And as a bonus, use it as a conversation starter.
Your longtime employees understand your peeves and preferences so acutely that pleasing or annoying you is rarely done by accident. But what about new hires? How can they quickly learn what it’s like to work for you and your organization?
One zero-cost, highly replicable solution is to create a “user’s manual” for your leadership style and distribute it to your incoming employees. Think of this manual as a one-page “cheat sheet” to intra-team transparency.
Recently, Adam Bryant of the New York Times described the user’s manuals of TravelPod founder Luc Levesque and QuestBack strategist Ivar Kroghrud, who worked with Build to craft a set of seven questions designed to pattern clear, tactical guidelines for the care and feeding of your CEO. And see the user manuals in question under the list.
Questions to Ask (and Answer) For Your User’s Manual
- Which do I value more, speedy work or deliberate work?
- What are my expectations for commitment to the job beyond conventional work hours?
- What are my idiosyncrasies—that is, what are the individual quirks that anyone working with me should know about?
- How will I help my employees get better at their jobs?
- What weaknesses of mine should the team know about—and how can they help me improve?
- What is my process for handling conflicts?
- When it comes to mistakes, what’s the best way for employees to come forward?
Click infographics for a larger view.
Article provided by thebuildnetwork.com © 2013 Mansueto Ventures LLC
