Questions to Invite Dialog with Your Team

“How do you think we are doing?"

How would your employees answer that question? Is the culture in your workplace such that they would feel comfortable sharing both the positive and negative issues? Or would they clam up, fearful of sharing openly?

To build a good team, you must invite dialog and provide a safe environment for it. Dialog begins with questions and is met with LISTENING. Leaders in particular need to develop their listening skills (speaking to myself here) so that their experience and intelligence don't get in the way of being open to other solutions. But listening will be dealt with in another blog post. For now, here are some questions to get you started in opening dialog with your team. Note that not all questions are directly related to work. That is on purpose. Your team mates are not robots...they have a life outside the workplace...they are people, not just workers. So try some of these questions to draw out your team.

What is the best thing that happened to you (outside of the workplace) this week?

What makes you feel most encouraged at work?

If we could change one thing about your workspace, what would it be? (Note how specific this is. Avoid asking what thing they would change about work as a whole. They may have several ideas and be afraid of being negative. Narrow it down to help them think more clearly.)

If I allowed you a $_______ budget for your department, to do with what you wanted, what would you try?

Which one of our policies seems most outdated to you?

What new thing did you learn personally in the last three months?

If we planned a staff field trip, where would you like to go?

If money were no object, what would you want to see the company do long-term?

What perk could we add to our benefits package that would help you the most?

Do you feel we are living up to our stated company values in day-to-day practice?

This is by no means exhaustive. What other questions can you come up with? Share in the comments below!