Most American businesses have been forced into an Unplanned Pit Stop for a solid month now. How is yours going so far? Have you and your teammates taken maximum advantage of the surprise downtime? Do you still have a slate of productive retooling activities to keep you busy or are you starting to run low?
Waiting impatiently behind the wheel of your now cold race car, it’s easy to obsess on the need to return to the track. The cost of sitting idle seems to increase exponentially with each passing day.
But let’s take the focus off you, the leader, the driver, for a moment. How is your Pit Crew? Not just collectively, but as individuals. This sudden shift from frenzied driving to manic maintenance impacts different people in different ways.
Let me say that again.
The dramatic changes you’ve recently absorbed in your world of work affect each member of your team a little differently than their colleagues. And, the way it affects each individual can change significantly over time.
Below are six sample questions that might help you to perform a periodic Pit Crew Check Up. Consider adapting this list to better fit your population and ask each manager to budget for a fifteen minute check-in with each of their direct reports. Do it a few weeks after introducing a major change and repeat it every other week during periods of extreme turbulence.
And before you say you don’t have time, consider that the alternative might be doing their work for them after they break down on the job or resign.
Are you okay? How are you handling the stress of all these changes? How are you coping with the increase in some activities and the total loss of others? Are you sleeping? Getting exercise? Coping effectively with the stress?
How is your family? Is everyone healthy? Are your parents safe? Anyone sick or in need of medical attention? Has your spouse been able to find a job? Was your daughter able to get medical advice over the phone, or did she have to go to the ER last week?
How is working-from-home working for you? For each overjoyed person who will never want to return to a soul-sucking daily commute, there is a peer grieving over the loss of community. Is your direct report’s home crowded and crazy or empty and lonely?
Do you have what you need to function effectively in the new world order? Is your laptop fully functional? Do you have a fast and reliable internet connection? Are you able to find what you need online? Can you print when needed?
Do you have a clear sense of priorities? How is your workload? Is there a risk that something important cannot be completed on time? Do you have any suggestions for redistributing work in a way that makes more sense?
What can the company or I do to better support you? How can I help you better serve our customers? Is there anything else I can do to help you stay healthy?
Garold (Gary) Markle is the creator of Catalytic Coaching and author of Catalytic Coaching: The End of the Performance Review. He brings real world experience from 17 years in HR leadership in major corporations coupled with 20 years of teaching small and mid-sized organizations how to cultivate their leadership and ditch their detrimental performance reviews for a proven Coaching process.
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