 Three
on Three—the Magnificent Supervision Tool
By Ed Rigsbee, CSP
(821 words)
What an Idea! It was in
the 1980s, when I owned a manufacturers representative sales agency that
I heard Patricia Fripp talking about this idea in one of her success
seminars. I tried the idea with my sales team and it worked
magnificently. For over a decade now, I too have been sharing this tool
with audiences across North America and have received numerous notes of
success from attendees.
Let me first warn
you—while this tool is simple to understand and quite easy to use, if
executed incorrectly, can be crushing to your ego. But, what the
hay—as a leader, it is your job to leave your ego at the door when you
come to work each day.
The Value
The
important value you will receive from this tool is that of knowing what
perceptions your employees hold about you and their work environment. I
absolutely believe that in every company—no matter how caring toward
employees—exists a metaphorical two-story outhouse. Since we all know
what flows downhill, your concern needs to be that of determining how to
dismantle or tear down this barrier between you and your employees, no
matter how inconsequential you believe it to be. Learning the
perceptions of your employees is key to bettering the work environment
for them. It is also true for creating an open door safety net that will
allow employees to operate in an environment that encourages them point
out overlooked mistakes before they become costly catastrophes.
The Tool
The brief description
of this tool is to sit down with your key employees, department heads or
executive team—one at a time—and ask them to share with you three
things that they do not like about how you manage them and the
organization. Then to ask them to share with you three things they do
like.
A Word of Caution
In order for you to
successfully use this tool you need to realize that your employees will
be very skeptical at first. They will wonder what’s gotten into
you—what’s your true motivation in asking these questions? Also, you
must be aware of the fact that they will “feel the water before
jumping in” meaning that they will test you first before they will
share their true perceptions. With this being stated, be cautious to
only thank them for their answers rather than to question or challenge
their answers in a knee-jerk fashion. If you do not understand what they
are saying, it is okay to ask for clarification but any comment other
than a “Thank you” will greatly diminish your employees’
willingness to take a risk and tell you the truth.
Tool Implementation
Select the employee
with whom you believe you have the best relationship for your first go
at the Three on Three. Do this because you will be the most at
ease with this person. After your first success, each consecutive
session gets easier to conduct.
- Find
a neutral location (your office is unacceptable) and sit them down
in a relaxed atmosphere.
- Tell
your employee that you have a desire to improve your management
style and the work environment for all the employees.
- Ask
them for their help in honestly answering some questions.
- Insure
them that nothing they say will ever be held against them in the
future.
- Now
ask them to share three things with you that they don’t like about
your management style or the work environment. Remember, the first
answer is testing the water so even if you feel like you’ve just
been stabbed in the heart, you must only reply with, “Thank
you.”
- Repeat
step #5 two more times. Generally, the second or perhaps third
response is where you hit gold and get some real feedback.
- In
a sincere manner, tell them that you will work on what they said and
that you will get back to them in a week or two to discuss what you
have done about the items they shared.
- Now
you can ask for three things they do like about your
management style and the work environment. Again, only respond with,
“Thank you.” This is not the time to puff up your chest and talk
about your greatness.
- After
the third positive response assure them that you are going to try to
do more of those things in the future.
- The
master key to this whole process is that you MUST get back
with this employee in the week or two that you promised and have
completed some definitive action toward improvement on at least one
of the items they shared with you as being a problem—an action
toward all three issues is optimal.
Do this Three on
Three process with your key people at least twice a year—quarterly
is better—and at this time next year, I guarantee that you will have
noticed results.
To
access helpful additional information from Ed Rigsbee at no charge,
please visit www.rigsbee.com/downloadaccess.htm.
# # #
Ed Rigsbee, CSP is the author of PartnerShift,
Developing Strategic Alliances
and The Art of Partnering. Rigsbee has over 1,000 published articles to
his credit and is a regular keynote presenter at corporate and trade
association conferences across North America. He can be reached at
800-839-1520, ed@rigsbee.com, or
visit www.rigsbee.com.
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