Coaching Others

The most influential people strive for genuine buy in and commitment - they don't rely on compliance techniques that only secure short-term persuasion. That was our conclusion after interviewing over 100 highly respected influences across many different industries and organizations for our recent book.

Have you ever used the "sandwich approach" to give negative feedback to your direct reports? You sandwich the negative feedback between two pieces of positive feedback. It's a common method, but the sandwich approach may be undermining both your feedback and your relationships with your direct reports.

To be an effective manager, you need to be skilled at giving out both praise and criticism. While praise is easy to give, it is far more challenging and unpleasant to criticize your employees. Yet the practice of management requires you to occasionally show employees where they need to improve.

Which is more effective in improving team performance: using positive feedback to let people know when they're doing well, or offering constructive comments to help them when they're off track? New research suggests that this is a trick question. The answer, as one might intuitively expect, is that both are important.

Working with an executive coach can be a large investment of time and money; it seems a shame to waste either. If you're considering coaching (or have, ahem, been asked to consider it), make sure you get the most out of the experience.