Are You Listening to Your Team Members?

Leaders ~ It's important to remember that in order to inspire your employees to give Presby's Service from the HEART to your customers - you must give it to them! One of the most significant contributions you can make to this process is to begin to actively LISTEN to your team members. Here are several "listening strategies" - I encourage you to choose one or two of them and put them into place right now.

1. Lunch with the Boss: Each week take one or more of your team members to lunch. If you have a small team of 10 you can choose to take one or two at a time. If you manage many people take a group of 10 each week. Spend some time socializing, have fun, and ask their opinions on issues your facing in the communities. Really listen. Take notes. And follow up on every suggestion or question. When you implement a suggestion ~ always give credit to the team member(s) who gave it to you!

2. Post It Note Meetings: Gather your team members and give them a batch of Post-It Notes or index cards. Ask them 3 questions: 1. What do we start doing? 2 What do we stop doing? 3. What do we continue doing? Have them write their answers down on the Post-It's - some team members will feel more comfortable if the exercise is done anonymously. Later ~ go through each Post-It Note. Make decisions to change some things based on what you read. If you can't make changes, address the reason why with your employees. Ask them to help you with the items you can change!

3. Call the Boss: Dedicate one full day a month (or half a day) to just taking phone calls from or meetings with employees. Publicize that this is the day you can schedule time with the boss for any reason. Team Members can come in to complain, to praise, to make suggestions, or just shoot the breeze! It may be slow going at first - or you may hear many complaints at first - but if you make this a regular practice team members will understand that you are truly listening to them!

4. Carry a Notebook with You: I posted about this recently but it bears repeating. Carry a notebook with you everywhere. Pro-actively ask employees for advice, suggestions - get their questions. Take notes right in front of them. Implement some of their suggestions (giving credit where it's due), thank EVERYONE for their suggestions, and address every single question.

5. Involve Team Members in Finding a Solution: Once you've identified some of the anti-WOWs (those service items that need addressing) - please don't dictate the solution to your employees. Instead, discuss the problem with them, tell them WHY it's a problem, and present them with a challenge for coming up with a solution. Work with them to remove whatever barriers there are that prevent them from being successful in this particular service area. Be sure to celebrate and give them the credit when you turn that service "boo-hoo" into a service "woo-hoo!"

My challenge to you between now and the next call (led by me and Michelle) is to choose one of these listening strategies and implement it. Be ready to share what you did on the next call. Here are some items to remember:

1. ACTIVELY Listen to your team members
2. Thank them for offering suggestions or asking questions
3. Address every single question and give reasons for everything
4. Implement as many suggestions as you can always giving credit
5. Give employees the tangible tools they need to do their jobs well....

....remember, you don't necessarily know what those tools are until you ASK and LISTEN to their answers.

Let me ask you this: What new listening strategies have you implemented lately?