Association for Training and Development (ASTD) OD/Leadership Network News, January 2005

 

The Difference Between Managing Performance and Coaching

By Jennifer Long

How a business thinks about its employees has changed. We now deal with human capital, not employees. In our knowledge economy, we understand how important people are. Yet, how effective are we at discussing and developing the performance of our human capital? People are the biggest expense on the balance sheet and can make the biggest impact on the balance sheet. Therefore, developing and driving managers who deal with performance issues is essential to business growth and profitability.

How much time do your managers spend having meaningful conversations about performance issues? Is this a daily event or it is reserved for quarterly, semi-annual, and annual reviews? Do your managers really get to the meat of performance issues when having these discussions?

Most organizations fall flat when dealing with day-to-day performance issues. Yet, it’s this aspect of performance management that makes or breaks the high-performance culture we’re all trying to achieve. Managers typically spend more time solving problems than they do driving performance. Instead, they should work at two distinct levels:

        1.      Day-to-day performance management.

         2.     Continuous coaching for development.