Every day, leaders and managers are solving problems and helping people achieve their goals. In order for this to be effective over time, leaders and managers need to provide regular supervision, coaching, and check-ins.
Regular supervision happens when we observe, direct and/or oversee the execution of a task, project or activity.
Coaching, on the other hand, is a structured dialogue and development process to improve the professional competence to execute one’s goals.
According to Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall in their book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019), a check-in is “a frequent, one-on-one conversation about near-term future work between a team leader and a team member.” A check-in is focused on the following two questions:
- What are your priorities this week?
- How can I help?
From what I am hearing this winter, the aforementioned questions help, but over time some leaders and managers report to me that they wish they could ask some other questions during check-ins. However, they are just not sure what to ask.
With this in mind, I suggest the following three questions shared by Robert Cooper, Robert in his book, The Other 90%: How to Unlock Your Vast Untapped Potential For Leadership & Life (Crown Business, 2001):
- What’s the most exceptional thing you've done this week?
- What’s the most exceptional thing you will do next week?
- What did you do this week that made you the proudest?
These three questions give us insights into people’s definition of success, their strengths, and what motivates them. All of their answers help us build on each employee’s unique talents and skills. As Marcus Buckingham noted in his book, The One Thing You Need to Know ... About Great Managing, Great Leading, and Sustained Individual Success (Free Press, 2005): “To excel as a manager you must never forget that each of your direct reports is unique and that your chief responsibility is not to eradicate this uniqueness, but rather to arrange roles, responsibilities, and expectations so that you can capitalize upon it. The more you perfect this skill, the more effectively you will turn talents into performance.”
This month, focus on turning talents into great performances by capitalizing on the strengths and uniquenesses of each employee through regular supervision, coaching, and check-ins.
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