Hello, everyone. Welcome to advance coaching skills for leaders. This is the final topic in the 2022 Deer Oaks Leadership Certificate webinar series. I'm Greg Brannan from Deer Oaks. Good to be with you today. Before we get started, I want to remind you that this series began at the beginning of the year. It's a quarterly series, as it has been for the past several years.

And if you remember the criteria-- if you attend or view the recording of all four of the topics, all four of the quarterly topics here during 2022, with this one being the final one-- we started this year back on March 28th with How to Hire the Right Employees. Came back on June 26th and presented Creating a Culture of Improved Employee Engagement. And then on September 26th, we presented How to Motivate a Multigenerational Work Team. And today, of course, it's Advanced Coaching Skills for Leaders.

Well, if you've already gotten credit, either by attending the live presentation for the three previous sessions, and of course you're logged on today, or even if you missed one of the live presentations earlier in the year, if you're requested a copy of the recording link, you could also get credit by viewing the recording link. We're able to track attendance for both live attendance and for those that view the recording links. You will receive, at the end of 2022, the Deer Oaks Leadership Certificate.

And we've had well over, I believe, 2,000 people now that have received the certificate over the last several years. Again, we've got a great turnout today. If you missed any of the sessions and you'd still like to qualify for your 2022 Deer Oaks Leadership Certificate, all you have to do is hit Reply to your Go To Webinar invitation for today, or the reminder for today, and just request either the-- to request, I'm sorry, the recording link for any of the previous sessions that you missed.

Again, in March, we did How to Hire the Right Employees. In June, we did Creating a Culture of Improved Employee Engagement. And in September, we did How to Motivate a Multigenerational Work Team. And so again, in addition to today's session, if you missed any of those prior sessions and you still want to qualify for your leadership certificate, it's not too late. All you have to do is, again, hit Reply to your Go To Webinar invitation for today, a reminder for today, and ask our staff to please send you the recording link for the topic that you missed.

I'll remind you of that again here at the end. Now again, before we jump into today's conversation, I want to make sure our technology is working for us. If you could please locate the Raise Hand icon in the Go To Webinar software in the upper, right-hand corner of your screen. And if you can see the slides clearly and hear my voice clearly, 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 educational presentations provided by Deer Oaks, participants or in Listen Only mode. What I mean by that, of course, is you won't be able to audibly ask questions during the formal part of the presentation, which will last somewhere around 25 to 30 minutes, give or take today.

But your questions are important to me. And so once we get to the formal part of the presentation or get through the formal part of the presentation, I'll invite you to submit questions by typing them into the question box in the Go To Webinar software. Again, you'll find that in the upper, right-hand corner of your screen.

And we'll get to as many questions as time allows today. We do have well over 200 people in attendance today. So we may get more questions than we'll have time to cover. But I do commit that we'll get to as many as we can before we wrap up today. So let's go ahead and get started folks.

All right. Let me start with the benefits of coaching. Coaching was a game-changer for me. I've been a supervisor now. I'm a supervisor for Deer Oaks. I've been a supervisor for going on 28 years. And at the beginning of my supervisory career, I didn't have great coaching skills. I was a pretty directive supervisor. I'm a bottom line oriented person. So I made a habit of giving a lot of direction, making a lot of suggestions.

When I would interact with people, I was pretty direct on how I would guide the process. I wasn't doing a good job of asking people for input, and getting the employees engaged in the work we were doing, and those kinds of things. And those are the kinds of coaching skills that I had to learn. Fortunately, over the years, with experience and getting some better training, I was able to become more of a coach. And it's been a game-changer for me.

I have had such better feedback from employees. We've had better results in the work that we do as a team because we work together. We collaborate. And that's what coaching is. Coaching is a collaborative process. I'll talk a lot about that here in a few moments. But let me start with some of the research, just to reinforce the importance of becoming more of a collaborative coach.

When employees are working for a collaborative coach, they tend to onboard 67% faster. Now this is research from both the Human Capital Institute and the International Coaching Federation. In addition, when individual employees work for a supervisor that's an effective coach, they experience 79-- they're 79% more likely to get engaged. So coaching does lead to greater engagement with employees.

When a leader, when a supervisor is an effective coach, they end up realizing 81% improved team functioning. So teams work more cohesively together when they're working for a leader who regularly coaches them. There's 71% faster leadership development because coaching is a collaborative process. And it really involves employees in the work. It really does.

And it keeps them very involved and engaged. They grow faster. They learn how to do things on their own faster. They become better leaders more quickly. And so, of course, that's obviously an important factor for all of us when we're doing team building and trying to maximize productivity in our teams. And then the bottom line, of course, of every supervisor is to have a productive team, right?

When you regularly use a coaching approach, the research shows that you can realize as much as a 79% increase in productivity. And again, this is research from two renowned organization, the Human Capital Institute and the International Coaching Federation. And that really reinforces for me the importance of being less directive in our approach and more of a collaborative coach.

All right. So let's start with a little bit more of the rationale for becoming more of a collaborative coach. And so, I think, as most of us recognize, in an environment where a leader is collaborative-- and I'll define collaborative as is regularly partnering with employees, bringing them into the process, asking for their input, collaborating on work plans, working together to solve problems, less dictating what they want them to do, less direct in how they're guiding people to work and more collaborative, more of a team more together. It's more of a we than an I.

And so what we want to be thinking about is we don't want to be supervisors that primarily dictate or direct. We want to be more collaborative. We want to work together. And this was a problem I had early in my career. And I've worked-- I've also, as many of you probably have as well, worked for a couple of bosses over the years that were very directive. That were telling-- that when they would assign work, they tell me what to do and how to do it.

If there was a problem, they would always be dictating what the solution would be. If I had a performance issue, they would be telling me what I needed to do to improve my performance rather than working with me and giving me input into the process. And that's what I want to be thinking about. Because when a manager-- the research shows, when a manager dictates too much-- obviously, there's a time to be directive when you're leading. I think we all that.

I mean, if there's only one way to do something, it's fine to be directive. And at times, we have to be bottom line oriented and direct things, right? But if our but if we're too directive, where we're excessively directive, where that's the way we're primarily interacting with people-- and unfortunately, those were my habits early on, on the first couple of teams I managed 25 plus years ago.

I was way too directive. And I came to realize that I had-- morale wasn't always great on the team. I had more turnover than I would have wanted. And my teams-- my early teams weren't as productive as they could have been.

And then, as I started to learn more about the value of being more collaborative and more respectful in my approach, and to draw people more into the process, start to partner on the development of work plans, get employees involved in solving problems or correcting issues, and even when correcting performance, really being collaborative in that approach, I mean, I really started to see a big difference in morale, and how engaged employees got, and how productive that they were at the end of the day.

And again, the research shows that if you're respectful-- if you're respectful in the way that you interact with your staff-- and collaboration is a respectful communication approach, right? You're working with someone. You're regularly showing interest in their ideas. You're showing that you value their capabilities. You're bringing people into the process instead of just dictating it yourself-- employees, again, are going to feel more apart of things. They're going to tend to take more ownership. They'll buy in more often because they're involved. They have a say.

My daughter told me-- it really helped me with this earlier in my career. My daughter, who's an adult now, once said, dad, everybody needs a voice. And I really appreciated her sharing that. And I've gone out of my way, as I've gotten better at this, to make sure that I'm always giving people a say, giving them a voice, showing respect for their ideas.

And it's interesting. In addition to creating a more respectful environment for the team, when you're regularly asking people for their input, you get better solutions, right? Because I think we all that the boss doesn't what all, the supervisor does and it all. We have some ideas but two heads are better than one. The more people can get involved in conversations, whether it's, again, creating a work plan or solving a problem, the better the solutions you're going to come up with, right? Two heads are definitely better than one. And so, again, collaboration creates a respectful culture.

Now the number one thing American employees say-- this was a study by SHRM, the Society for Human Resources Management that many of you on this call today may belong to-- is that the number one non-financial motivator for employees in America is being treated with respect when they come to work. So when you come to work and you have a supervisor that's really respectful, really collaborative-- because collaboration and showing interest in people's ideas demonstrates respect, makes people feel respected-- that's going to meet employees' needs and, again, lead them to be more engaged and more productive.

All right. So now let's drill down a little bit into the characteristics of coaching. So coaching does just what we're talking about here. Coaching creates a collaborative environment, which improves employee motivation. And it makes employees feel more respected. And when people feel more respected and more valued, they're more likely to be motivated to do their best work.

And again, the way it mechanically works, obviously, is it engages people in the process by giving them input, and giving them a voice, and encouraging them to be involved in the work plans, be involved in finding solutions to issues or problems, getting people involved if there's performance issues and bringing performance up to more acceptable standards. And the other part that I love about coaching is it's not confrontational.

I remember 20 years ago when I was working with some individuals that were tough to deal with-- I think we all have in place from time to time that are difficult to interact with, and can get defensive, and push back a lot or be argumentative. There was just the people that I would just, if I would need to go talk to them, based on previous experience, I would hesitate to go have those conversations because of the stress of having a conversation with someone that's difficult to get along with, or who's going to push back or be argumentative.

But as I learned coaching skills, which again, is to be more collaborative. It's more to work together with people, bring them into the process. It's not as confrontational, which makes it more comfortable, typically, for the supervisor and the employee to participate in the process. You get much less pushback when you're collaborative. Because collaboration is about-- it's we. We're doing it together.

And the process in becoming more of a coach really is to learn how to be more inquisitive, to consistently practice asking people for questions instead of giving specific direction when you're communicating. And this was something that took me a while to learn. And some of it's my personality. I'm an extrovert, and so I talk a lot. And so I had to learn how to rein that in a little bit more and learn how to ask people a lot more questions.

But over the years, the way I've disciplined myself to be more of a collaborative coach is to catch myself becoming too directive, giving too many suggestions, making too many recommendations, and disciplining myself to consistently ask people as often as I can, what do you think? Have you ever been in a situation like this? How did you how did you resolve this the last time? Before you came to work here, did your organization ever experience this kind of a problem? What did they do to solve it?

To facilitate brainstorming conversations-- folks, I do a lot of that nowadays. My team meetings used to be really directive of 20 years ago as well, where I would go in as the supervisor with my agenda. And I would go down the agenda. I might have 8 or 10 things on my agenda. And I would go through the agenda. And the participants, the team members, the staff, would typically be kind of quiet because I wasn't doing a good job of bringing them into the conversation.

I was kind of going through my agenda and directing the process. But as I learned how to be more collaborative and started to talk a little bit less and ask people for their opinion and their input a lot more, our conversations became brainstorming sessions. And our team meetings nowadays-- at Deer Oaks, I have team meetings once a week. Our team meetings have become much more collaborative.

So instead of having 8 or 10 topics to sort of direct through and to drive the process myself, nowadays, I'll facilitate the meeting by saying, here's a couple of things we want to talk about today. Does anyone else have anything you want to cover? And then, I'll just try to facilitate instead of direct, more facilitate a conversation, a brainstorming conversation around those topics with our team.

And I've noticed that our team gets much more engaged. The meetings tend to go a little bit longer because people are into it. I mean, they've taken ownership. And they're really going-- they get into some of these topics that we're talking about. And they're taking ownership of it. They're showing a lot of enthusiasm. It's really improved the morale of the team. I really love to see that. And I can't tell you-- I can't overstate this-- it's such a game-changer for me.

If I would have videotaped one of my team meetings 20 years ago where I was doing most of the talking, and I could sometimes see the staff's eyes start to glaze over because I was going on, and on, and on. And I was sharing important content, but I just didn't have the skill back then to really bring people into the conversation more consistently versus now, where I may be doing-- where then I was doing 80% of the talking. Now, maybe I'm doing 20% or 30% of the talking. And the team is taking ownership of the content. And they're the ones carrying the conversation.

It's made all the difference in the world. And as a result, people take ownership. And then after the meetings, they're much more motivated, I've noticed, to follow through and do the work. And I think that's what really drives productivity for us. And so one of my goals to become more of a coach is just to regularly ask a lot of questions and to use that approach in most of my interactions, both formally and informally.

So coaching-- it happens sometimes in scheduled meetings, either face-to-face, or telephonic meetings, or virtual meetings using Teams, or Zoom, or virtual platform. But it also happens a lot-- if you commit to this kind of a process, it also happens a lot informally, where you're just chatting with people about something and you just remember to say, what do you think? Have you have you ever experienced this before? What are your ideas? What would you like to see happen here? That's made all the difference in the world.

It's funny how I-- a little way that I discipline myself to go from being too directive 20 years ago to becoming, over the years, a little bit more collaborative. And now, I'm a lot more collaborative. At first, I used little, yellow sticky notes to remind me when I was working in my office, and I was on the phone a lot, to remind me to ask questions, just to, again, being an extrovert and having the habit of being too directive, I would find myself going on and on.

And I would catch myself and say, what do you think? Do you have any suggestions? Have you ever experienced this before? Again, just getting in the habit of asking people for input. And then, I started to integrate this into my personal life. I ask my wife a lot more questions nowadays than I used to. Like where I would used to go up to my wife when we were planning weekend recreation and say, here's what I want to do this weekend? And now, I go up to her and say, hey, honey, what do you want to do this weekend?

Or if we're thinking about-- if we're talking about going to a movie, I used to always give a suggestion. I'd like to see this. And nowadays, I'm much more likely to go up to my wife and say, what movie do you want to see this weekend? And it really makes a difference. It makes a difference. And I think you all that, right? It makes a difference in the way we converse.

And people just feel much more-- when they work for a supervisor that asked them for their input regularly-- there was a Harvard study where supervisors that regularly ask their team for input, and ask them a lot of questions, and show interest in them, and their ideas, and their input, it just really, really improves how they feel about working with that supervisor, and how they feel about their leadership. And it motivates people to get more engaged, to do their best work, and really feel better about working for that organization. So it makes a big, big difference.

Now, on the other side on the flip side of this-- and we're going to get down into some how-tos-- on the flip side of this, I wanted to share a story from someone that was not managed by someone who was very collaborative and what the negative consequences can be. So I was talking-- about five years ago, give or take-- to a young city planner for in a municipality that I was working with at the time. And I was asking them what their relationship was with their supervisor.

And when I ask that question, I could tell I hit a sensitive spot because the gentleman's face got very kind of intense. And he said, you know what? Let me tell you about that. He says, because I've worked for this guy. He says, and I'm really uncomfortable with my boss. And I said, why? He said, I've worked for this guy for two years. And he says the guy has never-- he never asks me for my input about anything. The only time he talks to me is to tell me what to do.

And he was a younger guy. He says, dude, I have a master's degree in city planning, but he never seems to care that I might have some ideas. I've got a brain. And again, he just-- every time he sees me, he just directs me. Do this. Do that. Do this. And he said, I feel like a tool. I feel like I'm just being bossed around all the time. And then, he said the bottom line. He said, I don't know how long I'm going to stay here. I'm really uncomfortable in this environment. I don't like working for this guy.

And that really reinforced-- because I remembered, right? When I heard that story, I remembered that I was a lot that way earlier in my career. And I, likewise, had a lot of negative results. And I had to make some changes. I had to learn how to become more collaborative in my approach and to become more of a coach. And so that, again, reinforces why it's important for us to embrace more of a coaching approach.

All right. So here's an outline for approaching a coaching conversation. Again, this can be informal or formal. It can be on the telephone. It can be in person. You can do it through email. My boss, our executive director at Deer Oaks, is very collaborative in her approach. And she's great to work for. She'll send me an email and say, hi, Greg. We're dealing with this situation. What are your thoughts? And then just wait for me to respond. I mean, that's a collaborative email, right?

I mean, it's pulling me into the process, giving me input into the situation. And it always makes me feel-- it makes me feel great. It makes me feel like she values my opinion. It makes me feel cared about. I love it. I love working for her. And a lot of it's because she's a really good coach. And so let's think about a three-step coaching approach.

And so if you're visual like I am-- this isn't a script, but I'm going to use it as a little bit of a guideline. And then, we'll do a bunch of examples. Step one would be you as the supervisor introducing the topic. And so, for example, let's say that you're assigning work to someone. And you call him in or you jump on a Team's call together, whatever the case may be, and you're getting ready to assign the work.

Our role is the supervisor is really just to introduce the conversation. Here's what I need to talk to you about and why. So here, I've got a new project to assign to you. I think you're going to like this because I know you enjoy working on these kinds of projects. And I think you're going to do a great job with it. But we don't go further than that. In a coaching approach-- in the old directive approach, I would go right into saying, and here's what I want you to do to get the job done.

And I'd start dictating not only what to do but how to do it. I'd get down into the weeds of giving direction as to how to accomplish this or how to complete the work. Nowadays, I'll stop at it, here's the scope of the project. I think you'll do a great job at it. And then, I'll go into step-- is where collaboration happens-- and say, what do you think we should do to get this done? What should the work plan be?

And give the employee an opportunity to weigh in on the work plan, to give their suggestions, to get into a conversation. And not that you can't make suggestions. You can. But let's make sure that we give our employees the opportunity to give input. Again, when employees feel like their input is valued and their supervisor's interested in their opinion, again, they're going to feel more respected, and more cared, about more valued.

And that tends to really increase motivation and lead them to take ownership. And they'll typically do a better job with the project as a result. And so let's remember not to be too directive in how we're dictating that the work be done. But let's regularly ask people for their input and partner with them on developing that work plan.

And then, step three would be, if you ask the employee what the work plan should be and they say ABC. And you don't agree with all of that, that's where you build on people's ideas. And this is another skill that I've really embraced over the last 10 years or so. And it really makes a difference. Because the last thing you want to do, if you ask people for their input, and they give you their input, is to just shoot it down, right? That kind of defeats the purpose of trying to be collaborative.

So when you ask and they say-- let's say they say ABC. And I'm being hypothetical. And you say-- you realize that A might work, but B and C maybe not in this environment. So maybe A and D. You say that to the employee. You build on their idea. And you say something along the lines of A is a great idea. I definitely think it should be part of the work plan. But in this case, B and C I don't think are going to work because our department head has already said he doesn't like that approach, or she doesn't like that approach.

And so why don't we do A and D? What do you think about that? And now step three really is the back and forth, where you're building on each other's ideas. And I find that process flows really, really, really well. And the way to make that work is to just stay very aware that it's a two-way conversation. You don't want to ever allow yourself to just kind of get on your soapbox and start dictating things, right?

Now there's nothing wrong with given your opinion, absolutely, as long as you're also asking the employee for their opinion. So you can go back and forth and work together to come up with the best work plan. So that's one example. Now, I want to talk about some additional skills. And we'll do some more examples.

So let's talk about the questioning skills to keep conversations moving along. It takes some patience. Because in step two, if you're asking people, what do you think we should do to get this done? And let's say you're working with someone who's maybe less or more introverted, and they're not very forthcoming. And so you'll end up-- you could end up in a situation where the employee is not giving you much input. And so you could be tempted just to take it over again and say, all right, here's what I think we should do and just start to dictate the solution.

But be patient in step two. That's the step where employees really get a voice. So really take the time to drill down. And I even say things to people who are not very forthcoming. And people are not forthcoming for different reasons. Sometimes it's their personality, that they're kind of introverted. Other times, maybe they're not as engaged, and they're being a little bit more passive about the conversation.

But I try to stay in there and say, I don't know it all. I need your help here. I know you've been here 10 years. And you have a lot of experience. I need your help. Do you mind brainstorming with me? And you may have to drill down a little bit. If you ask an open question, and they don't give you much of a response, you may need to just kind of probe a little bit more and to say, well, OK, you may not have any ideas right off the top of your head. But could we brainstorm together maybe times in the past where one of us have seen this kind of situation worked on? And maybe we could come up with some additional outside-of-the-box ideas.

So you can facilitate a brainstorming conversation. But I really try to spend some time making sure the employee knows that I'm really interested in their thinking. And more times than not, I'd say probably 2/3 of the time when I'm asking people for their input, they'll participate. And when they don't, I just try to hang in there and not be too quick to get back to directing and giving my suggestion. I try to hang in there a little bit, and probe a little bit more, and give people some additional opportunity to share their thoughts or their previous experience.

And then step three, folks, that's the back and forth. To think about this, most important decisions are made collaboratively in life, right? I mean, think about family decisions are typically made by multiple members of the family, at least that's the ideal, is you get people working together. In a business setting or an organizational setting, most important decisions have multiple people giving input.

And so this is the process of just kind of working together intentionally, recognizing that everyone's viewpoint is valuable, and that two heads are better than one, and just kind of hanging in there and brainstorming together. And the building thing I wanted to talk about, this has been a really important life skill for me, and business skill for me, building on ideas. Because I try to-- I used to be when someone would give an idea that I didn't like, I would be more direct about it and say, I don't think that's going to work. I've tried that before. I don't think that's going to work.

And then it would get quiet. And then, I realized that was not the right way to handle that, right? I was pretty much discouraging the employee by really disagreeing with their idea. Now sometimes you are going to disagree with some of what an employee is saying, right? Sometimes you're going to disagree with all of what they're saying.

But building is the process of keeping the conversation going and finding something about what the employee shared that you can build on. To be able to say, I can really appreciate where you're coming from with that. I don't know if that whole idea that you just shared is going to work and here's why. But that first part you shared, I think could really help us here. And so can we brainstorm that together and flesh that out a little bit more, that first part?

And really work with the employee to help them see that you're interested in their ideas. You see merit in at least some of their ideas. And hang in there with the employee to sort of flesh that out. And it really does help the employee feel more respected and cared about. And it helps them to think. It helps them come up with those ideas on their own.

Remember, we were talking about earlier that one of the benefits of coaching is there's faster leadership development. Because coaching provides an environment where employees are regularly encouraged to flesh out their ideas, and to do some critical thinking, to brainstorm. And then we learn from each other. And so now at the very least, let's say an employee is not being forthcoming at all. And that happens sometimes, right? You'll get an employee that either really doesn't care about the content of the conversation you're talking about or is maybe disengaged.

And for you to say to them, well, what about this? I was thinking this approach. And you can float your ideas. That wouldn't be the first thing I would do. But if you've got an employee that's just not getting engaged with you, and you definitely want to have them at least weigh in a little bit, you can make do one of those trial balloons where you share an idea you're thinking about. And ask the employee what they think about that. So at least you're giving them the respect and the opportunity to weigh in on your idea. So that's another strategy you can do while you're building on ideas.

All right. Let's do a few more examples, folks. Again, I just, I can't talk about this more. This has been such a game-changer for me. My conversations went with me doing most of the-- went from me doing most of the talking 20, 25 years ago and employees motivation being so-so to we're working together consistently, where I'm regularly remembering to bring people into the conversation, show interest in their ideas, and get their input regularly.

Again, coming up with better ideas because two heads are better than one, keeping the employees more engaged, and them feeling more respected and value. It's made a huge difference. So we did one scenario about assigning work. Let's talk about solving problems. That's another one it's pretty straightforward.

So again, you would approach the employee and say, hey, we got this issue going on. And I really need your help with this. And here's what's happening. And again, don't give your suggestion for solutions yet. Say to the employee, have you ever experienced anything like this? What are your thoughts? What do you think we should do to solve this? I really need your help. And give them the opportunity and step to weigh in, to make suggestions.

And you can drill down. Again, if they're not immediately forthcoming, you can drill down and say, I know you've been here two years. And you were with XYZ organization before you came here. What about when you were working there? Did you all ever come up against this kind of a situation before? And again, try to give them an opportunity to weigh in. And if they do weigh in, again, if you don't like everything that they're saying with their suggestion, brainstorm with them. Go back and forth in step three and build on their ideas.

Just say, OK, I like I like the first part of that. I think that's a great idea. The second part I'm not sure about. Let's talk that through a little bit more. But I think the first part's fantastic. So explain a little bit more to me about how you see that working and really try to engage the employee, right? And build on each other's ideas. And that's when you can also say, what about this? Could we add this? Here's what I was thinking would be a nice add to your idea.

What do you think about what you're leading with and adding this additional piece? Do you think that would work. And again, giving the employee an opportunity, and you're going back and forth. And it gives you an opportunity to partner with that employee and be equally involved in the process as well. One more that's kind of straightforward I'll talk about is employee professional development.

I think, as we all know, that it's a responsibility of every supervisor to really help our employees grow. And so we want to do a good job of having coaching conversations around professional development or career development from time to time. Kevin Kruse wrote a book called Employee Engagement 2.0, if you're interested in that book. It's a good book. And it's an easy read. Kevin Kruse is spelled K-R-U-S-E, is the last name, K-R-U-S-E, Employee Engagement 2.0.

He was talking about his recommendation is every six months or so, we ought to have a career development, professional development conversation with employees. They need to that we care about their career development and the fact that they're-- and help them to learn new skills, open doors for new opportunities. That's an important part of keeping employees motivated, and helping them grow and become the best they can be. And so we could do the same thing with career development.

So say you're having one of those six-month conversations with the employee. And say, I know we haven't talked about your career development goals. I know a year ago, you were saying you might want to become a supervisor at one time, at some point in the future. Are you still thinking that that's a direction that you want to go. And let's say the employee says, yeah, you know, I'm giving more serious thought to that.

And then, you can get down into step. Well, tell me what that would ideally look like for you. What kind of a supervisory position are you thinking might be a good fit for? And again, instead of just telling the employee what you see is best for them, be asking questions. Let them guide that process. And let's say, I think I would really like an opportunity to be in a job similar to yours. And working with you has really got me more interested in managing this kind of a function.

And so then you can start talking to the employee about that, about what it might take to prepare to be ready to move into a position like that. And so you're going back and forth in step three saying, I'm glad that you're interested. And I'll do everything I can to help you get ready for that and brainstorm. What kinds of opportunities-- what kinds of doors could I open for you to try new things? What kinds of opportunities could I make available to you that might give you some additional experience in this area?

Or you could brainstorm continuing education opportunities, mentoring opportunities and, again, just going back and forth with the employee. And that's, again, using a collaborative process where the two of you are invested together in helping that employee grow and prepare to move in to potential-- or to potentially move in to future leadership opportunities down the road as they avail themselves.

All right, folks. Now I we covered a lot in a very short period of time today. And so I want to do one more coaching scenario that I all of us do from time to time, just to kind of demonstrate how you can address performance concerns in a coaching style. And I want to just go through that as the last one we'll talk about today. Then, I'll open it up for questions.

And so let's say that an employee has turned in some work that you feel is subpar. And so let's say they turned in a monthly report. And you feel like this monthly report just doesn't-- it's just not the same quality as their reports normally are. So you call the employee in. Instead of-- the direct way of critiquing employee performance is you bring them in and tell them what you don't like about it, and what they need to do to improve it. That's being direct, right?

And unfortunately, when we're direct like that, that can make employees feel very uncomfortable, like they're being called to the principal's office, and being corrected, and being told what they did wrong and how to fix it. And we're dealing with adults. Adults want to have some a voice, again, in turning things around, in coming up with action plans and those kinds of things. So I found that whenever I have to correct employee performance, it goes much better if I do it in a collaborative way.

So in this case, I bring them in. And step one would be me just sharing, hey, I got your monthly report. And I like this and this. But I was just wondering, your report-- this month's report is just not as comprehensive as the report you normally turn in, you know how you usually put those charts, and graphs, and extra research in this one. This one just seems a lot more streamlined. And I was just wondering why.

And let's say the employee says in step, the employee says, well, you know what? I was really busy this month. And I didn't have as much time. And so I just tried to kind of throw it together. I just had too much on my plate. And then I would come back with something along the lines of, well, I appreciate that, because I have months where I have a lot going on too. We all do.

But this report is something we can't really streamline because our supervisor, our department head really looks to this report to help shape some of the executive summary he turns into to senior leadership. And so we really need to make sure that we take extra time with these and make them as comprehensive as possible, like the ones you normally turn in. So if I give you a couple more days, what could you do to bring this report back up to the level of quality of your regular reports?

And let the employee come up with what they'll do if they have a little bit more time. Again, instead of telling them how to beef it up, how to make it what you want it to be, give the employee an opportunity to come up with the solution. And there's one truism that I've seen in life, is that people support-- they tend to support what they help to create. That if a human being has input into something, they tend to be more invested in it. They tend to follow through more because it's their idea, right?

We want to follow through and do what we have input into. And so that's what I want to recommend. When you have to correct performance, instead of telling the employee what they did wrong and how to fix it-- which again is you dictating the solution where the employee may or may not be motivated to follow through. They may even be real uncomfortable, feeling like they're maybe getting their hand slapped.

When you bring someone in to talk to them about performance improvement, start with a lot of positives. Let them what your observation is, where the shortfall is, or what needs to be improved. And then ask the employee what they can do to turn it around. And let the employee at least have a voice in creating that corrective action plan. Again, in step three, you can weigh in. If the employee says I'll do ABC, and you want them to do more than that, then you go back and forth. And you work together on that corrective action plan.

But we definitely want to give the employee more input into it. And in my experience, employees typically are much more motivated to follow through and correct performance if they have input into the process, into the corrective action plan. And they generally feel more respected when the supervisor, rather than telling them how to fix something, shows respect and gives them input into how to fix something.

All right, folks. Again, I know I covered a lot in a very short period of time today. Let's open it up for questions. Folks, if you have questions, please, if you could enter them into the question box in the Go To Webinar software in the upper, right-hand corner of the screen. We have plenty of time for questions. We do have close to 300 people on the call today, so we may not be able to get to everyone's questions. But I do commit we'll get to as many as we can.

I generally, when we have a big crowd like we do today, try to go through and grab questions that maybe might have the widest audience appeal. But as you're thinking about questions, also, I do want to remind you, especially for those of you that missed my initial overview of the 2022 Leadership Certificate webinar series at the outset today, this is the fourth in the series. It's a quarterly series. We did four topics.

The first topic back in March was How to Hire the Right Employees. We came back in June and did Creating a Culture of Improved Employee Engagement. The third session in September was How to Motivate a Multigenerational Work Team. And the last session was Advanced Coaching Skills for Leaders we're doing now. If you either attended the four of these live or if you missed some of them live-- you can also view the recording. We have the ability to track attendance both live and via the viewings of the recordings-- you will qualify for the Deer Oaks 2022 Leadership Certificate at the end of this year.

And so, again, if you miss some of those initial sessions earlier in the year and you still want to qualify for the leadership certificate, all you have to do is hit Reply to your Go To Webinar software, or Reply go to Go To Webinar software reminder that you got today for today's session. And just ask our staff, please send me the recording link for either How to Hire the Right Employees, Creating a Culture of Improved Employee Engagement, or How to Motivate a Multigenerational work Team. We'd be happy to send you that recording.

And again, once you either attend in person, or view the recording, or any combination thereof for these four sessions this year, these four quarterly sessions, once you complete that, you will receive the 2022 Deer Oaks Leadership Certificate at the end of the year. All right. Let me get to the questions, folks.

Here's a good one. How do you coach staff in feeling comfortable with a collaboration rather than a directive relationship? I just try to be more conversational with people. That's made a big difference. And that was a shift for me. Again, earlier in my career, I was way too directive. That was my-- that was really my communication style. And again, it was driven, in part, by my extroverted personality and my tendency to talk a lot.