As back to school season swings into high gear, the internet is loaded with advice on how to engage with your school aged kids in a more meaningful way. From smoothing the edges of a rough morning routine, to making homework productive, to packing the ideal lunch box, the advice is seemingly endless. Some of it is good. Some of it is, well, it’s internet advice. You take what works for your family and you ignore the rest.
Some of the tips, however, are worth considering not just for the students in your life, but also yourself, and, as a business leader, for your team. For example, there’s a meme of questions floating around that may come in handy when you want to know how your child’s day has been, really know, not just a throw away question with the equally unhelpful, “Fine,” offered in response.
You want to hear the highs and lows, the challenges, the wins. The same advice, which we’ll get into in just a moment, can be useful in the office, too.
Whether you’re talking to your preschooler, your teenager, your best friend, or your team at work, what you ask will influence the depth of the answer given. “How was your day?” is setting up a response of “Fine,” a slightly peppier but equally simple, “Pretty good,” or even a “Ugh. Don’t ask.” All are valid responses to a question that’s about as generic and high level as we can get.
Sure, you could press with a follow-up question, or, you could develop a practice of asking more meaningful questions from the start. There is always something to uncover when you are genuinely curious and listen to what someone is truly saying and doing. More importantly, there is always something to uncover that can help you identify how to better help them.
Tapping into the questions offered up in internet back-to-school tips like, “5 Things to Ask Your Kids Instead of ‘How was school today?’” is a good start. You can use them as listed below or adapt them to be better suited to your audience.
In the context of your office, your goal is to understand what aspects of their day to day responsibilities are most satisfying and enjoyable. It can help you better understand their working style, their goals, and their personality. It can help you cultivate a work environment that helps your team thrive and improves job satisfaction.
The answer to this sort of question can help you and your team work on career growth plans and evaluating project responsibilities. It also communicates that you, as a leader, are interested in the individual, not just the bottom line.
Sure, maybe you just read that question and you’re staring at the page with a raised eyebrow, muttering, “Why would I ask my team that?” And maybe you wouldn’t. However, you could ask questions like, “Who helped you be successful today?” and, “Was there anyone on the team that stood out to you this week?”
With your kids, the goal of the lunch question is to get an idea of who they are connecting with, to understand their social sphere and learn more about the other people that are important in their lives. With your team, your goal is to understand how your team is collaborating, identify strengths, and potential areas where communication and collaboration may be strengthened.
Let’s be honest, there is no perfect workplace, and even if there were (which to be clear, there is not), every day isn’t going to be rainbows and sunshine. Understanding what went wrong and what was challenging and/or frustrating is valuable. You may identify an ongoing problem that you can take steps to improve. You may just hear about an outside the norm struggle that mucked up the day and frustrated your team.
Taking the time to allow your team space to share that frustration, even as they realize it’s an anomaly, shows you care about them, not just their work. That compassion and concern contributes to a better work culture and job satisfaction.
Sometimes we have protocols and practices that cause unintended roadblocks and challenges. Sometimes there are guidelines that are reasonable for daily application but need to bend on occasion. And sometimes, what seems like a good general practice can actually add a challenge to an already challenging day.
Asking your team a question like this can help you identify what policies may need to be reviewed and what ones may need flexible parameters. It can help you identify areas in which you may need to provide more training to help your team.
The answer may not be life-altering. Maybe there wasn’t a grand epiphany or a huge leap in skills development. Your team members may give a response like, “I never knew I could make Excel total the number of ‘no’ responses in the survey results!” or, “Did you know that Joe, one of our best customers, won a deep sea fishing competition this weekend? You should see the photo of that swordfish he hauled in!”
The point is, you can learn a lot from what your team has learned, including, by the way, areas where the rest of your team may benefit from additional training.
The goal is not to create a tiresome routine in which you ask your team a list of prescribed questions that they recognize as queries they could be asking their children instead of “How was school today?” The goal is to be asking questions with the intent of culling useful information that helps you be a better leader and mentor and to foster a healthier work culture that yields better employee satisfaction.
Don’t get locked into these questions and don’t feel the need to ask a checklist daily. Just be aware. Be intentional. Be curious. Listen carefully so you gather information from each answer that helps you better help your team.
(908) 345-0382