To understand successful coaching, what are the guiding principles you need to understand?

What will be an ideal response?

Supervisors can take the following steps to prevent defensive responses during the performance review meeting:
• Establish and maintain rapport.
- Start by making sure that the meeting takes place in a good environment.
- The meeting should be private and there should be no interruptions.
- The supervisor should put the employee at ease and foster two-way communication. Some ways of handling this are sitting next to the employee rather than across a desk, chatting with the employee briefly, and using the employee's name, among other techniques. (Failure to establish and maintain rapport may lead to a cold and closed communication environment and may foster defensiveness and challenges to what is being said.)
• Be empathetic—the supervisor should put him or herself into the shoes of the employee and try to discover what has caused the employee's behavior and performance rather than assuming that any positive performance has been caused by external forces or that negative performance is caused by internal forces.
• Observe verbal and nonverbal cues—the supervisor should be able to read, and react to, the employee's emotions and reactions to feedback to determine if clarification is required.
• Minimize threats—the meeting should be framed as having the goal to benefit the employee rather than to punish the employee.
• Encourage participation—the supervisor should not monopolize the meeting, allowing the employee to express views and to speak openly.