Dear friend,
Do you currently feel aligned with your team, your leaders, your colleagues or your employees?
To help you in that area, Marshall Goldsmith developed a coaching methodology while working with top CEOs around the world, is the “6 Question Process”. I would like to share with you today this simple, yet powerful process, that will help you drive clarity and direction, and strengthen the basis for your direct reports to improve.
The 6 Question Process is layered as follows:
1. Where are we going?
The goal of this question is to establish a dialogue with your direct report. First, you give briefly your view about where you see the group or the business going. Then you ask the other person to give you his view about it, with questions like: "What do you see?" "Where should we be going?" This question will allow you to align on the bigger picture.
2. Where are you going?
“Here is where I see you and where I see your part of the business going.” Again, establish dialogue by asking questions like "where do you see yourself going?" "Which contribution do you see your business making to the global vision?" This question will allow you to align in the smaller picture.
3. What do you think you’re doing well?
“What are you most proud of?” This will help you appreciate and recognize efforts that sometimes get unnoticed by you, as a leader, in the fire of the day-to-day action. Recognition is a key piece of keeping the motivation and valuing the contribution and impact of your team.
4. What are some suggestions for improvement?
When tackling this question, it is fundamental to do it in a non-threatening, non-patronising way.
For the first, a good way is to use “feedforward” rather than feedback. The feedforward technique focuses on giving suggestions to the other person about how she could behave to improve in the future. Instead of looking at the past (feedback), which sometimes triggers endless explanation sessions, it looks at the future and opens possibilities. The person providing the inputs does it in a non-judgemental way. The person receiving the ideas, treat them as a gift: says “thank you” and then takes them into consideration when defining its improvement plan.
For the second, it is a very interesting approach to ask “If you were your own coach, what suggestions for improvement would you have for yourself?” People know themselves better than we think, and clearly better than we do know them. It’s true that many areas of improvement can be still on an “unconscious incompetence” state, so the person won’t be able to point at them. But let’s be clear, many other areas of improvement are already on the radar of their “conscious incompetence” (sometimes for years), which doesn’t mean they have taken action yet. Helping the person by being an accountability partner on that area of improvement is a great way to coach and develop your direct reports.
5. How can I help?
Given your current situation in the business, how can I help you and your team being more successful? As John Maxwell says, having an open-door policy is not enough to be available as a leader. You must engage, get out of your office and find who needs help and in which ways you can provide it. This question is a great way to do it.
6. What suggestions do you have for me to be a better leader?
Again, using the principle of feedforward, rather than feedback. Your direct report can give you precious input for you to improve, which you may want to consider for your personal improvement plan. It is not unusual to have your direct reports to point at areas you’re not expecting to. Bear in mind that when an input is coming, and the person is doing it candidly, the input reflects their perception, therefore their reality. So be open to consider other’s points of view and let some unconscious incompetence become conscious.
The key to make this whole process work, is what we call “mutual responsibility”. This means two things:
On your side, as a leader, you commit to review those questions together on a regular basis (every quarter for example).
On your direct report's side, he/she commits to, between those times, let you know if there is any confusion around clarity, direction or coaching.
If you both follow this process there is no reason there should be any confusion around direction, contribution and improvement over time.
So, my challenge for to you today is to think about the 6 Question Process and how it could improve your team dynamics and your business. Then:
Select 3 people you want to test it with
Schedule a meeting with them, maybe during your next monthly or quarterly review, and go through the questions together
Once you’re done, gather their feedback about the process on the spot
Monitor your mutual progress as your conversations evolve over the next months
Assess if you want to keep the process of implement at a wider scale.
So let me know how it goes. I congratulate you for your action and your commitment to become a better leader and for investing on you to secure better results for yourself and your organisation.
And don't hesitate to share this post with anyone around you who may need it. They are very much welcome in our community!
Create an awesome week for you and those around you!
To your success,
Ezequiel
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