As the table above points out, attitude has a big affect on everything we do. As a manager, it can be frustrating to work with an employee who constantly has a bad attitude. How can you coach someone who is so unmotivated and disengaged? 

Here are a few tips to coaching an employee with a bad attitude:

Use rating questions:

Rating questions can really help an employee to view how they are behaving and help to set goals for the future. For example, "Jim, on a scale of one to eight, with eight being extremely positive, and one being extremely negative, how would you rate your attitude in the workplace?" Generally, employees will answer somewhere in the middle, which give you a great opportunity to ask a follow up question such as, "What can we do together to get you in the seven and eight range?" 

Use 3rd party questions:

3rd party questions allow the employee to think about the situation from an outside perspective. Asking something like, “If the president of the company was here, what would he/she think about your attitude in the workplace?” This helps employees to see themselves from a different, outside perspective and answer as somebody else. 

Use peer-to-peer coaching:

Each peer to peer session should include specific, well-defined activities for the employees to cover. All activities should have associated metrics to help employees navigate through the activity, promote teamwork, and open lines of communication while building performance levels. Having an employee work with their fellow teammates can help to encourage and motivate them to be more positive.

Use observational coaching:

This coaching type is simply having one employee observe another. Have your employee who has a bad attitude observe an employee you think displays exceptional attitude. Then have your employee write down two things they think they do well, two things they think they need to improve upon, and two ways they intend to work towards those improvements. This type of coaching helps employees learn different ways of approaching situation and gives them a new insight on how to handle their attitude. 

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