3 Coaching and Feedback
Learn how focused coaching, specific feedback, and follow-up help team members improve performance and build skills.
What is for
helps a team member improve performance and develop skills through focused conversation, practice, and follow-up. It combines clear expectations with listening, useful feedback, and support for action. can address a specific performance need while also developing the person’s ability to solve similar problems independently.
Give feedback people can act on
Feedback is most useful when it is timely, specific, and connected to an agreed goal or observable work standard. General praise such as “You did a great job” may encourage someone, but naming what worked helps the person repeat it. Similarly, “You need to communicate better” is too broad to guide improvement. Describe what happened and what effect it had.
Apply
The method organizes feedback into three parts:
Situation: Identify when and where the event occurred.
Behavior: Describe what you saw or heard, without labeling the person or guessing their motives.
Impact: Explain the effect on the work, team, customer, or yourself.
For example, positive feedback might be: “In yesterday’s project meeting (situation), you summarized the client’s concerns and checked that everyone agreed on the next steps (behavior). That clarified ownership and helped us finish the plan on time (impact).”
For constructive feedback, use the same structure to keep the conversation focused on changeable actions: “In Monday’s handoff (situation), the report was missing the updated figures (behavior). The next team had to pause its review while we confirmed the numbers (impact).” Then invite the team member’s perspective with an open question such as, “What got in the way, and what would help you include the figures next time?” This avoids treating an assumption as fact.
Guide a conversation
A conversation can move from agreeing on the goal to choosing an action and checking what happens next.
Agree on the focus. State the performance goal or skill to work on, and check that you and the team member understand the expectation in the same way.
Ask and listen. Use open questions such as “What is going well?”, “Where are you getting stuck?”, and “What have you tried?” Listen to the person’s perspective before offering solutions.
Give clear feedback. Use specific examples, explain their impact, and distinguish observed facts from interpretation.
Explore options. Ask what the person could do differently. Offer advice or demonstrate a skill when useful, without unnecessarily taking over the problem-solving.
Agree on action and support. Decide what the person will try, what resources or practice they need, and how progress will be checked.
Follow up. Review what happened, recognize progress, and adjust the plan if circumstances or needs have changed.
If a team member’s reports often need corrections, the coach might first ask which part of the process is most difficult. Together, they could identify a checklist or peer review as short-term support, agree on a date to assess the next report, and later reduce the support as accuracy improves.
Build development into everyday work
Turn feedback into a manageable . Specify the skill or behavior to improve, the action the person will take, available support, and a time to review progress. Practice, job assignments, observation, and brief check-ins can make development part of everyday work.
works best as an ongoing cycle of setting expectations, monitoring progress, developing skills, and recognizing results—not as a conversation that happens only at a formal review. Recognize progress as well as gaps: acknowledge specific effective behaviors so the team member knows what to continue, and deliver constructive feedback respectfully and directly.
If a concern is serious or continues despite , clarify the performance standard and next steps, and follow relevant workplace procedures. In general, good turns clear, specific feedback into learning and action: describe observable behavior and its impact, listen to the team member’s perspective, agree on a practical next step, and follow up. Consistent can help people improve performance while building confidence and the ability to take on future challenges.