What increases the likelihood that your employees will jump out of bed and say, “Cool – I get to go to work today!”?  You can look to the research from any of the big companies to determine a course of action.

You can buy your employees this alarm clock that will get them out of bed.

Or.  I offer up 3 simple things to make sure you have in place that will enable your employees to get out of bed in the morning and fully show up.

1.  Vision. Where are you headed?  What are you about? More importantly, how do your employees fit into helping accomplish this – everyday?  Leaders need to be spearheads of creating and articulating the vision.  Great leaders are going to take the time to share this, and fold in how you and I contribute.  Everyone.  The person in the mail room all the way to the person in the board room.  Everyone!

2.  Competence.  Can I perform the tasks I’m assigned in way that instills confidence in me and my clients?  It’s about a great job-person fit.  Or better yet, Organization-person fit.   I love the stories I’d hear about Southwest hiring for attitudes.  Boil down what’s most important – the skill set you can’t give on – and go after that.  When people are competent they gain confidence.  Confidence leads to a higher sense of personal mastery.

3.  Clear R&R. When you can have a crystal clear understanding of roles and responsibilities you gain even a better understanding of what’s expected.  A set of undeniable expectations help employees succeed.  It also provides a framework for leaders around feedback, development and coaching.  What do we need to do? And for who?  Clear R&R plays a key role in setting priorities for the organization.  In a time when many are being asked to do more with less – stakes in the ground around what’s important is needed to drive the work towards producing results. If every thing is important – than nothing is important.

Well, there’s always the roll away clock.

Getting feedback can be vital to growth and development.  Many managers don’t give feedback (1) often enough, or (2) in a way in which people can hear it.  Some managers don’t like to get feedback themselves and therefore, when they dole it out their staff really don’t want to hear it.  As a manager, someone responsible for the development of their employees, it’s important to also be open to receiving feedback. Try using the Coach Approach to giving and receiving feedback.

Next time you have a one-on-one with an employee (I hope you ARE having these), and you want to give some feedback how about starting your conversation like this?

Let’s talk about the communications project you recently completed.  On a scale of 1 – 10 (1 low, 10 high) how did it go?

When the employee gives a number, ask “What would have made it a 10?” And then listen, really listen.  You might also be able to add your input, but this comes after your employee has had a chance to tell you some ways in which they could’ve made it a 1o.

Now, what’s going to make this dialogue even better is when your employee has a higher level of trust with you.  How do you increase your trust? Simple.  Start asking for feedback yourself.  And use the Coach Approach.  I heard a story from a coach who used this with his son.  He’d routinely check-in and ask, “So Johnny, on a scale of 1-10 how was I as a dad today?”  Gutsy, right?  Yep!  You need to be open to what the number is – and following up by asking, “what would have made you say 10?”

Ask the question.

Be open to the response.

And see what you might be able to do differently next time.

On a scale of 1-10, how useful is this method for you in getting feedback?

(What would have made it a 10?)