[2022-07-20] Six questions

I had mixed success with summer students I hired over the course of my career. Some students brought a lot to the team, while others struggled to add value.

I place much of the responsibility for the performance of my students on me. My job, as the manager, was to assign interesting and meaningful work, to provide guidance and be available when they had questions, to provide feedback and nurture them, and to make their experience in the public service something they would want to repeat. Unfortunately, I often saved up my holidays to take as a block in the summer, meaning I wasn't always available to assign tasks, provide guidance and offer feedback. It's no wonder that some students struggled to make progress on their files.

Another challenge I faced as a boss was that it would sometimes take me months to discover all the skills my summer students had. By the time I did, they were ready to go back to school to resume their studies. I tried to resolve this issue one year by asking my summer students to do a presentation to me and my management team detailing their skills, interests and aspirations—what they were good at, what they liked doing, and what they wanted to accomplish.

In another job, my management team and I met with our branch's cohort of summer students at the beginning of the summer to determine their ambitions and again at the end of the summer to ascertain whether they had achieved those ambitions. The event was a great way for students to express their needs, for managers to take these on board, and for the management team to hear directly from students after several months about what had worked and what had not for the students. It was also an opportunity for the students to meet each other and thereby develop professional and personal relationships with their colleagues.

I recalled these two practices today when I reviewed an infographic presenting Six Questions to Create Psychological Safety with Your Team Members by leadership speaker and coach Jean Marie DiGiovanna. The question that triggered my trip down memory lane was this one, intended for a manager to ask an employee in a one-on-one conversation:
  • "What's one gift, skill or talent you have that I've overlooked, under-valued or under-utilized?"
Just as I had invited my students to share what they were good at and what they liked to do, all managers could put this question to their employees. The question might elicit some surprising answers.

I also liked these two questions included in DiGiovanna's infographic:
  • "What motivates you and how can we bring more of that to your work?"
  • "What's one thing I need to know about you that will improve our relationship?"
These three questions of DiGiovanna's six give an employee a chance to share information about themselves that their boss could use to build on the employee's strengths and passions.

The other three questions in the infographic invite an employee to provide feedback to their boss on what the latter could do to improve the work environment for staff:
  • "What's the thing you see me doing that's helping me best contribute to the team?"
  • "What's the thing I do that's detracting from our success?"
  • "What's one thing you need from me that will enable you to be successful?"
Regardless of the order of the questions, managers would do well to preface their queries by explaining why they are asking the questions. They could mention that they want to help the employee do more of what they love and are good at, be successful and achieve their career objectives. They could add that this comes from knowing what the employee's skills, motivations and needs are and from hearing what they, as the manager, can do to help the employee succeed.

I focused on summer students in the introduction to this post because the short-term nature of their jobs means that they and their managers have less time to engage in the kinds of conversations embodied in DiGiovanna's six questions. But all bosses and employees would benefit from discussions based on questions like these.

For employees' part, they can prepare for such discussions—whether initiated by their boss or themselves—by reflecting on the following: What gifts, skills or talents do I have that I could bring to my job? What motivates me and how can I get more of that from my job? What does my boss need to know about me?