Coaching, Mentoring and Managing: A Coach Guidebook

5

The Results of Effective Counseling .................................................................

If you are an effective counselor, you can expect a myriad of
results. Five of the most obvious benefits include:

1. Shared ownership of goals
   Team members ... maybe for the first time ... will begin
   to understand how performance goals relate to them
   individually and how to achieve those goals.


2. New errors don’t become old errors
   Your team members will develop an awareness of what
   constitutes good and bad work, and will be more inclined
   to: 1) want to please you, 2) increase team productivity,
   and 3) halt negative behavior before it becomes habitual.


3. Employees become teammates
   Successful counseling promotes the importance of
   individuals contributing to the whole. Counseling reduces
   the individual’s sense of being a “lone ranger,” whether
   performing poorly or well. All behavior affects the team
   and the team members know it.


4. Strong goal orientation
   Counselors who experience the greatest success have
   helped team members leap roadblocks by setting and
   achieving meaningful short- and long-term goals. They
   teach the power of goal setting. What’s that? Perhaps this
   power is best illustrated by recalling the old riddle: “How
   do you eat an elephant?” The answer: “One bite at a time.”
   Good counselors acknowledge the long-term goal (eating
   the elephant), but focus on the short-term measures (one
   bite at a time) that make the final vision achievable. Once
   the team experiences the power of goal setting, it becomes
   a familiar, trustworthy team tool.


5. Confrontations are fewer and increasingly positive
   The good news is that effective confrontation minimizes
   repeat sessions.

The Counselor Role: Confrontation and Correction

Always work with

the construction

gang and not the

wrecking crew.

“Action may not

always bring

success, but there

is no success

without it.”

—Benjamin

Disraeli