One of the biggest challenges of being in business could be working with individuals of diverse backgrounds, personalities, ideas, interests, and culture. The challenge is a lot more difficult to deal with if you area coach; at least, not every employee is shrewd or manageable. Uncoachable employees are everywhere; in most offices, they don’t show gratitude when you help them, they take everything personally or try to prove they already knew it, and they are always making small problems look bigger or more difficult through the wrong approach.
Those are attitudes that require a distinctive approach to tackle. However, efforts by you alone as a coach will not be enough to coach the uncoachable employee; it should be in two ways. In other words, your first efforts should be to achieve a two-way communication. When you start to notice that the employee is beginning to show gratitude, accept there are things to learn, and be open to honest feedback, then you are making progress. So, how do you start?
Here are 4 tips on how to coach the uncoachable employee.
Show that you truly care
Uncoachable employees easily believe that your coaching is plain money-making, instead of helping them to attain their goals through encouragement and motivation. This will cause them to lack trust and accept that you may likely hoard some of the information they are supposed to know. You can only up-end these doubts and mistrust by showing genuine care and zeal to assist them. Work hard on helping such employee to recognize you as someone ready to assist fully to help the employee open up a bit, this will help your communication and the employees’ perception.
Manage behaviors, not people
Focusing on the poor work behavior is more promising than correcting the behavior. Employees that are uncoachable easily pick rivals at work and rebuilding the relationship should not be your first priority but to help the employees see themselves as top quality and the essence of teamwork. Try to redirect the employees’ attention to their performance with other individuals and exclude them in the environment they think is toxic before gradually reintroducing it if it’s inevitable. If the employee is not comfortable with another employee, don’t try to force them to blend, first provide space and make them love their jobs.
Introduce changes gradually
Alteration of customs or the way of doing things is a major challenge uncoachable employees are afraid of. They are always unwilling to accept new standards and question every new style you want to bring in. You can reduce the fear of change by gradually introducing the new concepts and standards. Also, show the employees that their beliefs will not be compromised even with the changes.
Use familiar tools to persuade
While helping the employees to see the path you are introducing as the best for them, you must use every possible tool; mostly those they are familiar with. You don’t want to show the employee how to draw an elephant in the air. They must follow your lead through ideal pictures. If you have videos, deploy them and make the coaching fun.