About this course
Have you ever had a performance conversation with an employee who was shocked or offended by your feedback? Have you reprimanded someone who reacted badly to the reprimand, and whose performance got worse afterward? Have you been surprised when a potentially good employee responded poorly to your coaching?
This course examines how choosing the wrong coaching intervention provokes dissatisfaction in a potentially outstanding employee, who we then label "difficult." It starts with the label itself, because the label is doing more work than the behavior. An employee showing counterproductive workplace behavior is usually in one of four states: dissatisfied, mismanaged, misdiagnosed, or unfavorably managed. Only the first one starts with the employee.
From there the course goes to the relationship that drives most of it. You will look at how bosses create their own C players, how Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) theory explains the in-group and the out-group, how a working relationship moves from stranger to acquaintance to mature partnership, and how the People Performance Potential model separates two measurements that managers routinely collapse into one. You will see how a capable person ends up stuck outside the circle, and what that costs everyone.
The second half is the practical toolkit: what actually drives counterproductive behavior (including the cultural reads managers get wrong), the coaching analysis that comes before the conversation, the 3 C's (coaching, counseling and corrective action, in that order), why you cannot motivate anyone but can build the environment people motivate themselves in, the sixteen reasons employees don't do what they should, and how to be tough on performance and soft on people. The course closes by answering the six real challenges managers brought to the live class, and with an appendix on where the cost of dissatisfied employees actually shows up.
The material is taught through cases you will probably recognize: Jason, Margaret and the promotion pathway, Mario, Lena Thompson at Skyline Communications, and Darlene.
Who it is for
- Managers, supervisors and team leads who coach, counsel or correct direct reports.
- Newly promoted managers, and seasoned managers who have an employee they consider "difficult."
- Leaders who want to understand the part they play in creating an environment that motivates or demotivates their people.
- Anyone who has been on the outside of a boss's inner circle and wants to understand how it happened.
Learning objectives and outcomes
By the end of the course you will be able to:
- Describe a "difficult" employee in terms of specific behavior, and identify which of the four states (dissatisfied, mismanaged, misdiagnosed, unfavorably managed) you are actually dealing with.
- Explain how in-group and out-group relationships form (Leader-Member Exchange theory and the three phases of leadership making) and how out-group status produces counterproductive behavior.
- Separate performance from potential using the People Performance Potential model, and recognize how first impressions and confirmation bias keep a capable person outside.
- Identify the drivers of counterproductive behavior, including cultural mismatches between manager and employee.
- Define poor performance against a known standard and run a coaching analysis before the conversation.
- Choose between coaching, counseling and corrective action, use them in the right order, and repair the relationship when the order was wrong.
- Apply Performance = Ability × Motivation and the coaching analysis to work out whether a performance problem comes from unclear goals, ability or motivation, and remember that the environment for motivation is yours to control.
- Set employees up for success by being tough on performance and soft on people.
What is included
The Participant Booklet is the knowledge companion to the course: the frameworks, the research, the diagnostic questions and the reference tables, written so they still work a year from now. The Participant Workbook is a fillable PDF that works two real relationships end to end: the person you manage, and the manager you answer to. Use it alongside the workbook prompts in the videos.
Chapters
16 chapters, 2 h 18 min of video.
- 00Welcome4:37
How the course works on your own time, who Duane is, and the eight parts of the course.
- 01The "Difficult" Employee14:11
The six challenges managers brought to the live class, the usual list of "difficult" behaviors read as symptoms, and the four states behind them.
- 02How Bosses Create C Players12:19
The inner circle, who ends up on whose team, where the A players go, the three requirements of an A player, and the C player pattern.
- 03Cases and Common Wisdom6:58
The case of Jason, the employee you can't read, and the way most managers sort a team in the first few weeks.
- 04LMX and the In-Group5:52
Leader-Member Exchange theory (Graen and Uhl-Bien), a typical boss and team, and what the out-group actually does.
- 05Leadership Making: Three Phases7:12
Stranger, acquaintance and mature partnership, and the goal of high-quality exchanges with all of your people.
- 06Performance, Potential and the PPP Model6:10
Backbone, stars, icebergs and problem children; how bosses treat stronger and weaker performers; are you in, or out?
- 07How the Outsider Develops9:07
Categorization, confirmation and cost; the research on performance perceptions; the label problem.
- 08Cues, Boss Behavior and Margaret8:26
What out-group status does to a direct report, whose in-group you are in, and the case of Margaret and the promotion pathway.
- 09Counterproductive Behavior and Culture8:13
Eight drivers of counterproductive behavior, when culture shapes the read, and five working assumptions about people.
- 10Coaching Poor Performance10:24
Defining poor performance, three types of standards, a typology of deviant workplace behavior, the coaching analysis and its questions, and the case of Mario.
- 11The 3 C's11:04
Coaching, counseling and corrective action; the rules and steps of counseling; why the order matters; the 3 C's through cultural filters.
- 12Lena and Darlene8:24
Two capable people, two managers who never coached them, and a role play you script yourself.
- 13Coaching and Motivation6:32
You are the motivator, why you cannot motivate anyone, what motivation actually is, and four things to accept about your approach.
- 14Why Employees Don't7:47
Performance = Ability × Motivation, how to analyze performance problems, sixteen reasons employees don't do what they should, and managers' opinions vs employees' facts.
- 15Setting Up for Success10:44
Tough on performance, soft on people; the challenges answered; the important take-aways; and the appendix on what dissatisfied employees cost the organization, individuals and performance.