Motivating your team

Ask your reports the following sets of questions once a month in your 1-1, where 1 is "it couldn't be any worse," 5 is "it couldn't be any better," and 3 is "meeting expectation":

• How are you feeling about your life at work, 1-5?
• What is your 5 year career vision?
  • Is what you are doing now at work leading you toward your 5 year career vision, 1-5?
• How are you feeling about your personal life, 1-5?
• How are you feeling about your Work From Home (WFH) setup, 1-5?
• How are we performing as a company, 1-5?
• What is it like to work with the rest of the team, 1-5?
• What is it like to work with me, 1-5?
• For the lowest category …
  • What would get it to the next level?
• If unpacking personal life, please rate these categories, 1-5:
  • Relationship
  • Home
  • Career
  • Money
  • Time with friends and family
  • Fun and entertainment
  • Physical Health
  • Mind and Soul
• For the lowest category …
  • What would get it to the next level?

Read through the entire list.

To improve Work Life, Personal Life, WFH and “Work with the rest of the team” usually require actions from the person.

• From these categories, pick the lowest rated one.
  • Ask the person to share more with you verbally.
  • Help them formulate a very specific action plan to take that category to the next level.
  • Track those actions in your Agreement-Tracker.  (You don’t have to unpack a second category, unless it feels that the person has the capacity to handle more tasks.)
  • Pick the lowest rated category among the remaining:

For the Company Performance and “Working with me”, as those usually require actions from you.

• Ask the person to share more with you verbally.
• Ask them to help you formulate a very specific action plan to take that category to the next level.
• Track those actions in your Agreement-Tracker.

<aside> <img src="/icons/new-alert_purple.svg" alt="/icons/new-alert_purple.svg" width="40px" /> Ask these same questions (in writing) once per month for each team member.  Over time, each will rise until all are 4 or above.  And then magic usually happens.

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Even if you don't succeed in creating a perfect 5 environment, your team will feel very heard and cared for, simply because you ask the questions and cause them to think about it.

In particular, the question about personal life ("How are you feeling about your life overall, 1-5?") seems to unlock a lot of joy, which in turn boosts workplace productivity and loyalty. People feel honored that you care enough about them to help them tangibly improve their personal life.