Coaching Problem Performers

Every organization has key players that are in technical support or middle management positions. These people make excellent contributions in their areas of expertise, but some have real problems in other dimensions of their jobs that are equally critical to their overall effectiveness.

Coaching such people in one or a few performance areas tends to produce better results and greater cost-effectiveness than sending them to a more general course or workshop. The help they receive is sharply targeted, allowing them to focus on the critical issues they are deficient in without wasting time on skills they are strong in.

What kinds of performance problems tend to signal the need for this kind of coaching? From our experience, the ones listed below are the most common. This is not an exhaustive list, but a representative and illustrative one that is suggestive of other situations requiring this style of coaching intervention.

1. The person who lacks a specific management or professional skill required by their job—ability to plan, identify priorities, spot problems, mentally organize a grant proposal, speak sensitively to a partner and so on
   
   
2. They need to improve an important relationship at work
   
   
3. They need to think more strategically: to connect short-term activities to long-term goals
   
   
4. They need to confront problem situations, figure out good solutions and energetically implement them
   
   
5. They need to handle workplace disappointments better; to navigate their way through downsizings, reorganizations or a difficult career path
   
   
6. They need to identify and address the performance shortcomings of their team members, provide difficult feedback and take corrective action
   
   
7. They need to undertake the complex process of moving from a traditional hierarchical way of managing people to building effective work teams
   
   
8. They need to do a better job of understanding and embracing the culture of the organization or the community they are in
   
   
9. Most of all, in the complex world of NGOs, they need to learn how to get along with people better, behave collegially, construct workable agreements, make progress and move on with the enterprise

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