Would You like to be Boss of the Year?

Would you like to be Boss of the Year?

Here is all you need to do: take each of your employees offsite and individually ask them these seven questions.

Now, the best bosses I have ever had never took the time to find out what really motivated me, and the worst ones, of course, could not have cared less. But if you ask each of your employees these seven questions, then listen—really listen—YOU might become boss of the year.

These seven questions come from Mark Sanborn, author of "The Fred Factor."

1.  What do you like most about your job? – In these times where we can’t necessarily give raises or promotions, if we give people more of what they like to do, they will see that as a reward. And chances are, that’s what they are good at! What do you think question number two is? That’s right! Question number two is…

2.  What do you like least about your job? – See if you can take that away! I was the only fool in my department who liked to do public speaking, but once I started doing that, other people did my dirty work.

3.  What would you like to do in the future? – The danger of being the manager of a well-oiled machine is you just want to keep it going, but maybe Cecelia has been doing her job for eight years and wants to do something else. Tell Cecelia, "If you cooperate with me, I can help make your dreams a reality." But you first need to find out what those dreams are.

4.  What would you most like to learn? – Hey, get them involved in the programming of your next event!

5. When do you feel you do your best work? – Some people are morning people. Some people are afternoon people. Some people are night people. The recent pandemic and virtual working has taught us if you can give your people flexibility around the rest of their lives, you can get unprecedented loyalty. Best Buy initiated a program called Results-Only Work Environment (ROWE) for their corporate employees. Employees could even work at 2 a.m. if they wanted to, just get the job done! ROWE has since been adopted by over 40 other companies. 

6.  Who do you like working with the most? – We find that Analyticals like to work with Analyticals, they hate working with those Associators! Put people together so you get synergy. (We determine your style and those of your fellow participants in my keynote experience.)

7.  What’s most important to you in a job? – The response from your employees to this question is likely to blow you away!  If you ask your people these seven questions, then listen, really listen, you may hear them say, “What? You really care! Nobody has ever treated me as a human being before, just as a cog in a machine. Everyone just knows me by my title or role. Nobody has ever wanted to get to know me as a person.”

As a result of asking these questions, you could be boss of the year!