Don’t get me wrong. I love loyalty and loyal team members! In fact, breeding loyalty is a sign of a great coaching leader. For some coaching leaders loyalty can cause a gradual blindness kind of like glaucoma. This is one of the most debilitating problems I see in my CEO, Team and Family Business Coaching.
As a Coach you are constantly evaluating talent and looking for ways to tap into motivation to get the most out of your team members. In my business coaching, many times I see loyalty with employees who are probably no longer the right fit for the position. This loyalty is as a result of a long standing relationship and tenure with the company. Think about it. When you started out you were small group and two or three of your most loyal lieutenants have stayed with you over the years and eventually you’ve promoted them into key roles within your organization. Unfortunately, at some point, the job or the complexity of the position may have outgrown their talent. Now you’re stuck in this dilemma. Here’s a person who’s been a very hard working and dedicated member of your team, yet no longer effective in their role.
What you do as a Coach? This is where the art of coaching comes into play. You need to use your emotional intelligence to try to ask the right questions and truly understand what this person may be thinking and feeling. My experience is that most people know when they are in over their head and they aren’t happy with the situation either. As a coaching leader you need to create a dialogue that allows this type of honest confession to occur. In most cases what’s needed is a way for this person to transition to a role that better meets their capabilities and still maintain their dignity. Remember coaching is a process over time. Transitioning to a new role or out of the organization can only occur with dignity after many coaching sessions in which there are well grounded assessments about the gap in performance.
Not taking action often causes significant individual and organizational stress. Keep focused on the vision of creating a Peak Performance Coaching Culture and keep your objective coaching eye, so that you, your team and your loyal team member will be better off!
