PAF Feedback
A new and innovative training approach that enables managers, coaches, and mentors to excel at holding honest, meaningful, and effective employee performance and development conversations.
Why is PAF Training so Effective?
PAF stands for Performance, Analysis, and Feedback.
It's a straightforward technique that untangles and overcomes the root cause of the problem the vast majority of managers, coaches, and mentors encounter when talking to employees about "how they are doing".
While PAF works for all such conversations it is specifically designed to help with the ones that cause the most anxiety and stress - such as when having to bring up and resolve difficult or sensitive performance and behaviour issues.
Consequently, using it as the basis for all performance and development coaching achieves win-win-win outcomes:
Managers can fulfill their critical responsibility to successfully manage, develop, and motivate employees (and reap the rewards that go with it).
Employees know exactly "how they are doing". They are clear about how to overcome any barriers to success and how to achieve their potential.
The organization gets better results.
Root Cause of the Problem
The root cause of the problem with giving difficult or sensitive feedback is not knowing EXACTLY how to:
Justify and prove that your beliefs, conclusions, and opinions about an employee's performance or potential are correct and free from bias.
Find the right words to convey the information to the employee in a totally honest yet totally kind way in order to avoid negative reactions and achieve desired outcomes.
Manage the discussion to deal effectively with anything the employee says or does.
Why Does This Continue to be SO HARD to Do?
The vast majority of managers and coaches have difficulty with this basic but critical leadership skill despite everything organizations have tried over the years to help them master it.
Our findings and experience have shown that this is because they all seem to rely on the same typical approach to giving feedback that they have either learned through experience, observation, or have actually been taught. Unfortunately, while this approach works in theory it fails in practice for the most challenging conversations.
Poor outcomes are therefore (albeit inadvertently) the result of the approach itself rather than the individual not applying it correctly.
This typical approach (which is widely considered to be the best way to give feedback) may explain why it has been, and continues to be, so ubiquitous in organizations. It may also explain why so many managers feel that the easiest option is to simply avoid having difficult conversations - even when they realize that this choice results in a different set of potential negative ramifications.
Training Solution
The training solution:
Online Course
Giving Coaching Feedback using The PAF Technique (2024)
PAF was developed as an alternative to the typical approach to giving feedback.
The straightforward 3-Step Technique overcomes the three parts of the root cause of the problem so that managers can be effective performance and development coaches in both informal and formal settings.
The course is available on the Udemy platform. Learn the basics in about an hour. The full course takes 2 - 4 hours.
Read the Course Description and Curriculum.
Watch the Preview, Introduction, and Root Cause of the Problem videos to see how and why PAF works.
See who will benefit the most from taking the course.
Optional Follow-Up Coaching
Organizations can optionally arrange for their participants to attend a live half-day small group session (online or in-person) focusing on applying and practicing what they learned for their own real-life situations.
Why the Hybrid Approach?
Until relatively recently, this course was only available in a classroom setting.
Having made it available online we are now convinced that it is actually more effective to reserve valuable face-to-face time for when it can have the biggest impact.
And that is to provide an opportunity for students who want more help with application and practice ... rather than in teaching them the skills to begin with.
Want to Evaluate PAF Training for Your Organization?
We are confident that PAF can significantly help any employee tasked with the responsibility to manage and develop others.
Contact us to arrange a no cost, no obligation evaluation.