Three Insightful Questions to Improve Efficiency and Satisfaction

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This is lead with culture. I'm Kate Volman. And on this episode, we are talking about how to improve your team's efficiency with three questions. As

As leaders, it is our responsibility to help our team grow. It is our responsibility to make sure that everyone on the team, understand the mission and vision of the organization and that we're all working towards that vision that we're all accomplishing great things together.

And when it comes to people in leadership, the biggest problem is people, right? Like people problems and dealing with people, all different types of personalities all different ways in which people work, which is why it's so helpful for us to leverage tools like personality assessments. So we really get to know our people.

The more that we know our people, the better leaders we can become. Because we know how they work, we know how to communicate with them better. And so as leaders, we have to constantly be focused on, okay, does my team have everything they need to be successful? And how can I lead them more efficiently?

How can I make sure that my team is being as efficient as possible with their time? with their minds, we can all get overwhelmed. So making sure that we're mentally good, that we have our role descriptions, that everybody knows what it is that they are responsible for.

so when you are leading a team, there's a lot going on. You have a lot to think about, a lot to consider. And this is one of the reasons why. Quarterly performance reviews is so important now in Matthew Kelly's book, The Culture Solution. He talks about the importance of quarterly performance reviews.

And a lot of times leaders will say quarterly, no, we're used to the annual, end of the year you do a review and that's what people are used to, but quarterly reviews are an incredible way to. stay connected with your people. Now, obviously you should be connected to your people because you're coaching them on a regular basis consistently.

This shouldn't just be something that comes out of nowhere where people feel like they're given feedback and they have no idea where it's coming from. Communication we have with our teams and your direct reports, of course the better that it's going to be. So people don't feel thrown off when you come to them a challenge or something that might be going wrong.

But quarterly performance reviews, the reason why they're so powerful is that it's an opportunity every quarter to sit down with your people. And Have a, bigger deep dive than maybe your one on one sessions, whether you do that every week, every other week, whatever that looks like for you. But this is an opportunity for them to really think about what was accomplished over the last quarter and then moving forward, what needs to be accomplished and what are some of those priorities.

And in order for us to make sure that our team is being efficient, we have to continuously practice managerial courage, which. Matthew talks about on the book too. We've done an episode on managerial courage. It is a three step process and part of that process is to coach our people to coach our people up to Let people know what to expect to inspect their work and then to coach them to get better and then when we do this on a consistent basis we See this development in our team and we know that everyone is being efficient and effective in their work And so I wanted to share three questions that are great questions to ask on a quarterly basis Whether you do this in a formal quarterly review session, or you just do this on a quarterly basis These three questions are really powerful because they will help you discover where your team is Like, what are their thoughts, how they're working, and, what might be some bottlenecks in the work that they're doing?

Because we've all been in a role where maybe we didn't have the best leader and we felt really frustrated in our work, but we also felt like we couldn't come to our leader because we knew that they weren't going to do anything about it. So all come in and we are all working. We all have a different lens in life.

We all have different experiences of how we've experienced different roles in the past that take us in the role that we are in today. And so if you lead a team, these are three questions that you can start asking your team members every quarter and just watch what happened. Just see what, is uncovered.

You might be surprised. Okay.

So question number one is how do you feel you add the most value to the team? How do you feel you add the most value to the team? And this is the person's responsibility to say, hey, This is what I feel are my strong points.

This is what I feel I'm really good at. This is what I feel I have excelled at over the past quarter. And it's helpful for us to recognize this because as the leader, you might say, yep, we're on point and see the same thing. I feel like you provide value in that way. Or You might be surprised by what this person thinks, how they're adding the most value to the team.

And so it's very eye opening, and from that, you can have a really interesting dialogue. It opens up a really fun conversation. And maybe there might be some things that they don't even recognize is providing a lot of value to the team that you feel is providing a lot of value to the team that you can just give them some acknowledgement.

I'm always fascinated when I read all these reports that talk about how people are leaving their work simply because they aren't getting recognized for the work that they do. that's so sad because all it takes is for us to recognize, Hey, you're doing a great job. or these are some of your superpowers.

These are some things that I recognize in you that I really appreciate. And that goes so far. In a person's life, especially when we sometimes feel like, Oh my gosh, there's so much work to be done. And working, working, working. And we don't always get that positive feedback we don't always hear what we're doing really well, especially those things that we might not even recognize because.

Our superpowers are those things that we don't think are a big deal because we kind of just are good at them It's just comes second nature. And so when you can be the person that recognizes someone else's superpower It's a beautiful thing. So that's the first question

question number two.

What are three things that cause frustration in your role? What are three things that cause frustration in your role? I love this question because it pushes your team to really think about, okay, what are you frustrated by? And maybe it's nothing and that would be amazing. If it's nothing, then awesome.

You have lots of systems processes and things in place which is great.

But oftentimes leaders will share that their people will say things like, there's this meeting that I have to be at that I feel like wastes my time. I don't say anything. I don't think the the information is relevant, or maybe there's some type of bottleneck, this is where we have to, as leaders, be open to feedback ourselves, because sometimes people are frustrated because they can't get their work done because they are waiting on something from their leader.

They're waiting for their leader to get back to them on a report or an email or whatever it is. And so communication might be a frustration for some of your people, but we have to offer the opportunity for our team members to share with us what's going wrong. What are some things that are causing you frustration in your role?

And when they're easy things. To fix we get to fix them and if there are things that might be a little bit more challenging to fix We get to at least start that conversation and dialogue and figure out Okay, what can we do to alleviate this frustration so that you can do your best work because ideally?

That's what we want to have our people do is create an environment in which they can do their best work That is our role as a leader to help them grow give them the tools necessary To do their best work and accomplish the mission of the role that they're in. So for this question,

we have to let go of ego We have to let go of ego so that we're not just asking this question to ask the question but we are Genuinely asking so that we receive the feedback even if we feel a little uncomfortable or even if there might be some things that We're going to change within the organization, within the processes and the systems.

And what's so great is that this is why in the culture solution, Matthew shares the second immutable principle of a dynamic culture is mission is king. Why? Because in these conversations, some of the things that we might need to quote unquote fix in the organization it always comes back to what is best for the mission.

of the organization? When we're making changes and we're making decisions on the processes and systems and what we're doing in the work that we do, then we base it around the mission. What's best for the organization? What's best to fulfill the mission of the organization?

And so this is a great question because we start to see some things that,

if one person on your team is feeling frustrated by, then some of the other people on your team might feel frustrated. And if everyone's just staying quiet about it, then we're not fixing something that could be easily fixed and cause your team to just completely transform their productivity and efficiency and satisfaction in the work that they're doing.

Okay. Okay.

Question number three, what are your top three objectives over the next three months? What are your top three objectives over the next three months?

So this question is great to make sure that everyone is on the same page. We're on the right track because Expectations, everyone deserves to know exactly what's expected of them and how they're being evaluated. And at the end of the next quarter, we can look back at the priorities and say, Hey, yep. We discussed these three months ago and awesome.

You're on track. You hit these targets, you met these goals, then we're on the same page and we can celebrate those wins. and continue to move forward in the work that we're doing.

So these are three incredibly powerful questions that alone, if you just ask these three questions, you're going to start to recognize or open up some conversation that will help your team become as efficient and effective as possible in their work.

And of course this is. An invitation if you haven't started doing quarterly performance reviews, maybe you still do annual performance reviews, try it out.

Your team might actually like it. In fact, was working with a leader who said I was so hesitant to start quarterly performance reviews because who wants that, right? My team is not going to want to do that. they barely like doing it every year. And. He said that his team started coming into his office for the review saying, I was so excited about today.

I was so excited about today because

people want to be heard, they want to feel seen and valued and heard in their work. when we start asking our team members, these kinds of questions and start to open up this communication, It helps everyone get better. It helps them grow personally and professionally. It helps you grow personally and professionally. And it helps the organization grow.

Because, as we know, an organization can only become the best version of itself to the extent that its people are becoming better versions of themselves. And so I hope that wherever you are in your journey of performance reviews, or whatever you call them, I hope that you found these three questions helpful, whether you incorporate them into your reviews or you just start asking your people on a quarterly basis.

I would love to hear any feedback that you have when you start asking your people these questions, but it really can become a game changer because the questions that we ask, they change our lives. The questions that we ask ourselves and our team members changes our lives and our businesses. And so I hope that you found these three questions helpful and Hey, if you have any others, we're always open to hearing more great questions, especially the ones that you share with your team that work really well.

So would love to hear from you if you have any of those that you think you have really enjoyed over the years that have made an impact in your business and on your people. Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We so appreciate you and Hey, if you are interested at all in coaching, we work with a lot of leaders around stuff like this on performance reviews and what that looks like and how to make sure that mission is King and we work through all the six immutable principles of a dynamic culture with a lot of the leaders that we work with, especially in our culture coaching that we do.

So if you're interested in learning more, would love to have a conversation with you. You can just. Go to floydcoaching. com. Thank you again for listening and until next time lead with culture.