Topgrading Hiring Step #11: Coach Your Newly Hired A Player, page 171.
- Congratulations, your newly hired high performer has just arrived in the new job! It’s time for coaching.
- What? Most new hires get their first real coaching a year after they joined the company, after their first formal performance appraisal.
- There are two problems when coaching is delayed, and they have been well researched:
- Without help getting adjusted to the new job, sometimes even A Players become frustrated and quit
- Remember, companies that had been recruiting your newly hired A Player might not have given up
- If your onboarding doesn’t go well they might pirate away you’re a Player form you
- There can be delayed productivity and development
- A person is hired, the boss takes off on business travel for two months and the new hire, eager to get going, has little to do
- Why wait weeks to unleash your new A Player’s talents?
- Why wait a year to start coaching if someone is high potential, eager for feedback, and eager to follow through on developmental actions?
- The best way to retain A Players is to offer them real challenges and active career development
- Without help getting adjusted to the new job, sometimes even A Players become frustrated and quit
New Hire Coaching Guidelines
- Don’t delay
- The hiring manager is the coach
- Open the coaching session with a statement of the three goals (on-boarding, productivity, development)
- It’s the new hires responsibility to take the Executive Summary and compose the Individual Development Plan (IDP), taking your suggestions and making it his/her plan
- Review your Executive Summary with the candidate
- Every strength
- Every weaker point
- Every developmental suggestion
- Hand your new hire your Executive Summary plus Appendix G, the sample Individual Development Plan
- Read and discuss the developmental activities included in your Executive Summary
- Ask your newly hired A Player to create an Individual Development Plan (What, Why, When, How Measured)
- Be sure the IDP includes quarterly reviews
