An Essential Question All Culture Leaders Need to Ask
Here’s an essential question that all culture leaders need to ask their employees, a question that can make the world of difference when it comes to establishing trust at work, building stronger relationships, and improving engagement and performance. One question that can make a world of difference.
Video Transcript: One Essential Leadership Question All Leaders Need to Ask
I have a question that I think every boss, every manager, every supervisor, and every leader needs to ask all of their employees around expectations.
Now, it’s important, as leaders, managers, bosses, and supervisors, that you set expectations for your employees. It’s important that they understand, in as clear a way as possible, what is expected of them. You need to set your expectations around how they deliver customer service, for example, what great customer service looks like. You have to set expectations around them living your culture and your culture values out loud, expectations about how you want to be communicated with, and frequency of communication. There’s all sorts of areas that you need to establish some expectations with your employees on.
But we tend to think of this conversation about expectations just going in a one-way direction. That it’s about the upper levels giving expectations to all the employees below us. But we sometimes forget that equally important, if not more important, is getting expectations from our employees for us.
So as a boss, manager, supervisor, or leader, make sure you take the time to ask your employees, “What do you expect from me? What do you expect from me as your boss? What do you expect from me as the manager of this department?” It’s absolutely critical that you do that. It’s one of the most powerful questions you can ask when it comes to being an effective leader and creating a more positive work environment.
So what about you? What do you do in your workplace to establish expectations? Have you asked this question of your employees? Please leave a comment in the comment box. I would love to hear your feedback and your ideas.
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Michael Kerr, July 2021. Michael is a Hall of Fame business speaker who travels the world researching, writing, and speaking about inspiring workplace cultures. He is the author of 8 books, including The Jerk-Free Workplace, Hire, Inspire, and Fuel Their Fire, and The Humor Advantage.
