Is it possible for HR professionals to achieve goals positively and quickly? For HR professionals this can be a real challenge. HR professionals are often in a position in which they have to manage managers - and that can be a difficult job! The solution focused approach can be of assistance and can help the HR professional to switch quickly between the different roles (coach, advisor, manager) that he plays. How? That’s the subject of this article.
The solution focused approach is a respectful change approach, which acknowledges problems, turns those problems into positive goals, finds internal solutions that fit the specific circumstances by analyzing previous successes and positive exceptions to the problem and reaches those positive goals step by step.
The approach works well, research indicates. This is reasonably easy to understand in circumstances where some one wants to help some one else with a problem, for example in coaching and therapy. But HR professionals are not only helping others. Sometimes helping others doesn’t get the job done. If the rule applies that all managers should hand in their performance appraisal by the first of November, so that the HR department is able to estimate the total cost of bonuses and pay raises, and a manager doesn’t comply because he doesn’t feel it is a problem to be late, then maybe helping this manager with a problem he doesn’t perceive he has is not the best way forward. Nobody can be helped against his own wish. The HR professional has his own goals, e.g. the goals of the organization to achieve.
How to use the solution focused approach in circumstances where it is not so much about helping someone to define his own goals but about directing someone to achieve organizational goals?
When the goals of the organization or the goals of the HR professional prevail, solution focused directing (as we call it) is in order. The HR professional clarifies the positive results he expects of the manager. The organizational goals are the central point of focus of the conversation. The leading from behind posture only partly applies now. The HR professional is leading as far as the goals are concerned. The HR professional doesn’t ask the manager what his goals are, but tells him what is expected. However, the not knowing posture does apply with regard to the solutions that fit the manager best. The HR professional asks how the manager is going to reach the goals and doesn’t instruct him how to achieve the goals. The focus is on finding internal solutions.
As with solution focused coaching, the basic attitude is inviting, encouraging, goal orientated, future focussed and activating. A solution focused directing conversation combines friendliness with clarity and understanding with determination. This can be hard, especially when the HR professional gets annoyed with the delaying behaviour of the manager. Preparation helps to keep the conversation goal orientated and to prevent side tracks or escalations and arguments.
Preparing for a solution focused directing conversation
Solution focused directing requires that the ‘director’ is mandated by the organization to act in this role. What does he expect of the manager and what is his good reason to expect this?
The HR professional prepares by answering the following questions:
1. what is the goal of the conversation?
2. what do I expect and what is my good reason to expect this of the manager?
3. when do I expect my goals to be achieved by the manager and what is my good reason to keep this time scale?
4. what do I appreciate with regard to this manager? (And when has he already shown the desired behaviour?)
The answers to these questions provide the HR professional with a solid basis for his directing sentences. These directing sentences are built on two pillars:
WHAT does the HR professional expect?
WHICH positive results will be achieved if the manager fulfils the expectations?
And because the goal is a given, but the solutions are found by the manager himself, the directing sentences are being phrased as a question:
How can you ensure that…so that…..?
Of course there are many different ways in which the directing questions can be formulated. The pillars stay the same; the WHAT you expect and the TO WHICH END you expect this.
Visitor typical, complainer typical and client typical responses
However well prepared the HR professional is, he can’t control the way the manager will respond. The manager can respond in three different ways. A visitor typical response would be when the manager tells the HR professional that he doesn’t want to talk about the planning of the performance appraisals because he is too busy and doesn’t find that topic very interesting. A complainer typical response would be when the manager says that he knows that he is late, but he can’t help it because of various reasons. A client typical response would be when the manager says that he understands he has to be on time and he wants to be on time, and he comes up with solutions to meet the deadlines or he asks the HR professional to help him with his planning problem.
The HR professional responds differently to each type of interaction. To a visitor typical response of the manager he responds with understanding and with a friendly determination to stick the goal of the conversation. At a certain point the manager will start to understand the topic is not going to go away. He may become a bit more agitated, since he now understands he will have to deal with it. He becomes complainer typical. To a complainer typical response the HR professional responds with acknowledgment and by understanding the complaints without letting the complaints be a reason not to achieve the goal. “Given that your business unit is under a lot of strain, which makes it even harder for you to meet the deadline, what are your ideas to make sure you will meet the performance appraisal deadline, so that our management team is provided with the necessary financial reports on time?” The manager is likely to keep complaining for awhile, but he will soon understand that his problems are being acknowledged yet the goal keeps on being stressed. At this point a client typical interaction develops. The manager agrees with the goal. He might ask the HR professional for his support, in which case the HR professional can switch from directing to coaching.
Below you find a format of a solution focused directing conversation.
In a solution focused directing conversation the manager notices:
1. that the goal of the HR professional/the organization are stressed constantly
2. that the complaints of the manager are being acknowledged and understood and listened to
3. that the contribution of the manager is being appreciated and valued
4. that the manager himself is expected to take the next step to achieve the goals of the HR professional/the organisation
5. that the manager has the freedom and chance to find the solutions that fit him and which are his own to achieve the goal
The solution focused approach is no answer to all problems and doesn’t make challenging situations in organisations pieces of cake. But the approach does very often help to know what you want to achieve vividly and to actually achieve those vivid goals.
Literature
Oplossingsgericht aan de Slag, Toon en Techniek maakt de Muziek, Gwenda Schlundt Bodien en Coert Visser, Crystallise Books, 2008
Coert Visser en Gwenda Schlundt Bodien, Paden naar Oplossingen, uitgeverij JustinTime Books, 2008
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