Have your team answer a few questions every week and take responsibility for reporting their successes and challenges.
Make sure to check in with team members every week. The easiest way to do this is to have your team members answer a few questions. This should only take about five minutes to complete and should be sent or shared electronically with their direct supervisor.
If there is an online system for tracking performance or projects, this could be a good place to store the weekly answers. If not, have them send a weekly email, add the update to a Google Doc, or save a Word document in a dedicated folder in your online files.
Adjust the questions to the person and the position.
For a sales role:
- Did you complete your ONE THING item from last week?
- How many new prospects did you add to your pipeline?
- Of the prospects in the pipeline, how many did you move forward?
- What was your greatest success over the past week?
- What was your biggest challenge over the past week?
- What is the ONE THING you must accomplish over this coming week?
For a non-sales role:
- Did you complete your ONE THING item from last week?
- What was your greatest success over the past week?
- What was your biggest challenge over the past week?
- Personalized question*
- What is the ONE THING you must accomplish over this coming week?
*Personalize this question based on a key behavior they need for their role. This may change from time to time based on what they need to achieve in their role. For example, How many and which clients did you touch base with this week? What did you learn new this week through training? What processes did you document this week?
After reviewing the questions, the supervisor should comment back as appropriate and make notes of what to discuss further during a one-on-one meeting. The point of the questions is to help the team member reporting to share wins and explain the challenges holding them back.