When I tell managers, "You've got to spend more time talking with your people one-on-one about the work," a lot of times managers will say to me, "Well, I do talk to my people; I check in with them every day: how's everything going? Is everything on track? Are there any problems I should know about?" I call those the "Mary Had a Little Lamb" questions because you might as well be singing Mary Had a Little Lamb to your employees when you ask those questions because those questions tell you nothing.

"How's everything going?"
"Just Fine."
"Everything on track?"
"Oh, yes."
"Any problems I should know about?"
"Uhhh, no."

You might as well be singing to them. See, the right questions are:
• What did you do and how did you do it?
• What steps did you follow?
• What are you doing and how are you doing it?
• What steps are you following?
• What step are you on now?
• What are the components of that step?
• What are you going to do and how are you going to do it?
• What steps are you going to follow?
• What are the components of each step?
• Maybe you could make a project plan and share your checklists with me?

Those are the questions that tell you about the details of the work. Stop singing Mary Had a Little Lamb and start drilling down and asking about the details.


KEY POINTS

-Don't ask broad yes or no questions.
-Ask probing questions.


BONUS MANAGEMENT TIP

Prepare your employees to make the most of any down time they might experience during the current economic contraction. Ask every person you manage to make a list, in order of priority, of important-but-not-urgent to-do items they have been postponing because business has been so busy. Tell them: "If you find yourself with some down time, start working to accomplish one of the items on that list."