3 Ways To Coach Someone Out of Their Job

As a leadership consultant one of my mantras to CEO’s and leaders is “coach to performance”. Last Friday I was the guest speaker at a CEO Forum, in the room there were CEO’s from the forest industry, restaurant industry, cooperative agriculture industry, technology industry and more.

I was invited to facilitate a dialogue about people management and how the new dynamics of technology along with multiple generations in the workplace have shifted the way we lead.

It was an interactive forum where I presented an item that had been researched and was a new dynamic in the workplace and the CEO’s were to weigh in on their experiences and perspectives. When the topic of performance management came up I reiterated my mantra , “coach to performance”. Every CEO in the room admitted that this is a weak area both for them and for their managers. When I asked ‘why?’ the answer from this group of highly intelligent CEO’s was that they do not make people development a top priority.

They also admitted that every scenario that we discussed such as the digital divide among the generations as it relates to technological adaptation as well as building team synergy within a multi generational team required the leaders ability to coach, communicate and spend time on skills development with their managers.

Finally one of the CEO’s piped up and asked, “so when do you know that it’s time for someone to go?” he had let many people go in his time but acknowledged that he regretted a few of those decisions. His candor and openness was appreciated. I presented the following three ways to coach someone out of their job.

#1- Coach to performance first- if all leaders focus on this key element they have less performance problems, they have a highly motivated team and they have individuals who have high levels of personal responsibility.

#2- Coach to performance consistently, record each and every coaching discussion in writing, ask the employee to agree to actions and performance goals. Set timelines to check in on progress, provide tools and resources for them to learn more. Tell them the truth about their performance gaps.Set them up to succeed every step of the way. If after time, effort and performance coaching they do not improve then……

#3- Coach them to see that they would be happier in another role, job or industry. If you have consistently coached for performance as per above you will find that you never have to fire anyone. The coaching process when done right provides an opportunity for the employee to see for himself or herself that there may not be a fit for the job they are in. If you are having performance discussions on a regular basis, you have asked for action and progress and it does not happen the employee knows they are not meeting the guidelines for performance in their job. In that last coach conversation you review all of the coaching conversations, you point out the performance gaps, you empathize with the struggle that they have had and you guide them to the reality that this job is not a fit. A great leader then guides the employee to something else that they think would better suit.

A great example of this for me was when I was in the finance industry in my twenties. I had a boss named Linda who was an exemplary coach. I had met and exceeded all requirements for my position but the economy had shifted in 1993 and the credit union asked me to ‘stop selling’ because of lack of assets of the credit union. They offered me a Branch Managers role but I was not excited about it and she could tell. I will never forget her coaching statement when she said, “Cheryl its obvious that you would be taking the Branch Managers job because you had to but not because you want to- what do you really want to do?” When I told her I wanted to be an entrepreneur she said, “from what I know about you – you can do it- and I don’t want you to take the Branch Managers job because you will be miserable.”

With that coach push , I left the finance industry after thirteen years, interned with a consulting firm  and then started my own consulting firm in 1994 and never looked back.

I know it sounds trite to say, ‘things happen for a reason’ but when I have interviewed people who were ‘let go’ or ‘coached out of a job’ about 95% of them say, “it was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

The key is to start with the intent to coach for performance, then have consistent coaching conversations and then when all of that fails- you coach them on to something else.