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Welcome back.
As we continue our discussion of common coaching scenarios,
I want to talk about coaching someone who is easily distracted.
This is a perfect example of developmental accountability.
And we're going to go over how to coach these types of employees to develop
a new skill or new thinking.
As in the last video, we'll apply coaching algebra to determine the best solution for
coaching and managing these types of employees, as well as discuss how
to avoid the temptation to over-coach these types of employees, as well.
This is a perfect example of developmental accountability and
how do we coach them to develop new skill or new thinking.
We're going to discuss the traps again to avoid here and
the temptation to under-coach this person and we're going to apply Coaching Algebra
to walk through the best solution for coaching and managing employees.
Okay so, let's talk about what kind of can create distraction for an employee?
There's a lot of different things hard to know but let's just throw a few of them
out, it could be they're lack of skill to prioritize, it could be that the task or
the work they're doing is boring.
It could be that they have something going on in their life that is distracting them,
and pulling their attention away.
It could be that they work in a busy environment, and they can't focus.
It could be that there is another employee who interrupts them all the time.
There are potentials here for a lot of reasons to be distracted.
One of them could be a skill set.
So let's say that employee comes to you and says, yes, I really,
really do want to get my work done, but I get really lost in how to manage the task.
I get really overwhelmed and I don't know how to prioritize.
And we talked about prioritizing and
how to help someone prioritize in our previous module.
We can teach someone, that's a skills transfer.
We can teach someone how to develop that skill.
We can teach people how to set boundaries with employees who interrupt them.
We can teach people how to drown out the distractions
by giving them something else they can use to focus, whether it's using music, or
earbuds, or finding another place for them to work.
There are ways to do this that help them develop a new skill.
Distracted employees, so if you put distracted in our
action line of our thought model, what feeling drives distraction?
It could be confusion, it could be overwhelmed, it could be boredom.
And so, anyone of those feelings are driven by a particular thought,
I don't like my job,
I'm overwhelmed by my job, I can't focus with all this people around and
then that sort of plays itself out into a distraction, which leads to poor results.
So what we want to do here to avoid undercoaching
is we want to recognize this is a coachable behavior.
Distraction is coachable.
This comes from either skill set or mindset, or both.
We can create some goals and plans with this person to help them.
If we recognize it's a skill set, then we might do what we did with prioritization.
We have them look at what they need to get done every day and send it to us.
And we have that kind of dance going on between ourselves and
the employee for a couple of weeks so they really get used to evaluating their work,
and thinking it through and having a plan for the day.
If we have to teach them how to set boundaries with other people so
that they're not getting interrupted,
that also could be a skill that I need to role play with them.
So that when someone comes to the employee and
wants to interrupt them they know how to say back to that other person, hey,
I want to be helpful but I'm in the middle of something right now.
Can we setup another time?
We can't take for granted that people just know how to do that.
And while I appreciate that might be frustrating as a manager,
it is your responsibility if it's affecting their performance to see if we
can help them find ways to develop new skill.
Now, if they're bored with their job or if they have something going on outside of
work, then what we need to do is help them recognize that the way that their
thinking about their work is effecting their performance and
that's when we really use our thought model.
So if you think this job is a waste of time and you feel bored,
that's driving you to distraction which means you're not getting your work done.
Is that what you choose for yourself, employee.
Do you want to continue to not get your work done?
Because here's the irony, the longer you take to get this part of your work done
that you think is so boring, the longer it takes [LAUGH] and you're still doing it.
So how about we try and rethink about this so
that maybe you can get the work done and it's not such a big part of your day
because right now it feels big which means you're very distracted by it.
And then, if we have folks who have things going on outside of work,
we need to help them understand that their thinking is distracting them from
producing their results.
And that is a problem, and we need to invite them to consider what
can they decide to think about while they're at work.
So they can stay focused, and get their work done.
So the reason I said we have to be careful not to undercoach here is that sometimes
we think distraction is laziness, and it's not.
And I think most of the time it's not.
I think most of the time it's about people are thinking things that
are getting in the way, or people really don't have some key skill sets
in terms of managing themselves and others around them to help them stay focused.
And so, for you as a manager, I think it's real important that you do some
investigation here and some diagnosis, and really know what the issue is
before you just make an assumption about why they're distracted and not performing.
So using your coaching algebra, remember again, does this person know what to do,
and they're choosing not to?
Or this person not know what to do, but they're willing to learn?
And it could be a little bit of both, and if it is a little bit of both,
then we have to coach both for skill set and for mindset.
Kris PlachyCEO and Founder & Instructor, Leadership Coach, LLC &
