Good afternoon, everyone. Welcome to the 2019 Deer Oaks Supervisor Excellence webinar series. This particular topic in the series is entitled, of course, How to Become an Effective Coach-- a Key to Employee Engagement. Before we get too far into our conversation today, I want to make sure our technology is working for us. So if you could please locate the Raise Hand icon in the GoToWebinar software on the upper right-hand corner of your screen, and if you can see the slides, and if you can hear my voice, could you please click on the raise hand icon now?

Thank you, folks. Looks like we're good to go technology wise. I also want to remind you that during these webinar presentations, by Deer Oaks, participants are in listen only mode, which means, of course, that you won't be able to audibly ask questions. But your questions are important to us. And so if at any point in time during the presentation, during the content portion of the presentation, which really should only be about 30 or 35 minutes today, give or take, feel free to type a question into the Question box, again, in then GoToWebinar software in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.

Your questions will be confidential. What I mean by that is I won't be reading the name of the person asking the question. I'll just be reading everyone's question aloud or at least as many questions with as we have time for today and then answering them to the best of my ability for all of our benefit here at the end. So I'm looking forward to that Q&A session at the end.

I also want to remind you that this is the third in the four-part Deer Oaks, 2019 Supervisor Excellence webinar series. This year, of course, has all been focused on an important topic of employee engagement. If you missed any of the previous sessions, we had-- back in March, we had Creating a Culture of Improved Employee Engagement. In June, we presented How to Effectively Onboard and Engage Your Employees.

And this one, of course, is How to Become an Effective Coach-- and you would like copies of those PowerPoint slides, please hit Reply to your GoToWebinar invitation for today, and our staff would be happy to send you those PowerPoint slides. I'll also be showing you my email address and contact information here at the end.

All right, let's go ahead and get started. There's a lot of research today about the effectiveness, the bottom line effectiveness, of managers and supervisors who are good coaches, who utilize coaching skills when they communicate and interact with their staff. I want to give you some of the results of this research.

And this is a combination of some of the latest studies that were compiled by both the Human Capital Institute and the International Coaching Federation, which is probably the most well-recognized, International Coaching Federation, the ICF, probably one of the most recognized accreditation organizations for coaches.

And really, some eye-opening information that should motivate all of us to want to do more coaching or at least become even better coaching with our staff-- 67% faster onboarding. So when a new employee comes on board, what that research is pointing to is, when their supervisor is an interactive, collaborative coach, they just get up to speed faster. They onboard faster. And that's important. A lot of research that says that a lot of turnover occurs when employees don't have a great onboarding experience in the first 6 to 12 months of employment.

In addition, of course, this whole series is about employee engagement. When a supervisor-- I love this research. When a supervisor or a manager is a good coach, they're interactive. They're collaborative. We'll talk a little bit more about coaching skills specifically today, of course. Employees get engaged at a much higher rate, 79% higher employee engagement, when you're working for a supervisor or a manager that's a good coach. In addition, an 81% improved team functioning-- when leaders use good coaching skills, teams interact more effectively together.

There's 71% faster leadership development when coaching skills are being deployed by a leader. And last, but not least, and probably most importantly, is the bottom line for all of us in leadership is to maximize the productivity of our teams is, when a leader uses good coaching skills, or regularly uses a coaching approach with their staff, there's a 79% increase in overall productivity. Pretty remarkable stuff, and so this really motivates me to continue to grow my own coaching skills.

As I've shared before in some of these webinars, I've been managing people for the last 25 years. But it's really only the last seven or eight years where I've gotten additional training and evolved my style into be into being more of a collaborative coach than a directive supervisor. And I'll talk more about that difference here in a minute.

All right, let's drill down into the characteristics of coaching. And so you're going to hear me use the word collaboration a lot today, almost synonymously at times with coaching. To best describe a collaborative approach-- because coaching really is collaboration. It's working with-- it's talking with people instead of talking at people. It's partnering with people. It's partnering with your team. And of course, you can collaborate effectively in your personal life with your family members, with your children. And so I'm going to give you a lot of examples today.

But let me first start with the compare and contrast. Let's think about what coaching is not. A lot of leaders, a lot of people in leadership roles, professionally and personally, are pretty directive in their communication approach, which means they're the ones making all the suggestions, they're the ones solving all the problems, they're the ones telling people what to do and how to do it. And I think that's very typical. Most of us have probably worked for a boss or two or more that are pretty directive. Because it's still a pretty common in our culture. It's still a pretty common management style.

And some people are so directive it's to the point of micromanagement where they're really looking over people's shoulders and always telling them what to do and how to do it, calling all the shots, making all the suggestions. And I want us to know that-- and I think most of us know being micromanaged is not is not something that we'll enjoy as employees. But the number one research-- or one of the most impactive research study to me that drives me towards being more of a coach than a directive boss-- and earlier in my career, I was way too directive.

I'm an extrovert, as most of you can tell. I talk a lot, and I was way too directive earlier in my career. And I could tell it wasn't as motivating for my team and as I became-- as I learned more about coaching and how to become more collaborative in my communication style and show more interest in people's ideas and get them more involved in how things were being done and those kinds of things-- I guess what I wanted to share with you is, when you start to collaborate, people feel more respected.

And this is key. SHRM, the Society of Human Resources Management, had a study that came out in 2011. I think it's still very relevant today. And it was talking about non-financial motivators for employees in the United States. The number one non-financial motivator for US employees is being treated with respect at work.

When you work for a boss who's really directive, always tells you what to do and how to do it, bosses you around, is always calling the shots, doesn't seem to be interested in your ideas, doesn't get you involved in the process or asks for your advice, when you're working for someone like that, even if it's to the point of micromanagement, you don't feel as respected.

And it was interesting. I was talking to a very young, bright city planner with an organization recently who's probably 28, 29 years old, very bright though, had a master's degree. And I was asking him about his experience with his boss. And the guy was just very negative. He says I've been here two years. And he says this guy has not once asked my opinion about anything. All he does is boss me around. He just tells me what to do. And the guy actually went to the point of saying I feel like a tool, like, I'm just sort of a peon here being pushed around.

And he said, honestly, I don't like working for this guy. It's not motivating, and I don't know how long I'm going to stay. And I wanted to give you that as an example. When we're really directive, when we're doing most of the talking when you're in a leadership position-- and certainly, we're going to need to talk some, right? You're going to need to give some direction, share some of your expertise, give us some guidance, do some training, absolutely be involved in the process.

But we shouldn't be doing all the talking. And some people in leadership are very, very directive like I was 20 years ago. And it's not very effective. People don't experience that is as respectful, and they're not as motivated to get engaged and do a good job. As opposed to-- now let me contrast that with coaching.

Coaching is more collaborative where leaders are focused on having conversations, having dialogues with their staff, with their employees, where they regularly, if they give an assignment, they tell someone what-- here's the assignment. But they ask the employee for input into how it's going to get done. If there's a problem, they solicit the employees' ideas and brainstorm together how to best solve this problem. If there's a performance concern or even asking the employees, what do you think you can do to turn this situation around or to improve the situation?

And so it's much more of a conversation. And there's much more of a collaboration. And when you work for an employer or for a supervisor or a leader that's really collaborative, you're going to feel more respected. You're going to feel like they're taking more of an interest in you. You're going to feel more engaged in the process. And that leads to some of those productivity gains and engagement gains that we talked about in the earlier slide. I just want us to really recognize, this is a really important conversation for us to have.

Now, what's interesting, I saw a national study. I think it was in Forbes magazine last year, right, you're 2018. And it was interesting. Basically, it was talking about, even though there a lot of research about coaching is more effective than being directive, that a lot of supervisors are still highly directive. It basically came up with this statistic. I don't know what the source was or how they came up with the study. But it was really interesting. It reinforced what I'm talking about today it said, in this one study, 54% of manager-employee conversations were highly directive.

And again, if employees are coming to work wanting to be respected, wanting to be engaged in the process, wanting to know that their boss is interested in their ideas, respects their input, and that's what's going to motivate them to get more engaged and give a great effort, we need we need to be careful about-- we need to be careful how we're communicating with their employees. And so that's what I want us to be think about when thinking about it.

And we're going to get into the how-to here in a second. We need to get away from being too directive and have more of our approach be collaborative where we're having a good conversation with people. Takes a little bit more time, but it's a really key way to get employees motivated and engaged.

And to reinforce the respect piece I was talking about, I just want to give you this one slide to summarize that is to don't dictate or direct. When you're dictating, when you're directing-- not to say there's not a time and a place. There is. But if that's your prevalent communication style, employees are not going to typically feel as respected, and they may not take as much ownership in assignments you're giving them, or problems you're asking them to solve, which can hurt performance.

Let's remember this. Not only does respect drive engagement-- when a manager says, hey, here's what's going on here, let's brainstorm. What are your ideas? How do you think we should solve this? First and foremost, not only does that feel respectful to an employee, but it gives the employee to buy in. People support what they help to create. When a manager is asking people for input, they're going to buy in. If they have some say in the process, and they're giving input, they're going to be more motivated and more engaged to follow through and give more discretionary effort.

And I think that's just-- and most of us probably recognize that. Now, the issue, when I'm talking to a lot of managers and supervisors is, it takes longer. Yes, it takes longer. And a lot of, times managers are really directive and are going from person to person giving very directive directions and moving on to the next thing or making suggestions and moving on to the next thing. But I want you to see that, when you do that all the time, you might be saving a few minutes in the short term. But you're going to be losing a lot in terms of employee buy-in and engagement and motivation.

And so at the end of the day, if we can slow down a little bit and truly have good collaborative conversations with employees throughout the day, you're going to see employees going to be more motivated and more engaged, and they're going to give more effort.

And this is basically how to create a coaching habit. So it's making the decision that, you know what-- again, not 100%, I'll talk about that here in a second. But to make the decision that coaching works, that collaborating with my employees is a great way to show them respect. It's a great way to get them to buy in to the process, to show them that I care about their input, I care about their opinions, I respect their capabilities, their ideas. The more you can do that, day to day as you're interacting with employees-- I've even got a boss here at Deer Oaks that does a great job of doing that in writing.

When she sends me an email, she'll say, "Greg, what are your thoughts," question mark? I mean, that's coaching. And it makes me feel respected. It makes me feel good, right? It makes me feel like my boss wants to know what I think. It draws me into the process, and it's very motivating to me. And so I want us to be thinking about that. Now, there are times to be directive-- OK, there are times. If there's only one way to do something, and you've just got to let someone know, here's what we need to do. Upper management says it has to be done just this way.

Yeah, you can be directive as long as you're not directive all the time. And I think you'd be fine using a collaborative coaching approach half the time. I think your employees would, in general, feel pretty respected by you if you, at least half the time, ask for their opinion, ask for their input, collaborated with them. But unfortunately, a lot of supervisors-- and this is the way I was 20 years ago, and wasn't working real well. Some of those earlier teams I was managing were not as successful as the teams I'm managing nowadays with a different approach, with a more collaborative approach.

And I had more turnover. I haven't had any turnover at Deer Oaks in years. And so it works better. People, I can tell, there is a higher motivation level with my team nowadays because I regularly ask for their input, show respect for their ideas. And It's just-- and it's something you commit to. You commit to being more collaborative.

And it's interesting because part of that is letting go of ego-- when I was to directive earlier, I would think I've got all the answers, and it's my job to solve all the problems and make all the suggestions and to implement all the programs, at all the tasks. I'm the boss. It's my job to-- no, that's not true.

I came to realize, wait a second. We hired people, bright people to do the work. And so certainly we need we need to lead the work, which means to be there to support them. It means to set the tone. And I'll give you some specific examples here in a moment. Certainly, you can, as you're making an assignment or describing what the situation is, you can certainly set the tone and walk through the context.

But if you're micromanaging things, or if you're always the one that that's being very-- that's giving the answers and making the suggestions and giving the opinions, again, employees come away from those conversations feeling more like they're being talked at, more like they're being directed around. And again, you're not going to feel as respected and as motivated to do a great job. And so this is creating coaching habits, making a commitment that, you know what? It makes sense to slow down a little bit and engage my employees and have good conversations with them.

They're bright. They've got good ideas. Two heads are better than one. For me, it was even letting go of some ego, and realize, and wait a minute, I don't have all the answers. I need input from these bright employees that we have. I need to be asking their opinion and their ideas more often. So I truly believe I get much better solutions now that I've become less directive and more collaborative and am regularly asking people for input.

And so obviously the coaching technique is to ask a lot of questions. Hey, what do you think? Hey, hey, we've got this situation going on, or this problem going on right now. In your previous-- before you came to work here, how did you guys handle these kinds of things there in the past? What do you think we should do to solve this? Let's brainstorm. Let's get together and brainstorm about this. Can I ask your advice?

I love that to ask an employee, can I ask your advice? What do you we should do here? The more you can get yourself in that space, and it does take a little bit of time, but it's interesting, the longer that I'm doing it, the more I realize it's an investment. The more I invest than in spending a little bit of time in asking people for their input, the more motivated they're going to be. At the end of the day, they're going to actually do an even better job. And that's where you get those productivity gains.

So yes, it may take a few more minutes on the front side to have those conversations. But it's well worth it in terms of overall productivity. People get motivated to do a great job for you.

All right. So let me go through a little bit of an outline. This is not a script, but I want to give you a little bit of an outline. If you're like me, and you like to have your visual, or you like to have a little bit of a mental picture as you're walking through a process, here's a four-step coaching approach that really works. And again, it's not a script, but I want to give you a little bit of an outline. And so I want to give you several examples today.

We're going to talk about assigning work. We're going to talk about correcting subpar employee deliverables or performance. We're going to talk about solving problems. We're going to talk about coaching interpersonal skills. Sometimes employees, of course, have conflict, as we all know. But I want to go through this four-step coaching approach. The first example I want to use is assigning work. So in the directive way of assigning work-- and in both cases as I give these four examples. I'm going to compare and contrast being directed with being collaborative, being more of a coach.

So the directive way of assigning work is the call an employee in and tell them, here's what I need you to do. And here's exactly how I need it done. Here's step one, step two, step three. And let me know if you need any help. And then you send them on their way. I want you to see, again, there's no collaboration. The employee is not having any opportunity to give input. They're not going to feel as respected. They're not going to be as bought in. And you're probably not going to get as much effort.

So now let's talk about the four-step approach to assign work. So using the four-step approach, I want us to see ourselves more as facilitating a conversation instead of directing the process. And so step one is you as the leader. So your role as the facilitator in these coaching conversations or collaborative conversations is to introduce the work. Here's the assignment. Here's why I think you're just the right person to do this. I do that a lot. I tell people I think they'll they're the right person to do this. You're our best foot forward here because you have a lot of experience in this area.

And I let them know what the expectations are, what the scope is. You can tell why the work's important. But a rule of thumb would be, the leader, when you're coaching, should be telling the what and the why. We should be leaving the how to the employee. At least let them lead the conversation about the how. They should be coming up with the work plan, with the project plan. And so after I introduce that-- here's a piece of work. Here's a new report that upper management is looking for.

Because you've got great analytical skills, in this example, I think you'd do a great job with this. Basically, it's going to be a monthly report. And I just want to kind of brainstorm with you. And here's where you stop. So don't get into making your suggestions at the beginning. Step two is the most important step in a collaborative conversation.

This is where you say to the employee, what do you think about this? What do you think about this report? How do you think we ought to pull this report together? How do you think we should approach this? What do you think should it be included in this report? What are your thoughts?

And have a conversation with the employee. And listen to them. Hear them out. Now, you may have to-- I'm going to talk about two skills here in our examples. You may have to really become proficient in asking good open questions to keep the conversation moving along. Sometimes you're going to get a more introverted employee who, when you say, what do you think we should do here, they're going to say, I don't know, you're the boss, or someone that may be a little bit disengaged. And so they're not going to be forthcoming.

So you may have to ask some drill-down questions like, after you introduce the new report to say, have you ever worked on a report like this in the past? Before you came to work here, did you ever get involved in these kinds of reports? Or have you ever seen these kinds of reports done in the past? How were they formatted? What's been your experience? Or if they haven't to say, well, let's brainstorm. What components do you think should be in this report? Should we use charts and graphs? What kind of resources do you think you'll need to pull a report like this together?

So that's the kind of conversation you want to have. You really want to engage the employee in getting them to buy in, take ownership, be hands-on with it. And at the very worst-- and sometimes you'll get either an extremely introverted person or someone who maybe is disengaged. Let's say they're late in their career, and they're biding their time towards retirement, and they're just not engaged, and, like, I don't know. You're the boss. You tell me.

And I'll even explain. I'll say I don't have all the answers. I really would value your input here. I really want to have a conversation. But at the very least, you can always say to an employee who's not forthcoming with any ideas, at the very least, you can make a suggestion and then ask them what they think of it. Ask them to respond react to your suggestion. Here's something we could try, or I've seen in the past, or something I was thinking. What do you think about that? Do you think that would work?

So that would be an idea. And that would be the last thing I would try if I can't get any engagement from the employee. And every once in a while, in my experience, three out of four employee conversations, when you use this technique, you'll have a pretty good dialogue just by you facilitating and asking a lot of questions. Every once in a while, you'll get an employee that won't participate a lot. But I don't give up. I still try. And at the very least, you can make a suggestion. At least get the employee to respond and give you their opinion about your suggestion.

All right. Now what about-- here's where we get from step two to step three. So step two is the employee giving you their thoughts, their opinions, their recommendations, their input, their ideas. Let's say you don't love all of their ideas. And that's going to happen, right? Sometimes someone is going to give you an idea, and you're going to think, oh, that's not going to work real well. We're in step three. Step three is where you build-- that's your partnering step where you're listening to their input, and giving your suggestions, and building on their ideas.

Building is a wonderful communication skill. So first and foremost, when someone gives you their ideas, the last thing you want to do is categorically dismiss them or say that won't work. So don't see it as all or nothing. When an employee gives you their ideas, find something you can build on. Agree in part. And so let's say the employee says, about the new report, well, I think we should do A, B, C. And you're thinking to yourself, A could work. B and C, probably not. So build on that to say, hey, I love A. A's a great idea. I think A will work really well with the new report.

B and C I'm not so sure about because of what upper management is looking for here. But I love A. Let's start with A. What about if we added D to A? What about if we did A and D? Do you think A and D can work well together? And that's where you're going back and forth with the employee.

That's where you're going back and forth with the employee, and you're putting-- this is where two heads are better than one. And you're working together to come up with a collaborative idea that that'll be better than either of you that would come up with on your own. I love this. It's a wonderful opportunity to bring our ideas together and come up with even better suggestions or even better solutions.

And then last but not least, step four would be agree to any follow-up actually be taken, which is important too. Sometimes when work as assigned, sometimes we don't tie down-- we might have a due date, but we don't tie down any-- touch base a couple weeks in just to see how it's going. Or so agree to any follow-up action to be taken and when you'll discuss any follow up.

All right. So that's the first example. Now let me talk about-- let's talk about solving a problem. This one is pretty straightforward as well. So again, your role in solving a problem with an employee is, again, not to be the problem-solver. It's to be the facilitator of working with the employee to get the problem solved. It's a different approach. It's a different attitude. And again, it's keeping the employees engaged and showing them respect.

And so you go to the employee and say, hey, we've got this situation going on. I'm concerned. Here's what's happening. Here's what my concerns are. We need to come up with a solution. What are your thoughts? Have you had experience with this kind of thing? Have you seen this kind of problem in the past? What are your thoughts? What do you think we should do to solve this?

That's the ideal. And again, if you have to drill down and pull it out of the employee to say, OK, maybe you haven't had experience with this specific idea, but let's brainstorm. You've been here several years. You know our environment, or you know this client, you know our citizens. Let's brainstorm. What do you think might be-- do you have maybe some thoughts about what might be a helpful part of solving this problem or what direction should we be looking in or what might be something we could try? So stay in there with the employee.

Again, if they give you an idea, and you only like part of it, that's where building comes in. So when they say-- let's say this time they say, I think we should do X, Y, Z. And you think yourself X and Y, I think could work well here, D probably not so well. So I say to that employee, so I love X and Y. I think that should be a part of our solution for sure. I appreciate you thinking about that. I like that idea. Z, I don't think we'll work here because of that, because of-- you explain because of whatever.

But what about if we did X, Y and added A into that mix? Do you think A could work with X and Y? Do you think that could be part of our solution? And then you go back and forth and, again, come to an agreement on a collaborative solution. Works really well when you practice it. And it really keeps employees really engaged and makes them feel really respected. I even do this in groups. I use this approach when I'm leading group meeting.

I'll facilitate a lot of brainstorming meetings where I'll be playing the role of facilitator in the meeting. And it's funny, 20 years ago, I used to be doing 90% of the talking in team meeting going through my agenda. I saw that as me directing the meeting because I'm the boss, and that's part of my role. Now I see myself as a facilitator of the meeting. Sure, I have a lot of input into the agenda. But I introduce each part of the agenda, and then I ask a lot of questions, get people brainstorming around the different aspects of the agenda, get their input throughout.

And we come out of those meeting-- there's more conversation, they're more engaged, we get better ideas. It works really, really well, and it's a much more motivating and engaging process for the employees. So all right. Let me let me go through a couple more examples.

Correcting performance-- and this one is important as well. A lot of folks that take a directive approach, a lot of leaders to take a directive approach, when they call someone in to discuss a performance deficit-- let's say they turned in some work that the supervisor feels like is subpar. So typically, they'll bring someone in and be directive about it and say to the person, here's what I don't like about this work. You missed the boat here. I need you to take it back and do this, this, and this instead, and let me know when it's done.

I want you to see that, although that's not mean, and it's pretty direct, it is directive in terms of its prescribing how the employee should fix something. Employees are not going to feel really respected when they're told what they're doing wrong and how to fix it. It almost feel like, in some way, like you're getting your hand slapped or like you're being, again-- you're capabilities or ideas aren't being respected. Your input is not being respected. And it can feel uncomfortable for the employee. So that's why I don't use a directive approach anymore.

So when I bring an employee in to talk about work that maybe isn't as high quality as it could have been-- and of course, I always start by complimenting a part of it that I like. And I think all of us know that, right? You should always-- before you criticize or critique someone's work, we should always give them some recognition. Give them some encouragement about the parts of the world that you did like, right? So I start there. So I'm in step one. But then I point out the performance deficit.

So for example, I'll say, this month's report wasn't as high quality as the ones you normally turn it. I was just wondering why. It was a lot briefer. It didn't have any attachments. I was wondering why this one was so much briefer than most your reports. And give the employee a chance to tell you why. And let's say the employee says something along the lines of, well, I was busy this month. I had too much on my plate. I didn't have as much time, so I just kind of threw it together because I knew I needed to get it to you by the 30th.

And then you can say the employee, OK, I understand. I get behind the eight ball sometimes. There's months where I'm not as on top of things as normal or when I have too much on my plate, so I can relate to that. But this report, of course, is really important. This goes to senior management.

So we need to make sure that each of these reports is as comprehensive as possible. So let's brainstorm here. What could you do-- if I give you a couple more days, what could you do to beef this up and get it back to the level of the typical report that you turn in? And then give the employee an opportunity to let you know what they're going to do to improve the report.

And again, if you don't like all of their suggestions, build on those suggestions. Say, hey, I like that part, but could you also add this piece. I think our senior director is going to want to see this piece. So that's, again, in step three, where you're going back and forth and coming up with a collaborative solution, something that-- the best of both of your ideas. And then step four, again, is agreeing, can you get that back to me here by Friday? And so you're coming up with whatever follow-up steps need to be addressed.

Now, I know we covered a lot in a very short period of time today. Oh, let me do one more. I'm sorry, let me do one more before open it up for questions. I promised I would also cover coaching interpersonal skills. Because this is something that happens from time to time. And so let's say you've got an employee who's an extrovert like me and talks a lot.

And lately you've noticed, in your team meetings, this employee has been dominating conversation. Now, on one hand, you don't want to discourage them from giving input, because they're a good employee. But on the other hand, you want them to be more aware of the fact that they're overtalking and other employees are not getting a chance to weigh in, especially people that are less extroverted.

And so, again, you bring the employee in. Step one, let him know that, hey, I love your contributions. I always start with something positive. I love your input. I love your enthusiasm in our team meetings. But I do need to point out something I've noticed the last couple of meetings. I've noticed that you've ended up dominating a lot of the conversation.

And are you aware of that? Were you aware? And let's say the employee says, no, I really wasn't aware. And you say, no, it's really true. I mean, you always-- because you're extroverted, you're enthusiastic, you always have great contributions.

But the last couple of meetings, you've kind of gone on and on and on in some of the things we've been talking about. And some of the newer employees have not had a chance to give any input. And so I wanted to ask you, what-- I don't want to discourage you from giving input because you have great ideas, and you're a leader on our team. But what could you do in future meetings to give good input, but be more aware of and allow for others to have more input into the conversations as well.

Let's say the employee comes back and says, OK, well I'm glad you pointed that out to me. I wasn't aware. What I could do, I think, is after I start to give some ideas, I could remember to ask other people, does anyone have anything else to add? And then you say to the employee, that's a great idea. I love that idea. I think that would be a great way for you to still be able to take a leadership role and give the good input that you give, but also be able to pull others into the conversation as well. So there's another example of how you can use the coaching approach.

All right, folks, again, we've covered a lot in a very short period of time. We still have time for some questions. And so, again, if you have any questions today, if you could type them into the Question mark in your GoToWebinar software in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. And we do have time for quite a few questions today, probably about another 10 minutes or so. So we'll get to get to, hopefully, most of your questions. Again, you'll find the Question box in the upper right-hand corner of your screen in the GoToWebinar software.

All right. A couple of folks have said they need copies of the first and second webinars. If you don't have those webi-- if you weren't able to attend or you attended and need copies, just please send emails. You've got my contact information there, but the most straightforward way to do it would be to hit Reply to your GoToWebinar invitation for today and just ask our staff to send you copies to the ones that you missed. Again, the earlier topics were Creating a Culture of Improved Employee Engagement and How to Effectively Onboard and Engage Your Employees.

All right. So here we've got our first question. We've got some good questions already today. Thank you, folks. Ooh, as an introvert, I'm hearing you couple introversion with this disengagement. The two are very different. I appreciate you saying that. And I apologize because I did not mean to couple introversion with disengagement.

As an-- and this is back to the question-asker. As an introvert, I'm likely to need time to process and think. That doesn't mean that I'm not engaged. The best way to engage me is to present an issue and then give me time to think rather than expected me to answer right away.

Thank you for that. That's wonderful input, folks. And again, please accept my apology. I did not mean to infer that being introverted is being not engaged, not at all. That's just a communication style. So as most of you know, folks that are more extroverted, they tend to be a little bit more verbal and a little bit more expressive, not always, but can have that tendency. And sometimes you'll find folks that are a little bit more reserved, a little bit less verbal.

But what your colleague here just said that's very insightful is, typically, folks who are more reserved and more introverted like to think before they speak. They like to have a chance to think about what they're going to say before they say it. So a lot of times, if you're an extroverted manager, if you're asking someone who's more introverted a question, make sure you don't ask a question, then move on.

Give them an opportunity just like your colleague here said. It's great input. Give them an opportunity to think about what they're going to say and process what they're going to say. So absolutely. Thank you for that. That was very important for you to make that distinction. Thank you.

All right, next question. There are times in my life when I'm less receptive to coaching than others. Any tips or tricks about how to coach someone who's in a period of being less coachable than others? Another great question. I appreciate this. Yes, and you're right. People are going to be-- depending on the mood they're in, depending on how they're approached by their leader, depending on the subject matter and whether it's comfortable for them or not, you're right. Sometimes people are going to be less coachable than others. And I appreciate that.

I guess my number one suggestion to all of us supervisors on the call today is that, if you more regularly ask people for input, you're going to get different responses from them at different times based on how comfortable they are, based on the subject matter that you're talking about, based on the dynamic between the two of you as you interact together.

And so my goal would be to more consistently-- that's why I was talking about creating a coaching habit-- is to more consistently, respectfully recognize that people have good ideas, and that we don't know it all as supervisors. And as an organization, we're going to come up with better solutions, better work plans, better ideas, better performance improvement initiatives if we work together and if we're giving people a chance to weigh in and share their ideas.

Plus it's more comfortable for people. They're going to feel more respected. They're going to be more motivated. It creates a better culture. It makes people feel better about working in an environment where their ideas are respected and solicited on a regular basis.

But you're right. Let's stay open. So you're going to get different responses from different people at different times. You're right. Sometimes people are going to be engaged and really coachable. And other times, they're going to be maybe a little bit less receptive depending on, again, the content of the conversation, the dynamic between you and that person, whether they feel comfortable. And so I really appreciate that. Thank you, again, for asking that question. That was great.

All right. So some other folks have asked for copies again. We're getting some additional copies about this. If you want copies of these presentations, again, just hit Reply on your and your GoToWebinar software today and ask for a copy of the PowerPoint. I'd be happy to share it to you. All right. We've got several more questions. This is great, folk, thank you for being so thoughtful.

All right, here's a good one. When it comes to coaching on interpersonal skills, do you have any ideas or approaches on how to approach in place who isolate themselves? That's a great question. Building a good team-- I mean so much research nowadays about team-building, about having a good team environment. One of the top reasons why people stay in an organization is they like who they work with. But of course, people are all different, and people sometimes are competitive, and they won't necessarily just bond by themselves. It takes a leader to foster and create an environment where people can have good connections together.

And so if you've got people on the team that they're isolating themselves, that are not participating much, are real quiet in team meetings, you want to try to draw that person out respectfully. And so I would want to bring them in and bring them in and coach them a little bit and just say, hey, I've noticed in team meetings you don't you haven't been contributing a whole lot. I wondered why that is. And just have a conversation, and get to know that person to say, hey, let them know that I think you've got some great ideas. And I think the team would really value hearing from you. And you bring a lot to the table.

And I also appreciate having you on the team. I think you're a great part of our team, an important part of our team. I just think your colleagues would benefit from hearing from you more often or being able to connect with you more often. And then ask them, in what ways might you be more comfortable getting more involved?

And as a supervisor, you can create environments. If you've got cliques that have formed on your team. Let's say you get six people on your team, and you find three or four of them hang out together, and a couple of them seem to be-- a couple of the employees seem to be on the outside looking in because they're not part of the clique. You can do more team activities to encourage people to get to know each other better.

Ice breakers at the beginning a meeting-- one I did with my team recently-- and I've got a couple of introverts and an extrovert on my team-- was to say, let's go around the room and say, everyone talk about your favorite concert of all time and why you loved it, why it was great a great concert. And so we get to know each other doing ice breakers. And we go off-site sometimes for team meetings. In November we're going to go off-site and do a team. Last year, we went bowling together.

And so sometimes it, helps if you've got people who are isolated, to bring them into the fold and get them bonded with their other teammates. You can do it one on one through coaching, but you can also do it through team-building activities. Great question. Thank you. All right, got time for several more questions. This is great, folks, thank you. Here's another one. What would you recommend when you ask an employee for their input, and they are almost always all negative? That's a great question.