Coaching Challenging Employees

Coaching employees is one of the really important jobs that managers have. Coaching can help employees grow and develop and to correct behaviour that isn’t that productive. If the employee’s behaviour is really inappropriate, i.e. they are tactless, arrogant or lacking empathy, the challenge for the manager is that much greater. Before you coach make sure you are looking at that employee fairly. Is their behaviour really what you think it is? Before sitting down to talk to them, prepare what you want to say. Make sure you prepare behavioural examples of where they are not meeting your expectations. Saying “you are arrogant” is not as effective as saying “when we were in a meeting last week you raised your voice at Janet and rolled your eyes at her opinions which upset her.” There is no magic bullet for fixing an employee’s difficult behaviour but solid coaching and behavioural feedback are a great start.