Chapter 8: Motivating and Coaching Teams to Success--Reinforcing Team-Oriented Behaviors

Overview

Many people have suggested that under a team concept we need managers and leaders to act more like coaches. But what is really meant by that? Think about the coaches you may have had as a youth or the college and pro coaches you may have seen on television. Weren't many of them overly intense and seemingly unhappy ? Haven't you seen some of these coaches yelling and screaming at their players? Is that what you want to become? I don't think so. I remember a couple of coaches who pushed me until I felt I couldn't go any further. When I survived and felt my body become stronger, I quit resenting these coaches and felt the pride of becoming a stronger young man. Yet, while authoritarian, iron-fisted coaches may help young men get through the angst of adolescence , only a few of them succeed at the professional level of sports.

As a manager or leader of teams in an organizational setting, you must act like a professional coach. You don't have the limited schedule that high school and college teams play. You don't have the luxury of coaching people who see work as a boot camp and are looking forward to earning a badge of courage or a varsity letter in a year or two. Your people may potentially "play" together for twenty or thirty years . Yes, those coaches from your youth may have elicited something good from you, especially if they showed they believed in you in addition to pushing you to the limit. However, you will need another model of coaching to succeed with adults in organizational settings. In this chapter we examine what research and practice have found to be better pathways for motivating team members. This will give you a better understanding of motivation and coaching and some tools to successfully help you help the members of your team perform at a championship level.

The performance of a team member (or of a whole team for that matter) is a function of three things: abilities , motivation, and opportunity. It is the fundamental formula that explains human performance in the workplace. What can you do as coach to enhance the abilities, motivation, and/or opportunities of your players? Abilities include a person's natural talents as well as the knowledge and skills he or she gains through training and experience. Unless people have the talent, knowledge, and skills to get the job done, things won't get accomplished. In chapter 2 you were encouraged, as leader, to assess the talent of team members and help develop a plan to enhance the knowledge and skills needed. If there is a deficiency, then providing or arranging for training may be called for. However, don't assume training is the answer to all your performance problems. Coaching can help reinforce natural talents as well as the knowledge and skills learned during training. A coach can be a terrific advocate for planning personal development and helping identify options to consider when addressing organizational issues.

However, coaching is more than developing talents. The abilities that exist on your team represent only one-third of the performance equation. Sometimes team members know what to do but don't put their full energy behind doing it. Training won't help with this problem. This is a problem of motivation. Basically there are two key things you need to understand about motivation. One is that expectations must be made clear. The other is that fulfillment of the expectations ”or lack thereof ”must be reinforced.

People must know what they are expected to do and believe that these expectations are appropriate. They must also expect that if they do accomplish the task, someone will notice. Haven't you had work experiences where you did what you were asked to do but then received no feedback whatsoever? Maybe you wondered if you could have gotten away with not putting out the effort. Maybe you resented being taken for granted. Maybe you were expected to feel good just because you weren't yelled at. Maybe you were just curious whether you did the job well. In many organizations you find out if you screw up but receive no feedback if you do the job well. How clear are the standards regarding the tasks that your team members are performing? To what extent are you helping team members receive feedback regarding the fulfillment of expectations?

Motivation requires that reinforcement be provided to people who show the effort and accomplish tasks. The "reinforcers" ”rewards, punishments, or threats ”you use must have real meaning to your team members. If they don't, they will not have an impact on behavior and thus performance. People differ widely on what is important to them. Some workers will go all out for you provided they obtain some recognition. Others seem to require more tangible rewards and punishments. Some people you can just look at and they will change their level of input. Others require lengthy and repeated discussions to adopt the behaviors you want to encourage or to eliminate or reduce the behaviors you wish to discourage. This means you had better get to know your people. Motivating people, just like dealing with conflict, is more an art than a science. It contains a major emotional component, and thus mere logic is insufficient. The most important thing you can do is to be consistent. Consistently clarify expectations and consistently provide reinforcement for jobs well done.

The third element of the performance formula, opportunity, must also be addressed. Hollywood is full of actors who have talent and motivation but aren't performing in great movies at your local theater complex. Unless people (in our case, your team members) are given the opportunity to utilize their talents and channel their motivation toward the accomplishment of team goals, performance will not occur. As a leader/coach, you can help by adjusting roles and responsibilities to gain the opportunities for your members. You may need to negotiate with other levels of management to gain these opportunities. This is a major way you can help others help themselves .

So there you have it, coach. The formula for getting your teams to perform well spells out what you need to do. Identify and develop the abilities of your players. Clarify the expectations for each player, hold them accountable, and provide reinforcement for fulfillment of the expectations. Make sure they have the opportunity to use their talent. Sounds simple and straightforward, but we all know it is not that easy. In chapter 3 we had the "Ten Commandments of Teambuilding." Let's venture up that mountain again but now come down with the "Ten Commandments of Coaching" (see Table 19).

1. Thou shalt realize that team members make the coach, not the other way around. They know more about themselves than you ever will. Remember, you are there to help team members help themselves.

2. Thou shalt listen more than talk. Members need to hear themselves. Keep your comments to a meaningful few.

3. Thou shalt not rely on self- reports alone. Be sure you observe members in action ”not merely accept what they say they do. If you are coaching another leader, see if he or she would like to engage in 360-degree feedback.

4. Thou shalt not solve team members' problems. Reflect, listen, and provide options, but have members choose the solutions. Turn problem solving into action learning.

5. Thou shalt keep team members connected to the system. They cannot develop in a vacuum . The system provides the context for what will actually make a difference.

6. Thou shalt spend more time discussing strengths than weaknesses. Identify opportunities where members can use their natural talents more often and more effectively. They will probably never become great in their areas of current weakness. Just help them avoid the catastrophes their weaknesses could cause.

7. Thou shalt encourage both a task and a relationship orientation. Team members need to produce business results, and they must have constructive interpersonal relationships with many people inside and outside the system.

8. Thou shalt keep every coaching session focused. Keep the purpose and goals of your contact with members in the forefront of your mind.

9. Thou shalt encourage follow-through without nagging. Keep the sessions connected: there is no such thing as a one-shot miracle . Provide members with gentle reminders, but don't assign penance if they fail to follow through. It is their responsibility.

10. Thou shalt ask for feedback on your efforts to coach. Learn from each coaching attempt. Be a model for how to seek feedback.

In addition to these general dictates, however, you need some practical tools for activating the formula. Let's look at some tools to help you succeed as a coach in the workplace.