Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Group 3
Angela Foster, Dorian Herceg,
Dave Lambert, Jen Smith, and Alex
Beeman
5 Pages Included
Coaching Employees and Giving Feedback: Current Trends and
Challenges
Coaching has become commonplace in many organizations and firms within the
United States. Often it has become so engrained in business culture that
employees expect to be coached (Hunt 58). Some of the current coaching trends
include:
Technology
Technology has shaped the communication methods used in coaching employees.
Social-networking sites and online communications have changed the employee-
employer relationship (Garvey 149).
Younger generations of employees seem to adapt well to “virtual” coaching
Centralization
Centralization is another trend in coaching. This occurs when one central office or
executive position determines the coaching agenda, rather than the employees’
direct managers.
Often the agenda focuses on the importance of a strategic partnership with
the organization (Garvey 151).
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The graph above demonstrates the path employees can take when
there is not proper coaching involved.
Generational differences
When coaching employees, it is difficult to have one strategy that works for
employees of varying ages.
Generational differences are evident in the workplace as younger employees
have greater exposure to technology, have more independence and value
work-life balance more than predecessors (Sujansky).
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Creating personal responsibility
Organizations that use centralization to determine the coaching agenda often have
challenges creating personal responsibility.
Centralized agendas often focus on broad goals that do not always engage
the individual employee (Garvey 58).
Some organizations are looking past the form and allowing managers and
directors to write their own comments and give feedback through emails or
memos (Imperato).
This allows for the employee to identify where they can improve while still
relevant and make real changes to enhance their performance (Imperato).
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Organizations have also learned that employees need feedback that is not just in
the form of a raise.
A raise is a financial transaction and cannot take the place of a conversation
expressing praise or correction
The best feedback provides a clear and consistent message to the employee
(McGill 160).
Not generalizing
Making generalized statements when giving feedback is another challenge.
If a manager uses words like “all,” “never,” or “always,” the statement made
could be false or place arbitrary limits on the behavior (McGill 160).
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