Boss to Coach Conversation 3 of 5 Check In
Week 4 - Focus on The WHATs

Course Review

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Lesson 15 Course Review

I don’t have time to do this with all my team! 

The truth is, the best managers have one meaningful connection with their people per week of at least 15-30 minutes.  The check in meeting is also the number 1 tool to help your people and their work.  When thinking about making your check in work, consider the following

  •  What gets scheduled gets done.  Commit to the time.  Don’t cancel as it communicates “you are not important”

  • Parkinson Law states that work expands to fill the time available for its completion.  For meetings, if you make it for 30 minutes that’s how long it will take.  If you make it for an hour, again often that’s how long it will take.  When considering time commitment, because trust is built in little increments over time, frequency trumps duration.  Therefore 30 minutes once a week/fortnight is better than 1-hour a month

  • Span of control is the number times you can take a 1-1 check in per week. If you can’t spend enough time with each of the people who report to you, based on your approach and style could you have too many?  See the article What's the Ideal Team Size? It Depends on the Manager  

  • It’s not a fixed point.  Continually trial and review to ensure it works for you and your team.  After the first and third conversation leverage the feedback questions (1) what’s working? (2) where are we getting stuck? (3) what can we do differently?/what support do you need?

  • Struggle with templates?  Three simple questions could do the trick

  1. How are you? Highlights/lowlights

  2. How’s the work going? Priorities/emerging issues

  3. What support do you need? You can help me by/development

To guide you through this conversation leverage the Check In template in PowerPoint which can be downloaded here

You set the standard.  What you do, your team will do too

Activity

Create your own planning routine on Page 16 of your Black Workbook (if you want your people to plan you need to plan too)

  1. Schedule a regular planning time in your calendar

  2. Review yours, the teams, and organisations priorities Rule of 3

  3. Filter your tasks with one of the prioritisation tools; ease versus impact, Eisenhour matrix, pareto, purpose/values

  4. Review your meetings and ensure they all have a clear PPO.  The PPO structure is

    • Purpose the problem we are trying to solve plus the action required; inform, discuss, decide

    • Process the rules of what is in and out of this process to ensure it is efficient and increases the chances of success

    • Outcome what does success look like, so it has been the best use of everyone’s time

  5. Plan your people conversations Catch people doing things right

  6. Update your check in template

 

To guide you through this conversation leverage the Check In template in PowerPoint which can be downloaded here

Course Review

As a result of this course note the final reflection to this course and answer these questions on Page 17 of your Black Workbook

  1. What is one thing you have discovered?

  2. What is one thing you will do differently?

Feedback

Please take a few minutes to complete a feedback form? Is there something we did well that we should continue doing?  Is there something we can improve on that would be helpful for others?  This is reviewed by the Strengths Network which accredits Strengths coaches.

Further Resources

The best questions to ask when Checking In with others

  • How are you?

  • How’s the work going?

  • What support do you need?

Download

For a handy reference of the key questions that support all Boss to Coach conversations access this bookmark resource 

  • Templates and Tools that support Strengths and the 5 Coaching Conversations.  This includes templates, workbooks, profile tools, and session preparation courses

  • Further Reading short articles and books that support the 5 coaching conversations

Team Leader Debrief

That’s the end of this week’s online learning.  Do you have a 15 minute debrief booked with your team leader/sponsor?  Aim to answer the questions

  1. What is one discovery you have made?

  2. What is one thing you will do differently?

You have completed the Boss to Coach Conversation 3 Check In course

Remember to click the ‘Complete Lesson’ button