Watch the YouTube version of this episode HERE
Are you trying to find ways to make your 1-1 meetings more fulsome? In this episode of the Maximum Lawyer podcast, host Tyson Mutrux underscores the importance of monthly check-ins with the team to ensure accountability, improvement, and employee satisfaction.
Tyson shares the three key questions you need to ask your team to make sure they are feeling supported in their roles. The first question is highlighting something they are proud of that month. This will help them identify their wins and if there aren't any, how to make them. The second question is about figuring out where they need to improve, which can be either personal or professional. This can help set up some action items to focus on for the weeks ahead. The last question to ask is if there is anything they need from you as their manager or boss. This may be advice or additional support in delivering on their tasks. All of these questions are a good way to ensure staff are feeling confident in their jobs and that you as a boss are there to help out when needed.
Take a listen to learn more!
01:09 The first question for the team is to identify something they are most proud of
02:02 The team is asked to reflect on areas where they need to improve
02:56 How to make improvements over the next 30 days and the need for accountability
Tune in to today’s episode and checkout the full show notes here.
[MUSIC PLAYING] Run your law firm the right way. The right way. This is the Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Maximum Lawyer Podcast. Your hosts, Jim Hacking, and Tyson Nutrips. Let's partner up and maximize your firm. Welcome to the show. Hey, this is Tyson with another bite-size episode of the Maximum Lawyer Podcast. This week, what I want to do is I want to talk about the things you need to be asking your team on a monthly basis. Every single month, you need to be asking these questions. And especially your leadership team, you need to be asking these questions. Before I get to this, though, I do want to remind everyone that if you do have something that you want me to cover on the podcast, make sure you text me. Because I like to hear about topics that you all want me to cover. And so make sure you text me at 314-501-9260. I would love to hear from you. There's a lot of great suggestions that we get every single week. And so make sure you send us a text. All right, let's get to today's episode. And this is going to be a short one. And it's going to be about the questions you need to be asking your team on a monthly basis. There's three main questions. And I'll tell you what else I do in my meeting. And I meet with the leadership team. And then the leadership team, they meet with each individual person to discuss these questions, too. But the first question is, what is one thing you're doing right now that you're the most proud of? So we wanted them to highlight their wins. And we go through those wins. And if they don't have any wins, guess what? We make them give us some wins. And you're not going to get off and say, no, I can't think of anything. Well, you're going to have to think of something. If it's small, whatever it is to get that ball moving forward, that's a win. So we have them identify those wins. And then after that, I asked them, what is one thing you need to improve? So we need to figure out, all right, where are they lacking? Where's something that they need to improve on? This can be personal, too. It could be personal, it could be professional. This whole meeting is about them. This meeting is not about the firm. This meeting is about them. And you want to make sure that you're making it completely about them. And the way this topic came up, actually, was in the guild the other day, we had a member on the hot seat. And she asked, well, what are some questions I need to be asking my employees in these meetings? Because she was talking about how they do these check-ins with their employees. And so I want to make sure I told people the things that we ask. So that's how this came up. But remember, you want to make sure that this is about them. It's not about you, not about the firm. And then the third question is, so after you've asked them, what is one thing you need to improve? Then you're going to get into, how are you going to make that improvement over the next 30 days? Or maybe you're not able to make the full improvement? How can you chip away at that and start to get better at it? And so you're going to start that over the next 30 days. And after that, so how we make that improvement, this is a big part, because this is probably the biggest part of the entire meeting, where sometimes you have to brainstorm a little bit. Sometimes you have to go back and forth and have a discussion about how that improvement needs to be made. And so sometimes it's simple, sometimes it's more difficult, but this is a pretty key one. After that, though, so you'll always want to ask those three questions. Another thing that I do on top of this is I take notes. I take detailed notes of every single one of these meetings, so every single meeting that I've had with them, I've taken notes. So make sure you have the exact same notebook you use, or if you use an electronic notebook, use something to take the notes, so keep those notes. I will then go back to at least the last month, or I'll even go farther back than that, if I think that they're trying to BS me on some things. But usually they're not. So we'll go and we'll say, okay, over the last 30 days, this is what you said you wanted to improve on. How did you do on those things? And so it's a really helpful way of incorporating some accountability, which most people wouldn't think this, but they actually really like. They really like to have that accountability to make sure that they're on track. And the last thing that you wanna do is always end by saying, is there anything else you need from me, right? Anything I can do to help you with your job, make your job easier, that kind of a thing. And if you do those, if you ask those three questions and you ask those follow up questions at the end, I guarantee you're gonna get happier employees because they're gonna be improving, they're gonna be doing better, they're gonna be celebrating their wins, and they're also gonna know that you actually care. So, or incorporate this into your monthly process, and I promise you're not going to regret it. All right, before we go, I wanna tell you about something new that we're doing that I talked about previously on some other podcasts. We're opening submissions for questions on all things starting and running a law firm. So, we're gonna answer these on future episodes of the podcast, whether you're dreaming of launching your own firm or you're knee deep in the trenches and could use a lifeline or anything in between, we're ready to listen. So, the lines are open and you can submit your video question on our website at maximumlawyer.com/ask. All right, until next week, remember that consistent action is the blueprint that turns your goals into reality. Take care. (upbeat music) - Thanks for listening to the maximum lawyer podcast. To stay in contact with your host and to access more content, go to maximumlawyer.com. (upbeat music) - Have a great week and catch you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
