3 Questions For New Leaders

As a leader, it's important to reflect on how we can improve our ability to coach and mentor others. Asking ourselves the right questions can help us identify areas where we can improve. I have found the following questions to be the most helpful to reflect on when I feel like I’m in a leadership rut:

What can you work on today that will continue working for you years from now?

What do the people on your team enjoy refining?

Are things truly not going well, or do I just need some food, water, and/or a short break?

Long-term > short-term

It is so easy to be default short-term. Tasks need to be finished and deadlines need to be met. But the more the focus is placed here, the more we erode the foundation the future growth will happen on.

I worked with a manager once who would have reviews of project statuses. The common way to handle these types of meetings would be to focus on all the red or yellow items because they were “in trouble”. He did the opposite.

Instead, he focused on all of the green items. He figured that the teams knew what had to be done for the red and yellow items, but the best coaching moments would happen in the green items. There were hidden problems in the green that he could extract and teach about, and he knew he could double down on the positives to enhance their effect.

He was investing in the long-term value of the team instead of focusing on the fires and ever-impending deadlines.

Focus on your team’s strengths

Since I was in high school, I was told to focus on my passions to find my strengths. This felt very hard to wrap my arms around.

Years later I heard a much better framing for finding your strengths: what do you find yourself refining? No one refines things they aren’t interested in. No one refines things they aren’t passionate about.

So that got me thinking: what does my team refine without being told to?

As leaders, we often focus on identifying and addressing areas where our team needs to improve. However, it's equally important to understand the strengths of our team members. By identifying what our team members are good at and what they enjoy doing, we can help them feel more fulfilled in their work and create a more positive and productive work environment.

Sometimes things aren’t that bad, you just need a break

There will be times when we are simply overwhelmed or stressed. In these moments it's easy to jump to the conclusion that things are not going well. And even worse, we need to change everything.

It is usually here where the biggest mistakes are made. Don’t get me wrong, there will be times when a massive overhaul is needed. Whether from a team, product, or company perspective. But before you jump to that conclusion, make sure you aren’t simply hungry, thirsty, or tired.

I saw this chart once at a hospital that was meant to prevent medical errors. It outlined something called the HALLT method. The HALLT stands for Hungry, Angry, Late, Lonely, and Tired. It is essentially an easy way to answer the question: am I in a distressed state or over-index the severity of a problem simply because I am lacking in baseline human needs?

It sounds simple but can be incredibly impactful in making quality decisions.

As leaders, we can improve by asking better questions.

To maximize our potential, we should focus on developing long-term skills, understanding our team's strengths, and taking care of ourselves. When feeling stuck, use these questions to reflect and gain insights. Let me know how it goes!