Three Important Conversations Every Leader Needs to Have Each Week

Do your days feel like a constant juggle of meetings, team management, and implementing institutional priorities? Your role is often to manage all of this, along with a crushing amount of information to digest and daily decisions that come with this constant scramble to keep up. The array of experts in the field advise you to try to manage your daily priorities through a range of solutions, including productivity apps or mindfulness exercises. The reality is the solution often lies in the conversations you choose to have, and those you leave behind. Deciphering between the necessary and important conversations, requires a willingness to leave behind those that others can manage, and those that might zap your energy and attention, creating more work on your desk. In addition, a good conversation empowers others, clarifies issues, and eliminates wasteful exercises when teams are not aligned on the outcomes needed. 

Rather than hoping for the workload and decisions to become manageable, consider engaging in these three important conversations each week: 

What’s New?

This seemingly casual question opens up discussions that range from the lighthearted news about home, to looping a leader into office politics. Pausing to learn what is on your team’s (or office mates’) minds allows them a space to vent about work-life balance, or a tenuous vendor or client relationship. By being the willing ear, your presence is seen and felt. This one conversation each week allows you to gather information before a formal report ends up on your desk and problem-solve with your teams. The casual nature of the question reinforces your approachable nature and a willingness to roll up your sleeves and help out where and when needed. 

Asking “What’s new?” should be an internal and external conversation each week. Using this to connect with external partners and advisors builds a more consistent relationship, and is more likely to be utilized when trust is required to problem solve. Using these simple conversations to build strong external relationships allows you to identify which parties are treating you (and your company) as a trusted advisor and which need additional support from your teams. The next step? Make sure you circle back and continue the conversations with those that looped you in, or share (as appropriate) with others who can help tackle the issues you identified with this simple conversation. 

Learn More 

With the crushing amounts of information at your fingertips, it is often easy to assume you have all the details needed to make a good decision. Yet, one of the most powerful conversations you can have each week is setting those assumptions aside and learning how others view the challenges, priorities, or opportunities you are working on. Said another way, when you can validate your perspective, your solutions are more likely to work and resonate with the end users. Policies made in a vacuum often cause the most disruption later on. 

A few suggested entries into this critical conversation start with letting people know what you are working on and why it is important to you and the organization. Then, setting aside your solutions, ask others how they would solve the challenge, what they think is the most important criteria for success, or how they would tackle the client opportunity. This is also an opportunity to learn more from the perspective of external partners, clients, and vendors.  

While others share ideas, your job is to listen. Pay attention to the exact words they are using and also, what they are not saying. The goal here is not to brainstorm (that is for later) but to gather data from staying curious. Once you have three to five discussions, you will start to identify trends and ideas that you can dive into deeper.  Allowing yourself to learn through a robust, curious conversation is a powerful space for any leader to engage in each week. 

Express Gratitude 

While the recipients covet formal accolades and awards, the impromptu and personalized notes of appreciation and recognition mean so much more. Each week, set aside 5-10 minutes to brainstorm the accomplishments of yourself, your team and organization. After each entry, make note of the people involved, making sure to go a few layers deeper than the team leader. 

Once you have completed the brainstorm, send each person a personalized note recognizing their contribution to the project, win, or outcome. These notes are extremely impactful even when the project wasn’t a complete win, but the challenges were faced with grace under pressure. Often, the notes received are collected with pride. Keep the notes and accolades brief yet personal, knowing that a photocopied letter with one note saying “way to go” will have the opposite impact than what you are working toward.  

This is also an effective conversation with external clients, vendors, and business partners. Congratulating your clients on their own business wins deepens the relationship between you and your clients and allows them to deepen their trust of you and your organization as a trusted partner. These discussions also open up a dialogue about what might be next for the client, and opportunities for you to support the project. 

By engaging in the smallest of conversations (asking what’s new), validating your ideas and decisions by getting curious, and expressing gratitude, you are using strong discussions to enhance your position as a leader. These conversations also allow you to streamline your daily decisions, eliminate missteps in communication and problem solving, and triage personnel issues upfront by staying connected and curious with your teams. As you move forward, the conversations will deepen, trust will be gained, and a culture of open communication will evolve around you.

Written by Deb Feder.

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