On The Fly Coaching For Improved Performance...
As a HR professional, I like to rant a little bit about Performance Management - see my takes on Self-Assessments here and Rating Inflation here. However, the biggest Performance Management issue facing your managers and supervisors - especially the ones with limited experience - is how to coach on a daily basis for enhanced performance. 
Coaching for improved performance in your organization isn't directing traffic or simply telling your employees what to do. If it were that simple, everyone would be doing it, right? No, my friend, Coaching for Improved Performance requires engagement in a couple of different ways. First up, the manager has to be engaged enough to spend the time to coach - not many do. Secondly, managers need access to a process/tool that allows for employee participation and engagement.
What kind of tools do you provide your managers to coach their employees on any issue? In the spirit of sharing best practices, here's a brief, six step coaching process that managers can use to engage individual employees on any issue. When your manager wants to engage an employee on a performance/conduct issue, they should:
1. State What They Have Observed (Or What Technology Has Observed)
2. WAIT For a Response...
3. Remind them of the goals for their position and how they are linked to the company's goals...
4. Ask questions on how the employee thinks they can improve in the area in question.
5. Agree Together on what the employee has committed to do (make sure they agree)
6. Close Upbeat and show that you believe the employee can improve and get it done...
The strength of this informal coaching tool is that it provides managers with a framework regarding "how" they are going to say what they need to say, freeing them after some skill practice to focus on the content of the area of concern. Additionally, it can be used on a daily, informal basis to coach for improvement on the fly, without using formal processes like corrective action as a crutch. We'll explore the steps of this coaching tool and some of the common obstacles to use in the entries to follow...
