Latest / Good Morning From The Chicken Coop! / Season 4 - Episode 252 - Excellent leadership questions

Transcript

Season 4 - Episode 252 - Excellent leadership questions · Good Morning From The Chicken Coop!

• 0:01
  Hey everybody, welcome to the good morning from the Chicken
• 0:04
  Coop podcast. My name is Kim Johnson and I am
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  a mastermindset coach, creative strategist, and also happened to
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  be a farmer. This is my chicken coop and I
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  come out here every day to record a podcast to teach
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  distinctions, possibilities, new ways of thinking, and just bring
• 0:20
  some joy into the world. So welcome to the coop, and
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  let's start your day off in a fantastic way.
• 0:27
  Hey everybody, good morning from the chicken coop.
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  So we're talking about how we need to ask questions.
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  If we're a leader, we need to ask questions.
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  We need to ask ourselves questions as we talk about all
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  the time. But if we're in a leadership
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  position, we really need to ask our people that we are leading
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  questions. So this week I was in the middle
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  of a call with a client and he runs a very, very big team and
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  they're doing tons and tons and tons of outreach work.
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  It requires a lot of connection with people that they want to
• 1:00
  have as clients. They have to really show them
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  that they are the people that they want to work with.
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  I mean, it's a, there's a ton of trust that's built into it.
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  I mean, I think most businesses have that factor where, you
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  know, if you don't have the trust coming from both sides,
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  where they trust you and you trust them, it's going to be
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  hard to influence them. But we, we, we tend to take it
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  for granted. That's the strange part.
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  We take it for granted and we think, oh, they'll just trust
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  me. They'll trust what my accolades
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  are, what I've already done, things like that.
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  And it's not always true. So in the process of him talking
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  about how, you know, that they have to do all this.
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  And I, I was making the point that we've got 90 roughly, you
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  know, 90 days left in the year, you know, October, November and
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  December. But December we all know is like
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  a crapshoot. Those last two weeks are going
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  to be useless coming into the new year.
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  And then everybody comes back hell, like, you know, guns a
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  blazing and ready to go. So I said to him, well, what is
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  it that needs to happen in order for you to have success in the
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  last 90 days of the year? And he said me personally or the
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  team and I said both. So he answered the question and
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  it was all data-driven stuff about this is the stuff that
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  needs to happen, meaning hard results, which is fine, that's
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  totally fine, gives me all that. And I said, OK, what about the
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  softer skills? He said, explain.
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  I said, well, what about making sure that the team feels a
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  certain way, that they feel good about it and it's not just the
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  grind because we're in the middle of the grind.
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  And he paused and he said, that's a really good question.
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  And I said, well, that's what you pay me for.
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  We started laughing and he goes, no, I just never think of that.
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  And I was like, most people don't.
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  So he said, how would you approach it?
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  I said, I think it's really important to go and ask each one
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  of them individually, not as a group.
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  And this is key guys, not as a group individually.
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  Sit them down and say, OK, you know what the metrics are that
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  we need to meet by the end of the year and have them run it by
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  you. Just have them run those
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  tactics, the metrics, as well as the strategies and tactics
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  they're going to use to get there.
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  And he said, Yep, that standard operating procedure.
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  I said, great, Then that next higher level is to say, okay, so
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  tell me, what do you need in order to make this happen?
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  Ask it very generally at first, what do you need?
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  And they're probably going to give you a lot of tactile stuff
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  that they need. Like I'm going to need to be,
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  you know, flying here. I'm going to need to be going
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  and doing this. I'm going to need the support of
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  the admin or creative or whatever they need.
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  And he's like, OK. And I said, but then you ask it
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  a different way. You say, OK, now let's put a pin
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  in that for a second. What do you personally need?
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  Like what, what is it that's it in you that you're, you know,
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  you're not necessarily sharing with me because, you know, it
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  might not be something that I want to hear.
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  But is it that you need to have Saturdays to make it to that
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  game that you know, you want to see your son play?
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  Is it that, you know, you need to be able to not travel for
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  this particular week because this is a time when you know,
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  your daughter's going to be in a play and you want to be there.
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  And if you miss it, it's going to bother the hell out of you
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  and it's going to eat away at you.
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  And he's like, well, if I ask those questions and everybody
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  takes advantage of that and we're not meeting the metrics.
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  And I said, ho, ho, hold on. You're not guaranteeing
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  anything. You're just trying to find out.
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  And the reason why this is so important is 1.
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  You need to know what people are thinking because this is where
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  they start to get in their head and they go, all right, you
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  know, I just can't do this anymore.
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  I need to be home more. I need this more.
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  And they start making plans and don't tell you.
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  And as much as you think that they trust you and that they
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  will tell you things, they won't.
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  So it's really important to recognize this.
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  So we got into a very deep conversation about trust and how
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  to, like, understand where they're coming from and
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  understand yourself. Like, if you put yourself back
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  30 years, would you have done that?
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  And he's like, probably not. And I said, OK, so that's why
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  it's so important. And by the end of the
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  conversation, he got it. But the reality is anybody who's
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  in a leadership position has to be willing to ask about those
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  softer, important emotional skills that we as human beings
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  actually operate in. That is our operating system.
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  So you can try all you want to make people grind it out, but
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  that operating system is still going to be doing what it does.
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  And if you don't tap into that and understand it, your team
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  will suffer. So it's important to know those
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  emotional questions as much as you know those tactile
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  questions, because without those emotional questions being taken
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  care of and answered and addressed, those tactile
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  questions, all of those things that you want to get done are
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  going to be running on the wrong operating system.
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  So I hope you guys have a blessed day and I hope this
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  helped and I will see you tomorrow.
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  Bye.