Regularly asking questions is an agile and lightweight way to keep up. Answers turn into conversations about what is most fundamental and meaningful to the team and the company, and then turn those conversations into action.
Asking the right questions is key. Here are 10 questions from 15Five CEO David Hassell:
1. What progress has been made this week?
Answering this question allows employees to celebrate and even brag about some of their accomplishments, including the little things that go unnoticed and overlooked as being irrelevant to the highest priorities. This way you can also see if the results seen by the employees are related to the goals of the organization.
2. What challenges do you face? Where is it stuck?
The quickest way to overcome a challenge is to speak out. Once you know where you're stuck and get attention, you have the opportunity to be guided and taught to help you think about the problem in a whole new way.
Often just writing down where there is a problem starts the journey to solving it.
3. What can the company do to make you more successful?
You don't know what you don't know until you ask the right questions to your team
Employee success is a dynamic and evolving process. Sometimes what your team needs is more training or one-on-one meetings. Sometimes help is needed to master a specific skill set. This question increases employee motivation, engagement, and well-being.
4. How do you feel? How is the morale?
This question is very critical. Having individual and collective feelings heard and acknowledged increases employee drive and happiness.
Answering this question not only increases self-awareness, but also provides qualitative analysis that is valuable to others. Once members understand the situation of others, the cohesion of the team will improve. This increases the efficiency and satisfaction of the team's work.
In addition, you can also take some actions or make adjustments when appropriate based on the members' responses. Are members exhausted or feeling happy and energized? Are they stressed about new product launches? Do you have to adjust delivery times to allow them to realize their most creative ideas?
5. Rate happiness (1-10) and explain why
Research in positive psychology has made it clear: happiness is the mother of success and achievement, not the other way around. When the team is happy, not only can they come up with better solutions, but that satisfaction also helps build a high-performance, low-failure culture.
The question also sends a message: In addition to performance and job-related issues, you care about the happiness of your employees.
6. What is the best thing that happened to you this week? Work or anything outside of work will do
Asking this question makes the other person feel that their personal wishes and goals are known and understood, which can help build a more cohesive and dedicated team.
7. Give the company an idea for improving a product or service
Those who are already working for you are often the best source of innovation. Not only does this elicit a valuable response, but it also makes the responder feel connected and appreciated with the organization.
8. If the company were yours, what would you do differently?
Unlock your employees’ leadership potential by asking this question every month and give them a sense of ownership.
9. What outstanding contributions have the rest of the team made?
This question opens the door to complimenting others and increases cohesion. You can also have internal conversations about the priority traits that new recruits should have. It's best to ask this question to elicit specific, positive messages. Generalities about other people's performance are often not very helpful.
10. Ask for feedback on how to be a better leader
It's the toughest question for your team, but it's also very valuable. You'll be able to understand your subordinates' perceptions of core leadership values and determine whether they are aligned with management values and company values. This insight will also help you spot talent, as answering this question requires courage and skill.