What do you do if you find your direct reports lack the personality traits needed to perform their work effectively? Will you provide direct and honest feedback or do nothing? Will you help develop them or be concerned only with performance?
Executives who face this situation behave differently from one another. However, in my leadership consulting and coaching practice, I am delighted to observe a growing number of top executives who genuinely care about their people as human beings in addition to their ability to deliver business results.
Today I’d like to look at one such example. Naree (not her real name) works in an international company and reports directly to the chief executive. Based on her personality profile in relation to Banyat, one of her direct reports, we can see how different these two executives are.
In psychometric testing, Banyat has an extremely low 6% percentile score for “independence”. He prefers a structured and clear guidance in order to make difficult decisions in groups. His score for attention to detail is also very low at 2%.
Self-control is another weakness. With a 19% score, Banyat is someone who openly expresses emotions, showing both excitement and frustration. Also low, at 18%, is his “persistence”. He tends to lose momentum when faced with obstacles or can be distracted from performance goals. However, he also has some notable strengths, which we will discuss shortly.
Besides coaching Naree regularly as part of the leadership development programme of one of my clients, I have asked her to coach her direct report. After reviewing Banyat’s assessment, Naree raises the issues she believes need work. With further input from Banyat, we mutually agree to address his priority, which is to improve his persistence.
Defining the right issue: Whether we realise it or not, we always behave according to our strength. But if we do not force ourselves to improve on our weaknesses, how can we move ahead in life or business? In this regard, improving a weakness should be addressed in relation to the strength. This way, a person will be motivated to change his behaviour.
Banyat has a moderate “achievement” score of 44%, which means he is open to setting “stretch goals” and seeking career advancement. Since he is quite smart — with an innovation score of 73% and analytical thinking at 60% — he can be easily motivated to improve his persistence in order to advance. Accordingly, he has drafted his own development action plan, which includes the following:
Plan ahead and be as specific as possible.
Set up a detailed action plan including daily activity targets and note how close each task is to completion.
Ask for help from a colleague or supervisor if obstacles get in the way in order to find an inspiration to move forward.
Use your most productive time of day to tackle difficult tasks. Refrain from spending it on easier tasks or socialising.
5R Coaching Record: Most executive coaching sessions are conducted once a month. It’s important to keep a detailed record of what all sides want to achieve and how, and we use the “5R” approach. What follows is a brief summary from Naree. In future sessions, Banyat will be the one to record the conversation, which will help to engage him even more. Here are the five Rs:
Reality focus: Banyat prepares a monthly analysis on the economy, business and industry news and developments. He wants to gain a reputation for reliability through this report. But it’s not clear if the purpose is being served or how the report can be structured to meet the needs better.
Review possibilities: Banyat has tried offering analysis only, but that might be seen as too subjective. So we have switched to a fact-finding format — based on daily news highlights, he summarises the relevant information and sometimes provides opinions on parts of it.
Rule a plan for action: Banyat will receive more feedback from management on what they expect from the monthly analysis. He will find out where we can get the resources to do more financial modelling.
Remove barriers: There are no barriers. The goal is simply to improve communication with management on what they need and find out what we need to meet their needs.
Recap — the next move: It was good to clarify what we need to do in order to improve the report or whether we need to improve it. We will draft a management survey or perhaps ask them in person about what changes, if any, we need to make.
Successful coaching and leadership development depend greatly on tangible support from a direct supervisor. Naree has clearly demonstrated the right way for a boss to help lead behavioural change. The ongoing development programme will certainly place Banyat on the right track for advancement in the near future.
Sorayuth Vathanavisuth is principal consultant and executive coach at the Center for Southeast Asia Leadership and lectures at Mahidol University’s College of Management. His areas of interest are corporate strategy, executive coaching and leadership development. He can be reached at sorayuth@sealeadership.com