AI Coaching Focus Areas and Behaviors: Overview

Definition: The practice of proactively seeking input from others to gain insight, improve performance, and demonstrate openness to learning and development.

Perfect state: The manager proactively sought specific feedback with genuine curiosity, creating a comfortable environment for input and demonstrating clear intent to improve.

Definition: The extent to which a manager supports employees in growing their skills, expanding opportunities, and progressing toward long-term career goals.

Perfect state: The manager engaged in a thoughtful career growth conversation, providing clear guidance, identifying skills or opportunities, and empowering the employee with a sense of direction toward long-term development.

Definition: The ability to lead teams through change by fostering adaptability, maintaining clear communication, and building resilience—ensuring employees feel equipped to succeed in evolving circumstances.

Perfect state: The manager guided the team through change with clear communication, addressing emotional and logistical impacts, and providing concrete strategies for adapting, managing uncertainty, or building resilience.

Definition: The practice of guiding employees to unlock their potential through thoughtful questions, active listening, and constructive feedback—fostering learning, growth, and problem-solving skills.

Perfect state: The manager facilitated coaching through insightful questions, active listening, and reflective guidance, empowering the employee with greater self-awareness and a clear development path.

Definition: The ability to navigate and resolve disagreements constructively, fostering mutual understanding and a productive team dynamic.

Perfect state: The manager navigated conflict by actively listening to all perspectives, fostering open dialogue, and guiding the team toward a respectful, mutually agreeable resolution that maintained a positive dynamic.

Definition: The ability to assign tasks effectively based on team strengths and development goals—empowering employees with clear expectations, autonomy, and accountability for outcomes.

Perfect state: The manager delegated tasks with clear expectations aligned to individual strengths and development needs, empowering ownership and accountability with appropriate support.

Definition: The ability to navigate high-stakes or sensitive discussions with empathy, clarity, and confidence—balancing honesty with care to drive resolution while maintaining trust.

Perfect state: The manager navigated sensitive topics with honesty, empathy, and composure, addressing issues directly while preserving trust and strengthening the working relationship.

Definition: The commitment to creating a workplace where all employees feel valued, have equitable opportunities, and can contribute authentically.

Perfect state: The manager fostered an inclusive environment where diverse voices were valued, equitable opportunities were promoted, and intentional actions addressed bias or barriers to inclusion.

Definition: The ability to clearly define and communicate responsibilities, performance standards, and success criteria—ensuring alignment on goals, priorities, and outcomes while minimizing ambiguity.

Perfect state: The manager reinforced responsibilities, priorities, and success criteria, ensuring team alignment with minimal ambiguity, even when ownership was implied from prior discussions.

Definition: The ability to provide clear, constructive, and actionable input to help others improve performance, reinforce strengths, and drive growth.

Perfect state: The manager provided actionable feedback with specific examples, clearly addressing areas for improvement and the impact it had on the team or work.

Definition: The degree to which a manager is accessible, provides guidance, and advocates for their team: removing obstacles, influencing stakeholders, and ensuring employees have the resources and visibility they need to succeed.

Perfect state: The manager remained accessible, proactively offering tailored support, removing obstacles, and ensuring employees had the resources, guidance, and stakeholder influence needed to succeed.

Definition: The ability to understand and support each team member's unique strengths, motivations, and challenges: tailoring guidance, feedback, and opportunities to help them succeed.

Perfect state: The manager understood each team member's unique strengths, motivations, and challenges, tailoring support, feedback, and opportunities to foster individual success.

Definition: A structured discussion between a manager and an employee that provides a comprehensive assessment of performance, highlights accomplishments, offers constructive feedback, and sets clear goals for future growth—fostering alignment, accountability, and professional development.

Perfect state: The manager conducted a structured performance discussion that assessed accomplishments, offered actionable feedback, and set clear growth goals, fostering alignment and accountability.

Definition: The ability to identify, sequence, and communicate the most critical tasks, ensuring the team stays focused on high-impact work and effectively manages time and resources.

Perfect state: The manager clearly identified and communicated top priorities, focusing the team on high-impact work with structured guidance on managing time and resources.

Definition: The extent to which employees feel safe to voice ideas, take risks, and work together without fear of judgment or negative consequences.

Perfect state: The manager is clearly working towards a team environment where employees can feel safe to share ideas, included in the group, free to take risks, and able to collaborate openly.

Definition: The ability to listen to and process input with an open mind, respond constructively, and use feedback as an opportunity for growth and improvement.

Perfect state: The manager listened to feedback with openness and appreciation, processed input thoughtfully, and demonstrated a commitment to growth by applying feedback constructively.

Definition: The frequency and sincerity with which a manager acknowledges contributions, reinforcing positive impact and engagement.

Perfect state: The manager promptly and specifically acknowledged individual contributions, reinforcing positive behaviors and motivating continued engagement and performance.

Definition: The ability to set a clear direction by translating business strategy and context into actionable goals, ensuring the team's work aligns with broader company objectives and drives meaningful impact.

Perfect state: The manager clearly communicated strategy, translated it into actionable goals, and consistently reinforced the broader meaning behind the team's work, fostering alignment and motivation toward company priorities.

Definition: The ability to lead teams through transitions by fostering adaptability, maintaining clear communication, and proactively addressing concerns—ensuring employees feel supported, informed, and equipped to succeed in evolving circumstances.

Behaviors:

• Change Management + Resiliency
• Difficult Conversation
• Conflict Management
• Managing the Individual
• Receiving Feedback
• Asked for Feedback
• Psych Safety + Collaboration
• Leader Availability + Support

Definition: A proactive approach to employee development that involves guiding, mentoring, and supporting individuals in achieving their career aspirations—encouraging self-reflection, skill-building, and long-term growth through meaningful, future-focused discussions.

Behaviors:

• Coaching
• Career Development
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion
• Managing the Individual
• Leader Availability + Support

Definition: The ability to provide clear, actionable input to help others improve performance, reinforce strengths, and drive growth. The ability to navigate high-stakes discussions with clarity and confidence.

Behaviors:

• Difficult Conversation
• Conflict Management
• Giving Feedback
• Asked for Feedback
• Receiving Feedback
• Recognition and Praise
• Leader Availability + Support

Definition: The process of defining clear, measurable objectives and ensuring alignment between individual, team, and company priorities— clarifying expectations, tracking progress, and empowering employees to take ownership of their work with confidence and purpose.

Behaviors:

• Vision + Goals + Objectives
• Prioritization
• Delegation
• Leader Availability + Support

Definition: The foundational skills and mindset required for new and first-time managers to lead effectively—covering core practices like setting expectations, giving feedback, supporting growth, and navigating team dynamics with clarity, consistency, and confidence.

Behaviors:

• Prioritization
• Giving Feedback
• Asked for Feedback
• Recognition + Praise
• Expectation Setting
• Leader Availability + Support
• Psychological Safety

Definition: The ability to navigate performance review cycles with fairness, clarity, and impact—ensuring performance is well-documented, feedback is actionable, and employees feel seen, supported, and motivated to grow based on clear, constructive insights.

Behaviors:

• Performance Review Convo
• Difficult Conversation
• Conflict Management
• Giving Feedback
• Recognition and Praise
• Receiving Feedback
• Diversity, Equity, Inclusion

Definition: The ability to create a trusting, inclusive environment where employees feel safe to take risks, share ideas, and give feedback—especially during team formation or conflict—fostering open collaboration, mutual respect, and strong team cohesion.

Behaviors:

• Managing the Individual
• Asked for Feedback
• Receiving Feedback
• Psych Safety + Collaboration
• Leader Availability + Support

Manager Effectiveness competencies and AI Coaching Focus Areas are two distinct—but complementary—ways to assess and develop managers in 15Five.

• Manager Effectiveness competencies are broader leadership skills (like Building Strong Teams and Demonstrating Business Acumen) that are assessed through manager effectiveness engagement surveys and/or performance reviews. They help create a diagnostic baseline for a manager’s leadership effectiveness and are used to calculate the Manager Effectiveness Indicator (MEI) score.
• AI Coaching Focus Areas group specific manager behaviors that Kona monitors during 1-on-1 meetings. Focus Areas help guide real-time coaching by surfacing actionable opportunities for managers to build critical skills through everyday conversations.

In short:

• Competencies = assessment through surveys/reviews → create a diagnostic snapshot.
• Focus Areas and Behaviors = real-time coaching focus based on 1-on-1 conversation analysis.

Both systems work together to give you a full picture of manager effectiveness and growth over time.

You can view how managers are performing in their assigned Focus Areas and tracked Behaviors through Kona reporting in the HR Outcomes Dashboard.

There are two key reports to help you monitor progress:

• Targeted Actions Report: This report surfaces managers who have high-priority coaching opportunities based on urgency, AI insights, and recent activity. It helps you quickly identify where additional support or action may be needed.
• AI Coach Insights Report: This report provides detailed insights into how often managers are demonstrating specific coaching behaviors during 1-on-1 meetings, how the frequency is trending over time, and the quality of execution for each behavior.

Together, these reports allow you to track progress, spot coaching opportunities, and measure improvement across Focus Areas and behaviors over time.

The Targeted Actions Report (in-app link) provides a recommended Focus Area for each manager, based on an analysis of their recent 1-on-1 conversations and the behaviors most critical for their development. This recommendation highlights where coaching support could have the greatest impact.

When reviewing or assigning a Focus Area, consider the following:

• AI-recommended Focus Area: Start by reviewing the recommendation shown in the Targeted Actions Report for each manager.
• Behavior frequency and quality: Check the manager’s behavior patterns in the AI Coach Insights Report (in-app link)—focus on areas where critical behaviors are missing or need improvement.
• Urgency and team impact: Prioritize areas tied to higher urgency or greater potential impact on team engagement, performance, or retention.
• Recent feedback and assessments: Incorporate insights from engagement surveys, Best-Self Review®, or manager assessments if available.
• Manager level or experience: Align Focus Areas to the manager's career stage; foundational Focus Areas for new managers, and more advanced ones (like Change Management) for seasoned leaders.