If you want to be an effective leader, you must be able to get clear answers to five essential questions—from EACH OF YOUR TEAM MEMBERS.

This series is an expansion of the principle I shared in my last post:

If you listen to your people, they will hand you leadership success on a silver platter.

My advice to leaders in the workplace has always been this:  Take the initiative in this process—by asking important questions and listening carefully to your employees’ answers.

This special series of posts was inspired by a recent web article by Susan Peppercorn published on January 21^st by Harvard Business Review.  I’ve taken the premise of the article and added additional details to give managers and supervisors clear direction to guide them in the process.  I’ve also included some practical tools to help them interact productively with their direct reports. 

The first question is the most important and fundamental:  What do you need from me in order for you to do your best work?

Let me set the stage for this series and this post with an anecdote from my looooong history as a leader and as a management consultant…

Up Close and Personal

When I decided to start my own management consulting practice, my wife and I moved back to our hometown of San Diego to establish the “home base” for the business.  Before we bought a house, we rented a place in La Jolla, just outside the “Golden Triangle.”  I loved the neighborhood.  It was quiet—away from the noise and bustle surrounding the high-rise condos and apartments in the Triangle.  And it was just blocks away from dual shopping centers that were loaded with shopping conveniences—restaurants, movie theaters, grocery stores, drug stores, and both Starbucks AND Peet’s! 

We did a lot of grocery shopping at the Ralph’s that was there.  Inside the store was a Postal Annex franchise that was manned by a young woman in her twenties.  It was where I often mailed out books and packages.  During a friendly conversation, I divulged my vocation as a management consultant and she shared that she was not just the manager of the franchise—she was the owner!  That’s when she challenged me with the following question:

What’s the ONE THING I have to get right, in order to be an effective manager?

It reminded me of the movie, City Slickers, when the wise old cowboy, Curly, has a heart-to-heart conversation with Mitch Robbins (the character played by Billy Crystal):

• Curly: Do you know what the secret of life is? [points index finger skyward] This.
• Mitch: Your finger?
• Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and the rest don’t mean sh*t.
• Mitch: But, what is the “one thing?”
• Curly: [smiles and points his finger at Mitch] That’s what you have to find out.

I confess, this question about “What’s the ONE THING for me as a manager?” was one of the toughest I’ve ever been asked!  I could think of a DOZEN things that managers need to get right.  I could boil it down to FIVE… or maybe just THREE.  But condensing it to ONE really baked my noodle!  It took a loooooong time of reflection and soul-searching before I was able to give her this answer:

Clarity!

Clarity about what????  Clarity about EVERYTHING!!!

• Clear VISION and VALUES
• Clear PURPOSE
• Clear GOALS
• Clear PRIORITIES
• Clear ROLES and RESPONSIBILITIES
• Clear ASSIGNMENTS
• Clear EXPECTATIONS
• Clear MEASUREMENTS for SUCCESS

Of course, clarity requires communication—LOTS OF IT—especially two-way communication!  This is one of the most important elements of my management training content: Telling managers to take the initiative in establishing open, honest, direct, and forth-coming communication with their teams. What does that mean? It means this:

• OPEN = we can talk about anything—there’s no such thing as an “elephant in the room”
• HONEST = we will never be punished for speaking the truth
• DIRECT = if we have an issue with another person, we talk to them directly about it
• FORTH-COMING = we don’t need to drag information out of one another—it’s freely volunteered

This is about establishing what social scientists call, a “warm communication climate.”  It means making sure that you and your team members are able to share information freely, without any emotional, social, or political barriers.  I introduced this concept in an earlier blog.  You can access it HERE.

The blogpost also made two helpful tools available for readers who were looking for practical help in understanding how to go about creating a warm communication climate.  The first resource—LeadershipTracks Newsletter – Issue #10—describes a communication climate using six distinctive qualities—defined in contrasting opposites.  You can access it HERE.

For more practical help, you can dive into the applications supplied in the matching issue of The Personal Trainer.  It includes specific examples of what each quality looks like (and sounds like!) in typical workplace conversations.  (It also includes an entire section showing you how to communicate more effectively with your boss—even if that person presents a bit of a challenge in doing so!)  You can access it HERE.

I realize that this is a MAJOR INTRODUCTION to the whole five-part series.  But I wanted to emphasize how important it is for managers to establish healthy, effective communication with their team members.  Everything you need to discover through your team’s answers to these 5 questions depends on your ability to communicate well with them.

With that in mind, allow me to revisit the first question:

#1:  What do you need from me in order for you to do your best work?

The answer to this #1 question is designed to help you accomplish your #1 job as a boss…

Your #1 job is to help your people succeed.

I wrote about this in a blogpost last fall.  It’s packed with useful information and well worth reviewing.  You can access it HERE.

Asking your subordinates this straightforward question enables you to be CLEAR about what your team members need from you, in order to do their jobs well. 

I know how easy it is for leaders to assume that their people have what they need.  Bosses get busy with their own work; demands; priorities; schedules.  It’s easy for them to neglect the important conversations with subordinates that take longer than a quick greeting in the hallway. 

But it is vital that employees get the support they need from their boss.  Like what??? 

Like THIS:

• Resources—budget / equipment / personnel
• Information—goals / plans / priorities / direction / feedback / coaching / “intel”
• Authority—to act / to decide / to represent the boss or the team / to be trusted
• Problem-Solving—running “interference” / dealing with higher-ups and other team leaders
• Decision-Making—especially for issues requiring higher authority

You may be at a point where you assume “no news is good news” and your people have what they need because nobody is saying anything.

You may be assuming too much!  And that would be a gigantic mistake on your part!

I often tell managers:

If you want to have a true “open door policy” then YOU must take the initiative—get up from your desk; walk through your own open office door; and get out there where your people are!  Meet them where THEY are and talk to them where THEY are!

If you need help engaging your people in honest, open, direct conversations about their work and their needs…give us a call – we can help!  We can give you the tools and the skills you need to build a productive communication climate with your team.  And stay in touch with this blog—we’ve got more great ideas and tips in store for you!

Until next time… Yours for better leaders and better organizations,

Dr. Jim Dyke – “The Boss Doctor” ™ helping you to BE a better boss and to HAVE a better boss!