Effective Performance Management and Coaching: What CEOs Need to Know

Is Coaching in Your Company Driving Results or Wasting Time?

If your organization isn’t executing consistently across all levels, chances are your managers aren’t coaching effectively. And that’s costing you: missed goals, underutilized talent, and strategic drift.

At the heart of high performance is clarity - especially in the conversations between managers and employees. Yet Gallup reports that most employees are unclear on their manager’s expectations. Even more troubling: many managers themselves are uncomfortable with coaching. The result? Weak accountability, role confusion, and poor execution.

Coaching Sessions Are Not "Their" Meeting

A popular myth has taken hold: that coaching sessions should belong to the employee. This is a fatal misunderstanding.

Organizations are structured as hierarchies where managers are accountable for the output of their direct reports. Your business depends on that managerial system working at every level. If coaching becomes a one-way street or a soft therapy session, your execution engine breaks down.

Every Role Supports Strategic Execution

Let’s take a look at the cascading accountability in a typical level-5 organization:

• CEO: Sets the direction, 5–10 years into the future
• VPs: Plan 2–5 years out
• Directors: Plan 1–2 years out
• First-Line Managers: Plan 3–12 months out
• Employees: Execute tasks 1 day to 3 months out

The success of that structure depends on everyone meeting (or exceeding) expectations. Coaching is the mechanism to monitor and support that performance.

Effective Coaching Focuses on the Work

A manager’s job during a coaching session is to:

• Confirm if the employee is Meeting, Not Meeting, or Exceeding expectations
• Understand how they are applying their capability and effort
• Adjust direction or support as needed to ensure results

Conversations should revolve around the role description and include:

• What role tasks they’re performing
• How they’re performing them
• What’s working or not
• The results they’re achieving

Examples:

• "In this part of my role, I’m meeting expectations. I’ve delivered X while maintaining Y quality. Should I continue?"
• "In this area, I’m exceeding expectations. I’ve gone beyond A to deliver A+. Does this create imbalance elsewhere?"
• "I’m not meeting expectations here. I’ve tried A, B, and C. What do you recommend?"

Three Coaching Modes for Managers

• Exploratory
  • Ask open questions to understand effectiveness and fit: What’s working? What ideas do you have? Are the tasks still aligned with your role?
• Advisory
  • Offer suggestions to see how the employee responds. Their reaction reveals mindset, openness, and fit for the role.
• Directive
  • Be clear and specific when standards are not met: "Stop doing A this way; start doing it this way."

Great managers use all three modes appropriately. Coaching isn’t therapy. It’s a business conversation about producing results.

What CEOs Should Do Next

• Ask your managers how they run coaching sessions.
• Ask some employees what they think of their coaching sessions.
• Review a few recent one-on-ones. Are they focused on work outcomes or vague check-ins?
• Clarify what you expect from your leaders in terms of coaching.

What Happens When You Get It Right?

Organizations that implement our performance coaching model see measurable results:

• 25% increase in role clarity within 90 days
• Managers report higher confidence and more productive teams

Let’s Talk

If you suspect coaching isn’t driving the right behaviors in your company, let’s talk. We help CEOs and executive teams build high-accountability organizations through effective coaching, role clarity, and system design.

Contact us for a free 30-minute consultation.

We work with growth-oriented CEOs to implement performance management systems that drive execution, retain talent, and align teams to strategy. To learn more, reach out to Kevin Earnest, President, MANAGEABLE, getmanageable.com, 717.471.5845.