Pausing on Compartmentalization

Sometimes at work I talk to my team members about compartmentalizing work stress and home stress: not allowing the stresses and concerns of one to impact the other. I often associate compartmentalization with the phrase “work life balance”. Our work environment, especially for the people providing phone and email technical support, lends itself to compartmentalization. It is the type of job that once a person logs out of the computers, he or she can leave work and not think about it until returning the next day.

In talking with one of my team members today, however, I paused in my dedication to a separation between work and personal life. My phone agent, S, told me that he was exchanging texts with his high school age son who had informed him that his school had received some kind of gun violence threat (something related to the Mayan end of world/calendar thing supposedly inspired someone to contact and make such a threat).  Happily, S and I could talk about this openly. He told me that this was on his mind and that he had mapped some scenarios in his head where he would pick up his son from school. It turns out that this was not necessary, but I appreciated the fact that he told me about this in the morning to avoid any potential surprises later on. This is just a week after the school killings in Connecticut.

As a non-parent, how can I seriously talk to my team members who are parents about separating the stresses and worries of child raising from what they do at work? With the modern connections of texting, email, and cellphones they have readily at their desk, how can I expect there to be a wall between the two? I don't think I can, and I don't believe I should.  So many of my team members are parents. I see my role as a leader to empathize with their concerns and help them manage a work life balance instead of creating two compartmentalized lives.

Taking Coaching from the River to the Workplace

I was recently the recipient of excellent coaching in a physical activity. While there are obvious differences between coaching for a sport or physical activity and coaching on the job, I saw that the elements of the coaching I received could indeed be applied to the workplace.

I joined a local rowing club earlier this year, inspired by the Summer Olympics and urged on by my wife who had rowed in college. As you may know from watching this summer's Olympics, the rowers of a crew sit backward in relation to the forward progress of the boat. At the stern of the boat, sits the coxswain who faces forward and gives directions. The coxswain speaks direction into a microphone system attached to speakers throughout the boat so that everyone can hear. The seats of the boat are numbers from bow to stern. I was rowing in the number three seat which is toward the bow of the boat. We were sculling, so each rower held one oar. The idea is to row in time and to use certain techniques to make your row efficient and to drive the boat forward.

Our coxswain, D, is the one who displayed excellent coaching abilities. We were rowing down the river, when D shouted, “seat three, your oar is too deep in the water!” Putting my oar too deep in the water is a technique problem I have struggled with for weeks. Putting my oar too deep makes it harder for me to row, but produces no extra power for the boat. It also slows down my stroke which can put me out of sync with the others in the boat. At D's corrective instruction, I made the same adjustment I had been making for weeks, I started lifting the oar just after I put it in the water. This creates a kind of S movement in the water. It partially corrected the problem, but was inefficient. I also couldn't maintain such a movement for more than a few strokes.

“Three seat, your oar is still too deep in water!” I made the correction again, but reverted to my original movement after several strokes. After a few more corrective commands, D asked, “who is three seat?”

“Dave”, I answered.

“Okay, Dave, you are pulling your handle up when you take a stroke”, D said, looking over the shoulders of the other rowers sitting between me and her. She watched me for a few more strokes and informed me that I was pulling with my arms too early.

“You are pulling your arms in early on your stroke. That is what is pushing your oar too deep in the water. At the beginning of your stroke, only use your legs, then lean back, then pull with your arms. Don't even think about pulling with your arms until you have straightened your legs and leaned back”. This went back to the instructions from my Learn to Row class a few months before. I made some corrections, but didn't get it quite right. D kept correcting me for 10 minutes while we rowed. Every once in a while I would get a stroke right.

“There, you've got it! Do that stroke again, with no arm pull until you lean back.” I would get a few strokes right, then make some mistakes. D, watching what I was doing on each stroke, would verbally correct me on the my stroke errors. 

After 10 minutes of this, though, I suddenly was pulling straight back with no arm pull until I leaned back – the correct technique. I was doing with for several strokes in a row, then 10 strokes in a row, then 20 strokes, and so on. I could feel the oar pivoting differently, so that it was a completely different experience.

“That is it exactly! Dave has got the stroke down perfectly”, D told the whole boat. As I maintained stroke consistency, she kept up that encouragement. It felt great to make such an improvement that I could feel and to be recognized for the improvement.

So let's break down D's coaching to me into its elements and describe how to apply these in the workplace. She observed the problem behavior and identified the poor results and attempted an initial correction (“three seat, your oar is too deep in the water”). Through further observation, she identified the root cause of the poor results (“Dave, you are pulling your handle up when you take a stroke”). She then continued her feedback to me so that I became more aware of when I erred and when I made a correction (“There, you've got it! Do that stroke again, with no arm pull until you lean back”). Finally, when I made the consistent correction, she praised my new behavior and its results (“That is it exactly! Dave has got the stroke down perfectly”). We can apply each of these steps to many opportunities for coaching in the workplace.

To coach, you have to be aware of the poor results that are going on. Many workplaces, call centers and technical support desks especially, do a great job in collecting metrics for individuals. On the boat, the coxswain or coach simply watches the rowers. In the workplace, a coach might looki at a report, review customer feedback, or look at sales numbers. The first step of coaching is taking this data and identifying what is the root cause of the poor result. Identifying the root cause as being an action an employee is taking, a coach might be able to correct the behavior just by informing the employee of the problem. This is, in fact, what D first attempted with me (“seat three, your oar is too deep in the water”). This early step is only effective if the employee is unaware that he or she is making the mistake. In my example, I was already aware of the mistake, but I didn't know how to properly correct it.

A coach in the workplace will often find the same problem: the employee doesn't know how to properly correct the behavior. This takes additional observation and analysis. On the boat, D watched all the actions I was taking in the stroke and identified my early arm pull. She then instructed me on how to make the correction. In the workplace, a coach converses with the employee and asks the employee pointed questions about why he or she is performing a certain action. This can often identify the root cause. Root causes vary from a lack of knowledge, to having a system that actually rewards the negative behavior, to factors outside of work causing distractions. It is critical for the coach to identify the root cause of the behavior so that he or she can work with the employee to develop a solution tailored to address that specific root cause.

Having developed a corrective action with the employee, the coach now works with the employee to drive the improvement. The employee is responsible for implementing the change he or she agreed to. The coach is responsible for providing feedback on what the employee does well and what the employee does not do well. On the boat, this is done through instant verbal feedback. This is an advantage in physical activities that is often not practical in the workplace, but it illustrates the importance of timely feedback. As a coach, you need to provide your feedback as soon as it is practical. The coach and the employee agree to a timeframe of further observation and agree to how feedback will be delivered.

The final step for the coach, when the employee has made the behavior change, is to provide positive feedback. On the boat, this is done by verbal encouragement in front of the rest of the crew. In the workplace, it might be done through a reminder email, a stop at the employee's desk, or a quick instant message. If the behavior change is significant, and if the team could benefit from having a positive example, the coach can recognize the employee's improvement publicly in front of the team. For an employee that is motivated by public recognition, this is an extremely powerful motivator and reinforcement of positive behavior.

You can effectively coach in your workplace by applying the elements of D's coaching. First, be aware of the poor results and identify the root cause of those poor results. Second, inform the employee whose behavior is driving the poor results in case he or she is unaware of the impact of the behavior. Third, identify the root cause of the employee's behavior by engaging the employee in a conversation about why he or she is engaging in the behavior. Fourth, develop a plan with the employee to correct the behavior and establish a feedback channel through which you can deliver fine tuned corrections. Finally, provide positive feedback to the employee when he or she gets it right. These steps work on a boat, and they can work in your workplace.