I was in management & leadership training for most of the day today with the rest of our company management team. Despite the long hours on Zoom and the lost productivity of my normal ‘no meeting Tuesdays’, I generally enjoy the type of education from those sessions. And it’s a training I don’t have to lead which is always nice.
I’ll memorialize one of the many takeaways here. When asking someone to do something (in the training this was the context of the manager asking direct report), follow up with this question after you get their commitment: “What might get in your way?”
According to our facilitator, there’s some research behind those exact words being most effective to draw out what you need . . . the roadblocks, the pitfalls, etc. All things you’d rather sus out upfront rather than in a post-mortem when the thing didn’t get done.
I can see the question applying to other contexts as well. Asking myself that when I have a new goal. Can I challenge my own expectations and reality check? Or asking it in a team meeting after we set a priority for the next quarter . . . what might get in our way? At the very least I do think it’s a question I should ask more as a manager.
With Love,
Natalie