Just overheard a plumber talking to one of his guys. I’m in a café just in case you’re wondering.
It sounded great at first.
“We’re a team and we’re here for you, if one of us fails we all fail.”
Nice. Then he went on a bit longer.
“Here’s what to do if you’re not sure about something….. This is my ethos about running a business…”
And a bit longer still
“Blah, blah, blah.” (sorry I stopped listening at this point)”
I’m sure he meant well and was one of the good guys. But it was a one directional mini lecture. His employee was staring at the table like a teenager who’d just been caught vaping.
Imagine if he’d approached it more like this:
So tell me about other places you’ve worked. What was great? Anything drive you nuts? What happened if you weren’t sure about something?
What happened when someone made a mistake? How was it handled?
How have you found things here since you started? I really value your perspective.
This is what we aim for…
What do you hope to achieve over the next 6 months?
What else could we do to support you?
Can you see how drastically different that is?
One simple conversation could tick many important boxes:
Employee Engagement ✅
Commitment ✅
Productivity ✅
Ownership ✅
Learning ✅
Some leaders are in love with the sound of their own voice (not you obviously) and others just don’t have a clue how to start asking more powerful questions.
If this describes you, I can recommend an excellent book or two, or I could help you become a leader that gets better results.
Either way, hit reply and we can schedule a chat
Corine
P.s. I made up the quadruple thing- I bet it’s more than that. Feel free to try it and let me know what you think the multiplier should be.