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Five Questions for Leaders and Managers

These five questions come from a post on Workforce.com.

  • Did my employees make progress today?  Feeling like you have made some forward movement helps to keep up your morale.  Is there a better feeling than crossing off some lingering task on your to “do list”, or  closing a sale? What can you do to help structure work for employees to keep them moving forward?
  • What did we miss in the interview for the worst hire we ever made?  Maybe it was a poor cultural fit.  I see this frequently when companies hire me to work with  fired employees.   Sometimes the pace of an organization is too fast, or too slow, or the energy required too high. Perhaps  the culture was too formal or informal for the employee.
  • Among our stronger employees, how many see themselves at the company in three years?  How many would leave for a 10 percent raise?   What  I hear from clients who want to leave their jobs is frequently that there is no place to go in the organization, they do not get along with their boss and they want more challenging assignments.  But if they have all three of these factors and are paid fairly, they are less like to leave.
  • If no one would find out about my accomplishments, how would I lead differently? What would you do if no one was watching?
  • What is it like to work for me?  There is something to be said for getting feedback from your direct reports.  Since so many employees complain about not getting timely, helpful feedback from their boss, and many others complain about not liking their boss, this question could provide significant insight.

 

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About the Author:

Deborah Brown (Debbie) founded Atlanta based D&B Consulting, Inc. in 1993 to provide executive career and leadership coaching, and executive career transitions and outplacement services to organizations and individuals. She is a Master Practitioner of the MBTI personality assessment and a Certified Social + Emotional Intelligence Coach® through the Institute of Social + Emotional Intelligence® of Denver, Colorado. Debbie earned the SPHR (Senior Professional in Human Resources) certification.