Imagine you are the Operations Manager at a medium-sized manufacturing company. Due to the respect and trust you have built with your operations team of five people, you have also gained influence, which makes you a leader.

You believe your team has great potential, but given the changing and complex environment in which you are working in, your team’s knowledge and skills have become somewhat dated. The lack of professional development opportunities over the past few years is a result of budget cuts and reduced workforce. These changes have resulted in lower performance and team morale. You are looking for ways to upgrade the skills of your team and motivate them in the process.

One method in which you decide to upgrade your team’s skills is coaching. Specifically, Caitlyn, one of your high performing team members, would benefit from receiving your coaching. As you have gotten to know Caitlyn in working with her over the past two years, you have realized that you have similar career goals. Caitlyn has indicated to you that she respects your career success and has a desire to be the Operations Manager when you leave the position.

Caitlyn is a hard worker and consistently goes above and beyond the expectations of her role to ensure the team’s success. Also, Caitlyn is very organized. As the machining scheduler for the company, Caitlyn plans which pieces of equipment will be used to produce which parts, and during what times. Her job is complex as she tries to meet the requests for machines from a variety of project managers. She has made two scheduling decisions over the past year that have resulted in a loss of productivity due to the machine run-time not being maximized. Other than these two instances, she has been accurate in her scheduling.

Despite her strengths, Caitlyn has struggled to earn the respect of the other operations team members. You have noted that sometimes Caitlyn is not invited to social gatherings after work, which are planned by her team members. About a month ago, you overheard two of Caitlyn’s team members talking to each other in the break room, stating that they find her to be bossy and over assertive.

When you overheard that, you did recall a meeting that you had with Caitlyn in which you suggested to her that her machining schedule for the upcoming week seemed to have a couple inefficiencies in it. Caitlyn said that she could look it over, but that she knew what she was doing, and was certain her schedule was the best it could be.

On another occasion, just two weeks ago, one of Caitlyn’s colleagues, Simran, presented an idea for rearranging the furniture in the break room. Immediately, Caitlyn stated that the idea would not work because it would be too difficult to move around the room. You noticed that Simran, who is usually shy to share her ideas, got red in the face and then left the room. You perceived Simran’s behaviour to indicate that she was embarrassed. Caitlyn carried on stating a number of other reasons why Simran’s idea would not work. The room got quite and no one else shared their opinion.

Despite these experiences with Caitlyn, you recognize that she is a dedicated, talented, and valued team member. Caitlyn has shared with you that she likes to be a leader and hopes to be the Operations Manager when you leave the role.

You value Caitlyn, have a positive rapport with her, and see potential in her. You believe you are well suited to provide Caitlyn with coaching.

Role Play Scenario (Coaching and Constructive Feedback)

1) Establish career and development goals with Caitlyn.

2) Discuss a plan for implementing Steps 2 and 3 from Petersen and Hicks’ FiveStep Model for Coaching.

3) Provide Caitlyn with constructive feedback.

4) Any sample script on how you will present your coaching session with Caitlyn.