Helpful Questions Managers Can Ask Their Employees To Help Them Succeed

In many industries, employees are often encouraged to follow a long-established system that is already proven to work. There is no problem with this approach short term but such way of thinking could discourage the outside-the-box thinking that drives innovation. Curiosity is important for building successful companies and for enriching healthy relationships between managers and co-workers. The company culture may not change short term, but in the long run, you would need to rehire new employees as you expand. New or old employees can provide the company with fresh insights and perspectives, which could help the company grow.

By being open to communication with your employees and breaking down the invisible barrier, you’ll get quality feedback that could spark creativity, assess potential problems, and help employees show up as their best selves. One of the best ways you can do this is by asking them questions. If you ask the right questions, you’ll get to know what motivates your employees and what their goals are. You can then use this information to manage them more effectively and help them succeed in their jobs.

Here are some questions that could serve as a guide to help you to grow as a manager  while also helping your employees bring out the most out of them.

General questions for Self Growth

1. What Is the Most Meaningful Aspect of Your Job?

“The one question I always ask my employees is, ‘What is the most meaningful aspect of your job?’ The answers can be surprising. As a manager, it gives you valuable insight into what motivates your employees as well as helps you to ensure that your work priorities are aligned. If the answer doesn’t match your expectations, it gives you the opportunity to course-correct with your team members.” ~ Mark Stallings, Casely, Inc

(source: The Young Entrepreneur Council)

2. How Are You Feeling About Things?

“A super vague question like ‘How are you feeling about things?’ opens the door to allow your employee to give you their thoughts on whatever topic might be on their mind. Starting a conversation like this puts the direction of the conversation in the employee’s hands. If they are concerned about something, you can address it. If they are happy about something, you can celebrate it with them.” ~ Tony Scherba, Yeti

(source: The Young Entrepreneur Council)

3. Which company value would you like to embody more?

Organizational values are vital guiding points which aligns an employees’ purpose to work with the organization’s goals to result in mutual growth. This question tackles the topic of personal growth for the employees. By letting them take charge of their own growth, they’ll become more invested in the values that are most important to them and embody them in their work.

Specific Questions regarding Work and Culture

4. Looking back on the week, is there anything that could have gone better?

“One thing a manager can do is ask if the employee has any suggestions that could improve the workflow. People have knowledge of tools and processes that will not necessarily appear on a resume. When you ask an open-ended question where your employee gets to share their ideas, you learn more about them. And, you can help them do better by giving them the tools and opportunities they need.” ~ Syed Balkhi, WPBeginner

5. Are you facing roadblocks in your work world that’s causing frustration or delays?

Sometimes, even small roadblocks can have a tremendous impact on getting things done. It could be as simple as a noisy office space or Computer issues. Or it could be something deeper related to culture or relationships. After a while, employees get used to the problem instead of asking for help, and this way of working takes a toll on morale. But by taking the time to ask for employee feedback, you’ll communicate that you’re available to help tackle these obstacles and create a better work environment for everyone.

6. What can I do to help you in this project?

This question widens the vision of objectives so that people are focusing on the now without losing sight of the not-so-distant future. By encouraging your employees to set small, measurable goals for the immediate future, it would help them build a vision for their long term career and have a mentor student relationship with them fostering long-term growth. It is also important to follow up on them or check on them from time to time to make sure and check how they are progressing.

7. Are we clear on your responsibilities and what you should be working on? If not, which parts are not clear?

Taking up tasks that are not clear on the scope of their responsibilities or the why behind what they’re doing, could make it difficult to enable them to do their best and get personal growth. There is also the issue of accountability. For any task or responsibility, an employee should be able to answer what exactly they are doing and why. This also includes the bigger picture and the employees should also be able to identify what long term company objectives it contributes to.This question is especially applicable when there are organizational changes and roles and responsibilities evolve.

8. What are 3-5 qualities for our new recruit do you think would be helpful in diversifying our team’s current culture?

Finding a candidate who can do the responsibilities is difficult, but finding a person who fits in the company culture and can add a unique perspective is arguably more difficult. Usually, companies hire people who display qualities that are already present in your team members. But in looking for something different, something to complement, you’ll enrich the diversity and capability of your team.

9. Do you see any inefficiencies within our standard operating procedures? How can we fix them?

Simple or complex, allowing your employees to speak up on process encourages engagement and keeps them constantly thinking of making things better for everyone. And in giving your employees a voice, you gain an opportunity to hear solutions that might have been otherwise overlooked.

Tips for Forming Good Questions

Questions for feedback and criticism especially on smaller projects are very useful. Questions like what needs to be done, what are the ideas – or the past – lessons learned and what could be done better next time are very helpful to get insightful feedback. Some feedback questions need to be specific, but not controlling, so Including time definitions like “last month” and “this week” or quantities such as “3-5 qualities” to make the question concrete and easier to answer. Try to guide your employees to the area in which you want your answers to be. Just asking general questions like “What needs to be done” makes it really hard for anyone to answer concretely. Concrete answers are much more actionable compared to vague ones. After all we don’t want these questions to only serve as formality but instead cause positive change to the work culture.