Ask someone how their weekend was

I'd like to continue from my theme from Friday: Don't email your people this weekend.

Did you pull this off? Could you resist the temptation?

If you did, good! Good leader, good manager! Now take this a step further. Spend thirty minutes today (Monday) investigating the good times some of your people had this weekend. Find out about the big game, the movie and the picnic. Soak it up like Oprah. Be sincerely interested.

You'll see three direct results from this half hour investment:
1. You'll realize that your people have a life outside of work.
2. They will relish their weekend and extend its medicinal benefit as a result.
3. You will likely find that you a great deal in common with the people you see every day.

To paraphrase Dale Carnegie: "You will accomplish more in 2 months developing a sincere interest in 2 people, than you'll accomplish in the next 2 years, trying to get 2 people interested in you."

Comments

[Matthew Myers]

Tim:

Great blog...

One practical way to incorporate this into your team is something we do in our Monday staff meetings. We ask our people for their "Good Of The order". Interestingly, this idea was borrowed from a young lady in our office fresh out of college. In her sorority, they always start the meeting by stating something that has happened to them that was good in recent days. This forces us to think of the good things in our lives rather than all the problems we are trying to solve each day. Moreover, it forces the team to listen to the personal stories and get to know each other as human beings and not simply employees. This works equally well at the dinner table. I will often ask my kids to tell me the best part of their day. It dramatically improves the whole attitude of the dinner converation.
MM