Does Early Coaching Your New Hires Increases Engagement? What does the research show?
Research and popular management publications have been expounding to leaders over the last 25+ years that coaching their employees can have a positive impact on the performance of individuals. Over the last 15 years, those same researchers and publications have added to the benefits of coaching and the ability for managers to increase engagement between themselves and their team members. As leaders think about coaching new hires, some may be concerned with a variety of issues: When to start: I don’t want to start too early. Does the person know enough about their role, the team, the company, and its customers for coaching to have an impact? What should the focus of my coaching be? Does the new hire know enough about The culture, the team, their employee’s performance, and the customers? And what happens if a manager’s worst coaching fear comes true: the person doesn’t take the coaching well, or, worse yet, doesn’t like my coaching style?
Managers, let me assure you that most new hires are just as nervous about coaching conversations as you are. My personal experience as a manager with over 30 years of experience coaching new hires and experienced employees as well as the results of my recent research support what I am about to say: if you are interested in increasing the engagement of your new hires quicker than you think, jump into coaching your new hires quicker than you think. For the moment, I am going to challenge you to set aside any coaching model that happens to be running through your head right now. I want to challenge you to think of the coaching process as a conversation between two adults who are trying to get to know one another and grow. As we think about great coaching and a great conversation with somebody, there are two components I want you to think about.
The first component is the elements that make up great coaching and rich conversations. An element according to Marriam-Webster’s dictionary is a part of something. As an example of the effective elements that make up great coaching and conversations, think of the space that you use for both. You want the space to be quiet, with little or no distractions, and comfortable for both parties. Unless you are doing coaching in the market, or on a factory floor, you need the space to be somewhat quiet and free from distractions. Another element to consider is time. Have you set aside enough time so that if you get into a great coaching conversation around a topic, neither of you feels rushed? Nothing tells a new hire that you don’t care about them quite like feeling rushed. And the final element I want you to consider is – how much do I know about your new hire? What they have been learning, how have they been reacting to the learning or training they have been receiving and any other elements that would help you as a leader build a bond with your new hire so that they want to open up to you.
The second component of great coaching and conversations are the behaviors of both parties. This list you will find longer than the elements because there are many behaviors that can impact the effectiveness of great coaching. Marriam-Webster’s dictionary defines behaviors as the manner of conducting ones-self. For the purpose of this article, I am only going to talk about the behaviors of the leader, if they hope their coaching conversations are effective and increase engagement. The first impactful behavior that leaders need to model with their new hires to increase engagement would be listening. We all know how good we feel when our boss, or really anybody is truly listening to us, and conversely how we feel when we sense we are not being listened to. Next, genuine curiosity for how the new hire is doing. Again, we all know how engaged we are in conversations when our boss is asking relevant questions regarding how we are doing. Patience is the next behavior leaders need to demonstrate to have an impactful coaching conversation. Some examples of what you might consider helping you be more patient: Have you set aside this time on your calendar? Have you set your smartphone in a drawer on silent while you are talking to your new hire? Or have you set your desk phone, those of you still going into the office to go into voice mail, so that you are not distracted. Next, relevant questions. This leadership behavior can have such a powerful impact on new hires’ engagement. For those of you leaders who don’t write your coaching questions out in advance, give it a try. I can almost promise you that the conversation will flow much more in the direction that you were hoping for.
Asking for feedback is the next leadership behavior that I would ask you to consider. Now let me share with you a feedback model that is simple, and very powerful. First, ask them what they are doing well. This allows you to hear what they are feeling good about. This is important because it gives you insights into their work environment, without you having to be there. Secondly, ask them what they might consider doing differently from what they have been doing, given the training they have been going through or feedback they have been receiving from the training or others they have been working with. This powerful question allows you to better understand their thinking about what they have been experiencing. The next two elements I am going to group together because they are so closely connected - empathy and honesty. I can tell you that I have been in coaching conversations with managers I have worked for, all be it not that long that did not know how to model empathy and were clearly lacking honesty. During those coaching conversations, I was always on guard with what I said, how I said it, and how much I divulged. Question– how are you measuring the impact today of your empathy and honesty?
The final two behaviors are ones that have many sub-behaviors as part of them. First, is your self-management as the leader. Self-Management is defined by the American Psychological Association as involving the way in which a person acts to ensure their well-being. They are referring to the range of behaviors modeled/demonstrated by individuals aimed at managing something or someone. In practical terms, here is another short list of human behaviors that impact people, especially new hires who do not know you. Your tone, eye contact, or lack of it. Your posture. Arm movements, and your facial expressions. As a former leader, I can attest that I could tell when I was either drawing someone into a conversation or driving them away, simply because I was not paying attention to my self-management. The last behavior we are going to examine is fulfillment. Again, the American Psychological Association defines fulfillment as those elements that give an individual life meaning, purpose, and satisfaction. Now, just to be clear, rarely does a new hire list out for you in an e-mail, or a text what gives them meaning, purpose, and or satisfaction. The three elements of fulfillment: life’s meaning, purpose, and satisfaction are held very closely within individuals. Over time your new hires may open up around these three elements, and I challenge you when the time is right, ask them about them.
If you would like to know more about this research, schedule a free thirty-minute appointment with Leader Behaviors.