October 31, 2023 • 14 mins
We’re continuing with the #LeaderSHIFT series on the podcast this week. These episodes are very direct & to the point, where we'll talk about the different challenges leaders tend to face & how to shift into becoming an influential leader who leads a healthy culture & engaged team!
In this episode, I’m sharing how you can shift from assuming you know what’s going on with your team to asking the right questions!
Mentioned in this episode:
Free Download: 37 Engaging Questions to Ask Your Team:
Need one-on-one help with your employee engagement plan? Schedule your complimentary clarity call with me here! www.baproinc.com/ep151
Apply to join the New Leader, BIG IMPACT Coaching Program to level up your leadership & build an engaging team... even if the culture is toxic & without management's support! https://baproinc.com/newleaderbigimpact
Questions about this episode? Topic suggestions for future episodes? Send them to culture@businessadvocatespro.com
Let's chat about this episode on Twitter: @BAPROINC or IG: @CultureBuildingPRO
The Culture Building like a PRO Podcast: Simple ways to transform your company culture... Today! | Company Culture | Culture Building | Organizational Culture | Employee Engagement | Effective Leadership | Servant Leadership |
baproinc.com
In this episode, I’m sharing how you can shift from assuming you know what’s going on with your team to asking the right questions!
Mentioned in this episode:
Free Download: 37 Engaging Questions to Ask Your Team:
Need one-on-one help with your employee engagement plan? Schedule your complimentary clarity call with me here! www.baproinc.com/ep151
Apply to join the New Leader, BIG IMPACT Coaching Program to level up your leadership & build an engaging team... even if the culture is toxic & without management's support! https://baproinc.com/newleaderbigimpact
Questions about this episode? Topic suggestions for future episodes? Send them to culture@businessadvocatespro.com
Let's chat about this episode on Twitter: @BAPROINC or IG: @CultureBuildingPRO
The Culture Building like a PRO Podcast: Simple ways to transform your company culture... Today! | Company Culture | Culture Building | Organizational Culture | Employee Engagement | Effective Leadership | Servant Leadership |
baproinc.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:04):
Welcome to the Culture Building Like aPro podcast, helping small business owners and
managers lead a company culture where employeesare engaged to do their best work because
they want to and not because theyhave to. Now, let's jumpstart your
culture transformation with company culture strategists,leadership coach and trainer Deanna Applin. Hello
(00:28):
there, Happy Tuesday, and thanksfor listening to the Culture Building Like a
Pro podcast. I'm Deanna, andI hope that your week has been off
to a great start so far,and we are going to continue on with
our hash tag Leadershift series. Theseepisodes are directed to the point and we
talk about the common challenges that weface as leaders, how to overcome them,
(00:52):
and most importantly, how we canintentionally shift into the level of leadership
that creates an impact and influences excellenceamong your team. I want us to
take a minute and think about something, and it's something that actually had me
a little bit baffled when I reallythought about it. But how many times
(01:14):
in our lives, personal life,work life, whatever the case is,
how many times do we operate offof assumptions. It's an interesting question,
right, but let's think about it. When we are driving our cars we
are operating with the assumption that everythingwithin this car is aokay and working the
(01:34):
way it should be, because wehaven't seen any evidence of it saying otherwise.
So we haven't heard a weird noise, the car isn't smoking, it
isn't shaky when we drive right,that's the evidence that something is wrong.
But unless we have any of thosesignals, we assume that everything is right
(02:00):
with the car. It doesn't needanything. It's working well. Think about
our bodies. When we can wakeup each day and go throughout our day
feeling normal, no signs of painor aches anywhere, nothing seems off,
we are assuming we are well,that we are healthy. And what happens
(02:21):
with assumptions like these is that,for instance, with the car, if
we don't hear anything wrong, thenwe don't have any indicator, or we're
not making it a priority to takeit to get maintenanced, just to check
and make sure with our bodies we'renot feeling anything off or painful. You
(02:42):
might put off making your doctor's appointmentjust to get checkups routinely. This also
happens on the job and with ourteams. We're in the middle of working
the hustle and bustle and getting thingsdone. And as a leader, when
we don't don't hear of any problems, when we don't hear of complaints or
(03:04):
anything that's broken, we assume thateverything is okay. This is the worst
assumption that we can make in theposition of a leader. And I'll tell
you why. Silence doesn't mean thatthere are no issues. In fact,
if you aren't hearing feedback from yourteam, I would encourage you to stop
everything as quickly as you can andstart having conversations with your people. Oftentimes,
(03:32):
when teams fall into the habit ofnot speaking up, not saying anything,
it may mean that they don't feelsafe enough to share their honest thoughts
and feedback about what's happening. Italso could mean that they are fearful of
retaliation. It could also mean thatthey just don't feel confident enough and brave
(03:55):
enough to voice their idea or waysthat they think can improve, all of
which are things that you need toknow as a leader. So in today's
episode, we are talking about howto shift from assuming that you know what's
going on with your team to simplyasking now, as you know, leadership
(04:16):
is about influence and one thing aboutinfluence. It can't thrive on assumptions.
When you assume that because nothing isbeing said and because your team is silent,
that there is nothing going on,you run the risk of misinterpreting what
this silence actually means. So hereare a few ways that you can make
(04:39):
this shift to start asking questions insteadof assuming things. Number one, focus
on cultivating a safe space. Whatis a safe space? Simply put a
place where people can be open,a place where people can be honest,
a place where people don't have tofear losing their job or any kind of
(05:01):
retaliation by being vocal about their experience. You want your team to open up
and you want them to be ableto share their concerns, not just so
that you can hear what they haveto say and leave it there, but
for you to actually influence change,intend to their needs. So, whether
(05:21):
these are things about the physical workspacethat you guys are working in or just
the interpersonal dynamic of how people areinteracting on the team. Maybe it's about
a workflow and certain processes that arein place that are counterproductive. Whatever that
is, encourage a safe space thatallows people to share and not withhold their
(05:45):
feedback. And this actually leads tothe second thing that you can do,
which is listen actively. Again,when your team is sharing with you,
you don't want to just compile alist, sit it to the side and
never touch it again, or neverput things in action. Listen to what
they're saying, but put action behindwhat they're telling you. In leadership to
(06:11):
be of service to our team,a part of that is to remove obstacles
from their path, and you won'tknow how to do that unless you know
what those obstacles are. And youdo that by listening actively, not just
to their requests, not just tosometimes their complaints or feedback, but even
(06:31):
by simply understanding their perspective and theirexperiences. The next thing that you can
do is ask engaging questions. Sowhat are engaging questions? Engaging questions are
the ones that actually get you meetin the conversation, in other words,
(06:51):
depth and substance in the conversation versusit being surface level, open ended questions,
Questions that actually encourage people to bethoughtful and honest in their responses.
So instead of asking, oh,is everything okay, maybe ask something a
little bit more tailored, like what'sbeen heavy on your mind lately, What's
(07:16):
something that I can better support youwith. These types of questions open the
door for a more meaningful dialogue.And if you're struggling with knowing exactly how
to ask engaging questions, don't worry. I actually have a free download for
you with a list of over thirtyengaging questions that you can ask your team.
(07:41):
And I've even done the grunt workfor you to make this very easy
for you to implement. And I'vesorted the questions into categories. So there
are some questions that are more basedon connection. There are questions that are
based off of getting more feedback,questions that encourage in conclusion. There is
(08:01):
a variety that you can review andchoose from, and I mean you can
get creative with this and be intentionalabout picking one of these questions to ask
in your one on one meetings withyour team or even in your group meetings.
The key is to just ask,but to ask the right way so
that you can get meaningful responses.And the next thing that you can do
(08:26):
to start asking the right questions isto approach with empathy. Some of the
questions that will help you get abetter understanding of who you're working with their
perspectives, their goals, what mattersto them, their why is to understand
who they are, building that relationshipand connection with them, and it shows
(08:46):
that you genuinely care when you approachyour team with empathy and your leadership.
So you could ask things like howare you feeling today? You can follow
up on something that they've previously toldyou, or another question that I think
is a very great question to askis what could I do to make your
(09:07):
work more manageable? Or what couldI do to help you today? This
allows them to see that you actuallycare about removing obstacles from their path and
making things better for them, andit really matters. The next thing that
you can do is prioritize check inmeetings. Do not, I repeat using
(09:33):
my INVISIBB bull horn, do notwait for a crisis or an emergency Code
ten fire drill situation to check inwith your team. You should be checking
in with them as a group andalso individually. And however these meetings are
scheduled, make them a priority anda non negotiable, meaning that unless there
(09:56):
is an emergency or unless there isan unf circumstance or maybe vacation time or
something of that nature, these meetingswill occur. It shows that you are
committed to them and in these meetingsyou can be talking about their concerns,
career goals, their workload, problemsthat they see, opportunities that they see,
(10:20):
and it overall helps you get abetter understanding of how you can better
support them by asking instead of assumingthat because they haven't come to you with
anything, then nothing is wrong.Another way that you can make this shift
is to put feedback opportunities in place. So whether you do anonymous surveys that
(10:43):
you can send via email, oreven do the good old traditional feedback box
where someone can write it in andput it in a box and do it
anonymously. Whatever way you do thisis fine, but it's important that implement
something like this is done and itallows your team to express themselves if they
(11:05):
may not feel comfortable doing this openlyamong the group, and I would encourage
you to not over complicate things likethis. Make it simple, remind people
about it and do something about what'sbeing shared. And lastly, be responsive.
Just like we mentioned earlier, whatgood is it to actively listen to
(11:28):
your team and what they're sharing withyou? If there's no action from you
taking place afterwards, when your teambrings up concerns or questions or things that
they're sharing with you. It doesn'thave to be extreme, it doesn't have
to be major. It could besimple. But be responsive and make it
a priority to communicate your plans ofaddressing this thing and communicate it clearly.
(11:54):
If you say you're going to getback to them, get back to them.
If you have to wait for ora response from another team, your
IT department, or any other resource, don't just let it fall to the
wayside. Check in, give yourteam an update about these things, and
do your due diligence to help movethe ball forward. This reinforces their trust
(12:18):
in your leadership. I hope thatthis episode was helpful for you, and
if it was, I would appreciateit. If you could leave an honest
rating or review an Apple podcasts orwherever you're listening from, if you have
any questions about it, or ifyou have anything to add to this list
and you want to share that withme, you can do so in an
email. And that addresses culture atBusiness advocatespro dot com, which will be
(12:41):
left in the show notes. I'llalso have the link to download that free
copy of the engaging questions that youcan use to start asking your team right
away. Remember that silence isn't alwaysbliss. Assuming that things are going well
(13:01):
and everything is right with your teambecause you aren't hearing any feedback from them
is a dangerous slope to be on. Sometimes silence means people are fearful of
retaliation, they don't feel that theyhave a safe space to share their needs
or their concerns or ideas, andit could also be a sign that maybe
(13:22):
they don't have as much trust insharing it with you as their leader.
But you can change this by cultivatingan environment that is a safe space for
your team to share and asking theright questions, understanding their perspectives, understanding
(13:43):
their needs, and removing obstacles fromtheir path. Make it your priority to
be adaptive in your leadership by shiftingfrom making assumptions to asking the right questions
and truly understanding your team's needs.Is not about having all the answers,
but it is about knowing the rightquestions to ask to create a better culture
(14:07):
for your team. Have a greatweek,
Welcome to the Culture Building Like aPro podcast, helping small business owners and
managers lead a company culture where employeesare engaged to do their best work because
they want to and not because theyhave to. Now, let's jumpstart your
culture transformation with company culture strategists,leadership coach and trainer Deanna Applin. Hello
(00:28):
there, Happy Tuesday, and thanksfor listening to the Culture Building Like a
Pro podcast. I'm Deanna, andI hope that your week has been off
to a great start so far,and we are going to continue on with
our hash tag Leadershift series. Theseepisodes are directed to the point and we
talk about the common challenges that weface as leaders, how to overcome them,
(00:52):
and most importantly, how we canintentionally shift into the level of leadership
that creates an impact and influences excellenceamong your team. I want us to
take a minute and think about something, and it's something that actually had me
a little bit baffled when I reallythought about it. But how many times
(01:14):
in our lives, personal life,work life, whatever the case is,
how many times do we operate offof assumptions. It's an interesting question,
right, but let's think about it. When we are driving our cars we
are operating with the assumption that everythingwithin this car is aokay and working the
(01:34):
way it should be, because wehaven't seen any evidence of it saying otherwise.
So we haven't heard a weird noise, the car isn't smoking, it
isn't shaky when we drive right,that's the evidence that something is wrong.
But unless we have any of thosesignals, we assume that everything is right
(02:00):
with the car. It doesn't needanything. It's working well. Think about
our bodies. When we can wakeup each day and go throughout our day
feeling normal, no signs of painor aches anywhere, nothing seems off,
we are assuming we are well,that we are healthy. And what happens
(02:21):
with assumptions like these is that,for instance, with the car, if
we don't hear anything wrong, thenwe don't have any indicator, or we're
not making it a priority to takeit to get maintenanced, just to check
and make sure with our bodies we'renot feeling anything off or painful. You
(02:42):
might put off making your doctor's appointmentjust to get checkups routinely. This also
happens on the job and with ourteams. We're in the middle of working
the hustle and bustle and getting thingsdone. And as a leader, when
we don't don't hear of any problems, when we don't hear of complaints or
(03:04):
anything that's broken, we assume thateverything is okay. This is the worst
assumption that we can make in theposition of a leader. And I'll tell
you why. Silence doesn't mean thatthere are no issues. In fact,
if you aren't hearing feedback from yourteam, I would encourage you to stop
everything as quickly as you can andstart having conversations with your people. Oftentimes,
(03:32):
when teams fall into the habit ofnot speaking up, not saying anything,
it may mean that they don't feelsafe enough to share their honest thoughts
and feedback about what's happening. Italso could mean that they are fearful of
retaliation. It could also mean thatthey just don't feel confident enough and brave
(03:55):
enough to voice their idea or waysthat they think can improve, all of
which are things that you need toknow as a leader. So in today's
episode, we are talking about howto shift from assuming that you know what's
going on with your team to simplyasking now, as you know, leadership
(04:16):
is about influence and one thing aboutinfluence. It can't thrive on assumptions.
When you assume that because nothing isbeing said and because your team is silent,
that there is nothing going on,you run the risk of misinterpreting what
this silence actually means. So hereare a few ways that you can make
(04:39):
this shift to start asking questions insteadof assuming things. Number one, focus
on cultivating a safe space. Whatis a safe space? Simply put a
place where people can be open,a place where people can be honest,
a place where people don't have tofear losing their job or any kind of
(05:01):
retaliation by being vocal about their experience. You want your team to open up
and you want them to be ableto share their concerns, not just so
that you can hear what they haveto say and leave it there, but
for you to actually influence change,intend to their needs. So, whether
(05:21):
these are things about the physical workspacethat you guys are working in or just
the interpersonal dynamic of how people areinteracting on the team. Maybe it's about
a workflow and certain processes that arein place that are counterproductive. Whatever that
is, encourage a safe space thatallows people to share and not withhold their
(05:45):
feedback. And this actually leads tothe second thing that you can do,
which is listen actively. Again,when your team is sharing with you,
you don't want to just compile alist, sit it to the side and
never touch it again, or neverput things in action. Listen to what
they're saying, but put action behindwhat they're telling you. In leadership to
(06:11):
be of service to our team,a part of that is to remove obstacles
from their path, and you won'tknow how to do that unless you know
what those obstacles are. And youdo that by listening actively, not just
to their requests, not just tosometimes their complaints or feedback, but even
(06:31):
by simply understanding their perspective and theirexperiences. The next thing that you can
do is ask engaging questions. Sowhat are engaging questions? Engaging questions are
the ones that actually get you meetin the conversation, in other words,
(06:51):
depth and substance in the conversation versusit being surface level, open ended questions,
Questions that actually encourage people to bethoughtful and honest in their responses.
So instead of asking, oh,is everything okay, maybe ask something a
little bit more tailored, like what'sbeen heavy on your mind lately, What's
(07:16):
something that I can better support youwith. These types of questions open the
door for a more meaningful dialogue.And if you're struggling with knowing exactly how
to ask engaging questions, don't worry. I actually have a free download for
you with a list of over thirtyengaging questions that you can ask your team.
(07:41):
And I've even done the grunt workfor you to make this very easy
for you to implement. And I'vesorted the questions into categories. So there
are some questions that are more basedon connection. There are questions that are
based off of getting more feedback,questions that encourage in conclusion. There is
(08:01):
a variety that you can review andchoose from, and I mean you can
get creative with this and be intentionalabout picking one of these questions to ask
in your one on one meetings withyour team or even in your group meetings.
The key is to just ask,but to ask the right way so
that you can get meaningful responses.And the next thing that you can do
(08:26):
to start asking the right questions isto approach with empathy. Some of the
questions that will help you get abetter understanding of who you're working with their
perspectives, their goals, what mattersto them, their why is to understand
who they are, building that relationshipand connection with them, and it shows
(08:46):
that you genuinely care when you approachyour team with empathy and your leadership.
So you could ask things like howare you feeling today? You can follow
up on something that they've previously toldyou, or another question that I think
is a very great question to askis what could I do to make your
(09:07):
work more manageable? Or what couldI do to help you today? This
allows them to see that you actuallycare about removing obstacles from their path and
making things better for them, andit really matters. The next thing that
you can do is prioritize check inmeetings. Do not, I repeat using
(09:33):
my INVISIBB bull horn, do notwait for a crisis or an emergency Code
ten fire drill situation to check inwith your team. You should be checking
in with them as a group andalso individually. And however these meetings are
scheduled, make them a priority anda non negotiable, meaning that unless there
(09:56):
is an emergency or unless there isan unf circumstance or maybe vacation time or
something of that nature, these meetingswill occur. It shows that you are
committed to them and in these meetingsyou can be talking about their concerns,
career goals, their workload, problemsthat they see, opportunities that they see,
(10:20):
and it overall helps you get abetter understanding of how you can better
support them by asking instead of assumingthat because they haven't come to you with
anything, then nothing is wrong.Another way that you can make this shift
is to put feedback opportunities in place. So whether you do anonymous surveys that
(10:43):
you can send via email, oreven do the good old traditional feedback box
where someone can write it in andput it in a box and do it
anonymously. Whatever way you do thisis fine, but it's important that implement
something like this is done and itallows your team to express themselves if they
(11:05):
may not feel comfortable doing this openlyamong the group, and I would encourage
you to not over complicate things likethis. Make it simple, remind people
about it and do something about what'sbeing shared. And lastly, be responsive.
Just like we mentioned earlier, whatgood is it to actively listen to
(11:28):
your team and what they're sharing withyou? If there's no action from you
taking place afterwards, when your teambrings up concerns or questions or things that
they're sharing with you. It doesn'thave to be extreme, it doesn't have
to be major. It could besimple. But be responsive and make it
a priority to communicate your plans ofaddressing this thing and communicate it clearly.
(11:54):
If you say you're going to getback to them, get back to them.
If you have to wait for ora response from another team, your
IT department, or any other resource, don't just let it fall to the
wayside. Check in, give yourteam an update about these things, and
do your due diligence to help movethe ball forward. This reinforces their trust
(12:18):
in your leadership. I hope thatthis episode was helpful for you, and
if it was, I would appreciateit. If you could leave an honest
rating or review an Apple podcasts orwherever you're listening from, if you have
any questions about it, or ifyou have anything to add to this list
and you want to share that withme, you can do so in an
email. And that addresses culture atBusiness advocatespro dot com, which will be
(12:41):
left in the show notes. I'llalso have the link to download that free
copy of the engaging questions that youcan use to start asking your team right
away. Remember that silence isn't alwaysbliss. Assuming that things are going well
(13:01):
and everything is right with your teambecause you aren't hearing any feedback from them
is a dangerous slope to be on. Sometimes silence means people are fearful of
retaliation, they don't feel that theyhave a safe space to share their needs
or their concerns or ideas, andit could also be a sign that maybe
(13:22):
they don't have as much trust insharing it with you as their leader.
But you can change this by cultivatingan environment that is a safe space for
your team to share and asking theright questions, understanding their perspectives, understanding
(13:43):
their needs, and removing obstacles fromtheir path. Make it your priority to
be adaptive in your leadership by shiftingfrom making assumptions to asking the right questions
and truly understanding your team's needs.Is not about having all the answers,
but it is about knowing the rightquestions to ask to create a better culture
(14:07):
for your team. Have a greatweek,
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