Your car’s going to the shop

Whether you like it or not, if you own a car, you’re going to have to take it to a garage. The question is whether you’ll take it in for regularly scheduled maintenance… or have it towed in after it breaks down on the highway on your way to a meeting.

Leading people is a lot like that. If you manage people, those people need time with you and, one way or another, they’re going to get it. They’re going to get it from you through regular, high value interaction that keeps them motivated, clear and feeling valued/understood, or they’re going to get it when they go off the rails and need to be “managed”.

Focusing on having deeper, richer conversations with your team members before there’s an issue is:

• More fun. Aspirational conversations beat remedial ones any day.
• “Planable”. You don’t get to schedule when someone goes off the rails. You do get to schedule regular, proactive conversations.
• Profitable. Touching base with employees on a regular (weekly) basis helps you keep a collective eye on the horizon, and manage potentially expensive issues before they come up.
• A more human way of doing business. If you only ever had those deeper conversations with your partner when there was a problem, how long do you think that relationship would last?

So what does this “proactive conversation” look like? It starts with a pre-scheduled weekly meeting (with each employee) and a pretty basic question – What’s on your mind? They own the agenda. You’re there to listen, support where needed and ask more questions.

Just like an oil change, these conversations aren’t rocket science, and they don’t need to be scary. But they do need to happen.

Inspired leaders create inspired teams. If you’re a leader, Actionable Workshops is for you.