Coaching Employees To Their Next Jobs – Part 1
Promoting from within a company carries a lot of benefits. Current employees already have an understanding of the company culture, they know the ropes, are known (both their good points and not so good points), and the paperwork already exists. So assuming the person isn’t really a better candidate for firing there is some basic stuff there to work with.
The trick is to find the right method for advancing them. A promotion usually carries with it more responsibility and often means the person will begin supervising others when they may not have been doing that before. Short of sending them to a management course one option is to use on-the-job coaching.
Coaching actually happens spontaneously in construction all the time. Whenever a supervisor explains a new technique, or a seasoned co-worker evaluates the finished task of a junior worker, there is coaching going on. In the case of grooming someone for a promotion however coaching is made into a more formal process with plans on how it will be accomplished and with the establishment of some evaluation criteria so progress can be qualified and quantified.
Choosing the coach is of top importance. The coach will undoubtedly spend time on tasks and how to accomplish them but since the individual may very well need to become more sophisticated in how they communicate and view things the task itself may be the smaller part of the equation.
It wouldn’t be unlikely for a coach who is preparing a seasoned lead carpenter for the role of superintendent to be getting into areas related to communications, ethics and discipline. Not that the carpenter hasn’t been involved in those before, but they will now be involved with those things at a totally different level. Relating to subs on contractual items, dealing with bank representatives, and a host of other new communications situations will be necessary. So the coach needs to be someone who is well seasoned and has the patience to take the time needed to not only tell the person how things need to work, but also demonstrate how it is done effectively.
And that is one of the major advantages of coaching your people to their next jobs – they actually get to see the expected behaviors in action.
Read more in Part 2 tomorrow.
