This is the third post in a series on personalized, AI-powered coaching with Degreed Maestro. See the first and second.
Poor leadership damages more than employee morale. It also weakens the bottom line.
At S&P 1500 companies, poorly managed CEO transitions wipe out nearly $1 trillion in market value each year. And employee turnover due to poor leadership costs American companies $630 billion annually.
Leadership isn’t something that comes easy, and it’s especially difficult for new leaders. They need support and practice to navigate new challenges.
Coaches are sometimes hired to help new leaders successfully transition from individual contributor roles. But person-to-person coaching is costly and difficult to scale, effectively eliminating it as an option for most employees.
Fortunately, advancements in technology help democratize leadership coaching. With the right tools and investment, organizations can provide leaders at every level with cost-effective support—and AI is making it easier than ever.
AI Powered Leadership Coaching
Degreed Maestro, our AI purpose-built for learning, is uniquely equipped to help your leaders efficiently upskill in the areas they—and your company—need the most.
Degreed Maestro communicates directly with your people and retains those discussions, so it understands where your leaders have been—and are—in their skill journeys. Most importantly, it knows how to help your leaders get where they need to go.
Maestro guides your leaders to highly targeted content and simulates real-word conversations, so your people can practice addressing new challenges. This is especially helpful for learning how to handle difficult interpersonal conversations new leaders haven’t had to conduct before.
Degreed Maestro in Action: Practicing a Performance Discussion
In recent blog posts, we saw how a fictitious employee, Mark, used Degreed Maestro to uncover his skill strengths and weaknesses, fill personal skill gaps, and practice a sales pitch for a new product.
Mark now leads a team of three employees. Unfortunately, one team member consistently turns in low quality work late.
Like many new leaders, Mark worries about the difficult but necessary conversation ahead. He knows he needs to address the problem, but he isn’t sure how to communicate the performance issues in a way that’s supportive and helpful.
Mark turns to Maestro for guidance. He explains the situation, and in turn Maestro probes for specific examples of how the employee’s performance hasn’t met expectations.
Based on what Mark shares, Maestro recommends specific learning content that teaches techniques for managing employee performance. Using this content, Mark builds a better understanding of how to communicate with the employee in a way that doesn’t come off like an attack.
See this Maestro-produced Pathway:
While this learning experience is helpful, Mark senses he could gain even more. How should he react if the employee responds with anger? With tears? With indifference? Mark wants to practice these scenarios before the meeting.
With Maestro playing the part of the employee, Mark rehearses the future conversation, practicing responses to multiple simulated reactions. Afterward, Maestro provides actionable feedback about what Mark did well, how he can improve, and specific resources he can explore to further reinforce his knowledge.
Fast forward to the actual conversation. Mark feels much more confident and comfortable. He provides constructive criticism with tact and articulates clear steps the employee can take to improve.
The employee appreciates that Mark shared an action plan with expectations addressing what needs to change. Adhering to that plan, the employee gets his performance back on track.
Building Skill Fluency Through Practice
While highly targeted curation helped Mark build a strong foundation of knowledge, it was the practice that truly set him up for success. When it comes to sensitive, personal conversations like a performance discussion, the ability to act calmly and with confidence is essential. Practice prepared Mark to think quickly and respond thoughtfully.
Degreed Maestro helped Mark obtain skill fluency, which is the ability to draw on skills or expertise at a moment’s notice. For example, while a translation app is adequate to understand Spanish during a vacation to Mexico, it isn’t enough if you’re moving to Mexico. You need to be fluent.
Mark’s sensitive meeting is the perfect example of an interaction that called for skill fluency. It required speed. Mark needed to quickly respond with compassion and also keep the conversation on track.
Beyond Practice
Of course, leadership coaching is ultimately about much more than difficult conversations.
Effective coaches help leaders understand their strengths and weaknesses, experiment with new ideas, develop strategies, set goals, and improve communication.
Degreed Maestro handles all these needs and more, helping leaders reach their full potential, make better informed decisions, and steer the business.
Find out more.
Keep reading. Check out more Degreed Maestro blog posts, and see Degreed Experiments to stay up to date on our latest AI explorations.
Schedule a personalized one-on-one call with us today.
