrow rather than right now, but tomorrow is still timely, and your feedback will come across as far more constructive. Frequency Frequency answers the question, "How often should your employees receive constructive feedback on their performance?" This last guideline is the most important because it makes all the other guidelines work. Use constructive feedback regularly to acknowledge real performance. Try to catch and respond to employees doing the job right just as much as you catch and respond to them doing something not quite right — and don't acknowledge how they are performing only once or twice a year. Be sure to keep notes on the performance feedback that you give. It helps you track what's happening in people's performance rather than relying on your memory.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Delegating, as a coaching tool, is the act of assigning and entrusting assignments and responsibilities to others. Delegating isn't about giving people tasks to do. Tasks are the simple and short-term items of work to be done. Delegating is about having staff take on juicy or meaningful work — projects, duties, and other important assignments. For example, "Joe, I would like you to take on the responsibility of creating the weekly sales analysis report," or "Sue, I'd like you to tackle a project involving vendor relations and how we can maximize discounts with each one with whom we do business." Don't stop asking your employees to do tasks when needed, just recognize that's not real delegating. Entrust and empower Entrust is a key word in delegating: It means that you care about the results of what you delegate, and you're willing to provide the support needed to help the employee achieve those results. But you're going to let the employee do the assigned job. You don't have to be hands-on for the right outcomes to occur, but neither are you uninvolved and unaware of what's occurring. Along with providing the right support comes spelling out clear expectations and maintaining employee accountability. This is what effective delegating means and (hold your buzzword buzzer) what empowerment is truly all about. To empower your employees is to do three actions: Give employees the freedom to get a job done (no breathing down their necks). Provide employees with the right level of support to get the job done well, including information, training, resources, and so on. Hold employees accountable to produce the outcomes needed. All three actions go together as part of the process. Thus, when you delegate effectively, you empower your staff. (Holy cow, this stuff could be dangerous!) Delegate the day-to-day What many managers overlook when figuring out what to delegate are the items to share or reassign in part. Items related to the day-to-day operations of your group, which some managers tend to hold onto, are where your greatest potential exists to delegate wholly or in part to people on your staff. Here are some examples: Solving fairly routine customer problems Setting the daily work schedule and work flow Preparing agendas for your regular staff meetings Making decisions on situations that employees face in carrying out their responsibilities Completing functions you're less qualified for or not too good at doing Handling technical duties Compiling data Composing regular administrative reports Researching issues that come your way Training new employees or others in the group Carrying out important functions for which little staff coverage exists, meaning there's no back-up support for day-to-day operations Handling vendor-relations issues Seizing opportunities that build upon others' creative talents or desires Answering questions you're frequently asked Dealing with new functions that come about due to change in the workplace In many cases, the items you partially delegate can become items that you completely delegate in the future. Delegate one step at a time in manageable increments and build off of every success. Pick the right person Among common reasons that lead to delegating failures are two relating to employee selection: The assignment you delegate is beyond the person's capability level. The assignment or responsibility you delegate is one that the individual isn't ready to handle. It is greater than the person's knowledge, experience, or skill level, and it leaves the employee unable to competently perform and produce the right results. Employees are often willing to take on duties they aren't really ready to handle, and many are reluctant to speak up even if they know the job is beyond their capabilities. After all, who wants to admit he or she isn't ready enough to do something? So the employee is given the job with a sink-or-swim approach — throw the person the job and see what happens — which usually leads to the employee drowning. The project you delegate is beyond the person's capacity level. In this case, the issue isn't one of competence level but one of workload. You have a maxed-out employee on whom you pile another critical project. While many such individuals don't outwardly complain or, when they do, aren't listened to, they suffer with the burden and stress to try and keep up. Overload the machine (your employee in this case) without consideration of its capacity level, and eventually, mechanical failure sets in. How should you determine which person will be good for which assignment? Here are some important questions to ask before initiating a delegating effort: Where does the assignment best fit functionally within your group? Who has capacity in terms of time and workload to handle the duty? Who has the interest? Who has the skill and experience level best for the job? Whose capabilities do you need to expand to fill coverage gaps in the group's day-to-day operations? Who is in need of a new or different challenge? To whom do you want to give an opportunity for growth? Notice how one of the factors not listed is "Who has the best track record?" Sometimes managers have a tendency to delegate mostly to their reliable performers. As a result, they don't distribute the workload evenly among all the staff in the group. This has an effect of punishing the good employees. It may also create resentment: among the star employees who wonder why they have to carry the workload for others in the group, and among other employees who feel passed over for the most challenging and growth-oriented work. Instead, develop and challenge everyone in your group.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Coaching and mentoring your employees requires a continuous effort to make it a part of your management practices. Use the tips in the following list to help incorporate coaching and mentoring techniques into your management practices: Delegate: Articulate the results you want to see, set parameters, determine what support the employee needs, and set times to conduct progress reviews along the way. Give performance feedback. : State what you observe, be specific and direct, show sincerity, and communicate face-to-face for both positive and negative performance efforts. Motivate employee performance: Give timely recognition for a job well done and provide favorable assignments that challenge your staff and meet business needs at the same time. Mentor employee growth: Pass on words of wisdom that guide behavior for success and ask employees for ideas to make improvements and solve problems. Focus employee performance: Collaboratively set goals with action plans that define the key steps for achieving the goals. Set meaningful goals: Define the results that need to be achieved and how the goals will be measured. Assess employee performance: Don’t wait for the annual review. Meet one-on-one with each staff person at least once per quarter to review performance; adjust plans accordingly to keep priorities current. Aid career development: Collaboratively set plans that define how employees will prepare themselves — from training to work assignments — to grow in their skills and capabilities. Deliver training: Give step-by-step instruction a that involves your employee doing the skills or procedures in a hands-on way. Reinforce good performance: Catch employees doing quality work and demonstrating positive behaviors with the same effort that you catch them when performance doesn’t go as well as needed.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

If you want your employees to get the most out of your coaching and mentoring, you have to make it a collaborative effort through two-way conversation. The idea is to spend quality time with your staff; that is, to make the time together count so that your employees go back to the job ready to perform better and more self-sufficiently. Following is a list of questions that helps you plan and organize your one-on-one coaching meeting with staff members to maximize your time together: What is the objective for the meeting? What is the positive outcome you’re seeking for this meeting? What do you, the manager, need to be prepared to do at the meeting? What do you want your employee to come prepared to do? What is the plan or agenda for the session that will encourage employee participation? How will this meeting help the employee perform better or more self-sufficiently in the future? What follow-up should be set?

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Coaching and mentoring is the modern, effective way to get the most from your employees — and to keep them committed to your company. The following list contains ten outcomes that coaching looks to achieve. When you coach your team, you’re aiming to make these ten outcomes happen. Drive performance results that meet the needs of the group and the business. Build high levels of employee commitment. Develop employee skills and abilities. Challenge employees to perform to their best and as self-sufficiently as possible. Increase productivity by maximizing your resources. Build constructive working relationships with your staff. Maximize the use of your time so that you can have the greatest impact. Provide leadership to encourage progress not only today, but also in the future. Reinforce quality performance and employee accountability. Make your life as a manager just a little bit easier.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Business coaching is an approach to management: how you function as a manager. Usually, managers approach their roles in one of two ways — coach or doer. A common feature of both management approaches is that managers have their own tasks to perform. Few ever focus solely on managing others. The key difference in the two approaches, however, is on where a manager focuses his or her attention. The following are descriptions of how the two approaches generally function: Coach approach: These managers work to achieve the best operational performance results by developing and maximizing the talents and abilities of employees to their fullest. Those who manage as a coach still perform tasks; in fact, many work alongside their staffs doing some of the same duties. Yet those who approach management as a coach recognize they also need to lead and develop others to top performance, because that's how the tasks best get done. Business coaches live by the principle of and; that is, they approach their jobs as a balance of managing both task issues and people issues. They see the two as connected. They see managing people as part of managing the work that the people do. Doer approach: In this approach, managers tend to focus more on task issues of the job (and also the technical issues of their work), as well as on the group's performance. Their attention tends to go first to the things they themselves have to do and to the areas of greatest comfort — task and technical issues. Doers, as a result, tend to function as senior individual contributors. While the style of doers varies from controlling to very hands-off to a combination of the two, the doer approach to management tends to live by the principle of or. They have either task issues to handle or people issues to handle. These issues are often viewed as separate sides of the manager's role rather than interrelated ones. Doers put much less emphasis on how people are performing (which is often less comfortable to deal with) than on getting things done. The following table offers an overview of the general tendencies that coach and doer managers exhibit when handling six of the most common management functions. (General tendencies mean just that; things don't work exactly the same way all the time.) Approaches to Management Functions Function Coach Approach Doer Approach Planning Invests time in doing it. Has little time for planning ahead. Often involves others in shaping plans. Tends to operate on a day-to-day or short-term basis. Is future-focused. Often crisis-driven and putting out fires. Goal setting Works with others to develop goals and plans to achieve them. If operates with goals, tends to give staff their goals — little employee involvement in developing their own. Ensures that goals are written and expectations are clear, and then manages by them. Often tends to be activity- and task-oriented as opposed to results- and goal-driven. Giving performance feedback Does so on an ongoing basis. Feedback is tied to what employees are doing. Seldom, unless something goes wrong, or gives occasional, vague praise. Provides both positive and negative feedback so staff knows where they stand. May do so at annual review time. Dealing with performance issues Addresses issues in a timely way with solutions-oriented approach Many avoid dealing with these issues. Is outside of comfort zone. Works with employees to map out plans for improvement. May seek punitive measures as the first action to deal with problems. Delegating Does so as much as possible to maximize resources and increase productivity. Finds letting go of responsibility to others hard to do and thus delegates little beyond simple tasks. Provides necessary support, lets people handle the job, and holds them accountable. If willing to delegate, dumps assignments — gives little guidance and support. Mentoring and developing staff Takes an active interest and involvement in employee learning and growth. Tends not to put much attention in this area. Supports training and encourages opportunities to expand employee capabilities. Takes a learn-on-your-own approach to employee development.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

In the business world, managing as a coach is a necessity not only for your success, but also for your survival. Business coaching is about helping employees become more effective — and supporting and involving your employees in the process. Coaching influences employee adaptability, productivity, and retention. It helps you make better use of your time. The definition of coaching, in a business context, has the two following aspects: Coaching is an approach to management — how one carries out the role of being a manager. Coaching is a set of skills for managing employee performance to deliver results. Being a coach means that you see and approach the role of manager as a leader — one who challenges and develops your employees' skills and abilities to achieve the best performance results, and to function as self-sufficiently as possible. In other words, if you manage as a coach, your staff members learn, grow, and work hard, too. As you seek to get the best out of their performance, you also have to work very hard. As a coach, you develop and possess various skills and efforts that are aimed at guiding employees to achieve high productivity and positive results. The more you manage as a coach, the easier you'll find coaching as a manager because you'll be putting those skills into practice. In the business world, the terms "coaching" and "mentoring" are often used synonymously. But that's not always the case. When you hear employees talk about wanting a manager who is a mentor, they're essentially talking about wanting a manager who carries on as a coach. They want a manager who cares about their development and who challenges them to grow and perform to their best — in brief, what managing as a coach means. Coaching is the sum of all the coaching skills — giving performance feedback, delegating, motivating employee performance, and so on. Mentoring is one set in the overall skills of coaching. It's a significant part of coaching and the set that focuses on guiding employees to do for themselves. Mentoring promotes self-development and self-sufficiency.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Delegating, as a business-coaching tool, means to assign and entrust assignments and responsibilities to others. Effective business coaches realize that delegating isn't about giving people tasks (simple and short-term work items) to do. Rather, it's about having staff take on juicy or meaningful work — projects, duties, and other important assignments. Don't stop asking your employees to do tasks when needed, just recognize assigning tasks isn't real delegating. Here are a couple examples of delegating responsibilities: "Alex, I'd like you to take on the responsibility of creating the weekly sales analysis report" or "Olivia, I'd like you to tackle a project involving vendor relations and how we can maximize discounts with each one with whom we do business." Entrust is a key word in delegating: It means that you care about the results of what you delegate and you're willing to provide the support needed to help the employee achieve those results. But you're going to let the employee do the assigned job. You don't have to be hands-on for the right outcomes to occur, but neither are you uninvolved and unaware of what's occurring. Along with providing the right support comes spelling out clear expectations and maintaining employee accountability. This is what effective delegating means and what empowerment is truly all about. To empower your employees, you Give employees the freedom to get a job done (no breathing down their necks). Provide employees with the right level of support to get the job done well, including information, training, resources, and so on. Hold employees accountable to produce the outcomes needed. All three actions go together as part of the process. Thus, when you delegate effectively, you empower your staff. A big part of the misconception many managers have about delegating — misconceptions that fuel apprehensions about it and create a reluctance to do it — is the thinking that by delegating you're completely letting go of control. But giving others a share in the responsibility extends influence and creates commitment to the cause. Control isn't lost; you're just letting go of the burden of doing everything yourself. That's the whole idea with delegating: You can better leverage your time for higher-level work and extend your influence to greater levels in the organization.