Improve Performance with Call and Response Redirection

In my previous blog post, How to add FORCE to your Positive Reinforcement, I pointed out that in every CoachQuest Leader-as-Coach Workshop, we practice two kinds of Call and Response Coaching—Reinforcement and Redirection. I gave you an overview of how to Reinforce what your team members are doing well. Now I will introduce the practice of Redirection Coaching.

Using the Call and Response technique outlined in Call-and-Response Coaching, your job is to provide constructive feedback that will help those members of your team who are not performing according to your expectations to improve their behavior. This process begins with a conversation in which you make it clear to them how they have fallen short of your expectations. Candidly and courageously let them know exactly where you stand. Then help them discover for themselves what they can do to meet your expectations.

If you are familiar with the concept of Leadership Intimacy, you know that the more you know about your team members, the more effectively you will be able to coach them. The more intimately you know them, the better equipped you will be to engage them in Redirection based on what is important to them. Armed with your intimate understanding, here are some steps you can take to make your Redirection conversation as effective as possible.

• Describe the Situation Frame the undesirable behavior in the context of your expectations and the goals of the organization.

• Describe the Behavior Be Specific. Nothing vague, like, “You’re not working hard enough.” More like, “You’ve been a half hour late four out of five days this week, and yesterday you left early. I am concerned. Can we talk about what is going on?”

• Describe the Impact Again, specifics make your objectives clear. Spell out and ask about how the behavior affects your expectations as well as those of the organization and the rest of your team.

• Discover an Alternative It’s time to collaborate. Encourage your team member to come up with ways to correct the behavior. Get specific promises, time frames, and metrics, if possible.

• Discover the Alternative Impact Now discuss and ask about how the improved behavior will help everyone involved.

At the end of this kind of coaching conversation, you should see a positive attitude from the team members you coach. To further reinforce the positive impact of your Redirection conversation, ask for feedback about the conversation. Engage them further in how they want to be coached. In conclusion, ask what else they need from you in terms of coaching and feedback.

Naturally, there’s more to Redirection than I can go into here, so you might want to see my paper Call-and-Response-Redirection-2013. Of course, the best way to put these techniques into practice is to practice them and other leadership skills alongside other leaders at our next CoachQuest Leader-as-Coach Workshop.

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