Question:

Read the scenarios in the Jones Schilling Employee Coaching Workshop. Based on the (brief) information you have, please prepare to conduct a coaching meeting for each of Cindy.

Background:

CINDY CHU: THE "HIDDEN GEM" "I need Cindy to be more focused in her work," remarked Mary Lam, IS's finance manager. Mary was speaking to another finance manager after they had reviewed next quarter's budgets. "She's got a lot of potential, and I can see her being a leader in our department, but she needs to go the extra step to get things done. I've hinted about this to her, but she does not seem to have changed the way she approaches her projects" Cindy, 27 years old, was hired at JS three years ago as a junior financial analyst. She was a graduate of a high-ranking university with a degree in business and finance. A sports star in university, she had competed in volleyball and played for the HK youth team. After a year working in data entry, Cindy was promoted to financial analyst and was given a portfolio of important, regional level projects to manage. She was part of a five-person team that reported to a senior manager. She was responsible for a range of projects including reviewing financial transactions and verifying and reconciling accounts. Her work was integral to the finance team because management needed to have visibility on where the numbers were trending for the current quarter and the current fiscal year. The Finance Department had a lean staffing model: there was not a lot of overlap between what each individual did. Spikes in work load could require people to stay longer at the office than usual. There was also limited scope for innovation because processes set up years ago had to be followed. Cindy's first project was to audit one of JS's warehouses to ensure that the inventory counts were correct and that returns were being processed effectively and in a timely fashion. Product returns - often defective goods - were shipped back to the warehouse from stores. Defective goods had to be identified so that chargebacks to suppliers could be processed quickly to reduce the value of invoices; this effectively lowered JS's working capital requirements. Cindy excelled at this task, proving herself to be detail- oriented. When data for a few suppliers were missing, she was able to think outside of the box, reaching out to stores and to suppliers to piece together the missing quantities. She made a note of this additional check so that other financial analysts could employ the same technique should they come across the same issue in the future. Cindy's performance in her second project was mixed. She had to analyze the warehouse's financials. document its financial processes and provide a recommendation. She was quietly - and constructively- corrected on what she did wrong (ie,, she jumped to conclusions without supporting data), but she reacted to this criticism badly. Three years into her career at JS, Cindy was not living up to her potential as a leader. She was rated a mid- to high-level performer, but Mary believed that she could be one of the company's highest level leaders in the next 10 years. Cindy seemed to be channeling her energies into extracurricular activities and was, at times, disengaged. Mary wanted to get Cindy to raise her game because there was a lot of work to be done. Ideally, Mary would like to put Cindy on the promotion track, but Cindy's recent performance did not lend support to this plan of action. Sometimes when Cindy was asked to stay on after work to get pieces of work done, she did not react positively. Her colleagues commented: . "Cindy's work is good, but she does not take the extra step to ask questions when numbers are presented to her. Context around performance usually helps managers understand why a unit has underperformed or overperformed.""Cindy just takes the figures and lets someone else worry about digging deeper. She believes it is not part of her job and it does not concern her." "Cindy is a B+ player and seems diligent, but we notice that she seems to be juggling work and life priorities and can be seen texting to her friends on her mobile phone." Some of this extracurricular activity - especially extensive chatting on Facebook and Twitter - Was creeping into work hours, and Mary wanted to put a stop to it. Cindy seemed to prioritize personal activities over work; as a member of a sports club's board of directors and an active volunteer, she had significant outside interests. She was not threatening to leave but was doing the minimum required to be employed at JS. Mary wondered. "How should I engage Cindy and change the way she approaches her work?"