Even though the tools I will be sharing with you are widely used by most managers, I still recommend exploring our tool library to find other options that might be a perfect fit for your needs or can be customized to suit your requirements.

• OKRs: Managers often set Objectives and Key Results on an annual basis, and we have two top choices for this.
• Employee Performance Reviews: Providing clarity on what is expected from each employee is crucial for team empowerment. Employee performance reviews offer an easy way to provide feedback on teamwork, objectives, and more.
• KEAP for Hiring: KEAP is designed to assess candidates fairly based on the skills and capabilities needed for the role. In here you see all the skills and capabilities that are important for the role. All organized based on the importance of those skills.
• One on ones and coaching sessions: There’s a versatile tool for one-on-ones that’s incredibly popular, so let me start with that one and then introduce a few others that can be helpful in specific situations.
• Team Building Workshop.
• Team Culture Discussion.
• Thriving teams survey: (Team Survey) This Survey helps you assess areas requiring improvement for your team to thrive.
• Thriving teams workshop.
• Team onboarding.
• Candidate Interview Questions (Hiring Tools).

Templates and tools empowers managers to work more efficiently, maintain consistency and accuracy, save time, enhance the quality of their work, make informed decisions, foster collaboration, and adapt to changing business needs.

These resources are essential for modern managers striving for effective and successful leadership in their organizations.

Let’s go over the details.

Leading a team is one of the most fulfilling activities, but it also adds a lot of complexity to your day-to-day tasks and a lot more workload. It is very normal to often feel like you don’t have time and that your team is always asking for more feedback and clarity. In many ways, leadership is an exercise in continuous improvement and constant iteration.

To simplify some of the activities you may have to do as a leader, we have created a simple list. We are sharing a template with you, explaining how and when you can implement each activity to make the whole process easier to manage.

#1 — Monthly Priorities

Discussing monthly priorities can help teams gain clarity and focus on the things that matter without getting distracted by all the new tasks added to their plate. The monthly priority meeting should be defined by you as a manager. Based on the company goals, you should start by selecting the 1 or 2 urgent tasks that need immediate attention and the 2 or 3 priorities for the month, along with their deliverables. This meeting is not for discussing tasks or details but for identifying key deliverables that must be completed by the end of the month.

During the meeting, as the manager, you open the discussion on these priorities and deliverables. The team can mention additional tasks they have and potential priorities that may create conflicts or dependencies. The core objective is to discuss these priorities as a team and create a list of deliverables everyone feels comfortable with.

Templates and tools empowers managers to work more efficiently, maintain consistency and accuracy, save time, enhance the quality of their work, make informed decisions, foster collaboration, and adapt to changing business needs.

These resources are essential for modern managers striving for effective and successful leadership in their organizations.

Let’s go over the details.

Leading a team is one of the most fulfilling activities, but it also adds a lot of complexity to your day-to-day tasks and a lot more workload. It is very normal to often feel like you don’t have time and that your team is always asking for more feedback and clarity. In many ways, leadership is an exercise in continuous improvement and constant iteration.

To simplify some of the activities you may have to do as a leader, we have created a simple list. We are sharing a template with you, explaining how and when you can implement each activity to make the whole process easier to manage.

#1 — Monthly Priorities

• What to expect: As the month progresses, priorities may change. If that happens, the team can come to you to discuss and clarify priorities.
• What not to do: Do not write tasks or to-dos during this meeting. The team should manage those outside the meeting. Focus on deliverables or results. For example, if you need to conduct research to deliver a report next month, note the research as a priority but do not list individual tasks like finding competitors or scheduling interview calls. These are steps that lead to the deliverable but are not deliverables themselves.

What else?

Who owns it: Each team member should own their deliverables for the month. They are responsible for reaching out when they are blocked, finding information, creating task lists, managing their tasks, contacting stakeholders, and asking for help when needed without remaining blocked.

#2 — Roles and Responsibilities

This is not always necessary, but in some cases, especially when the company goes through many changes or involves many people in the process, some responsibilities may become confusing. This can lead to team members feeling unsure and thinking they are doing tasks that should be someone else’s responsibility. This confusion can create conflicts and leave a bad impression among team members.

To address this, write down all the deliverables and activities needed for the team to achieve results. These can be simple tasks like reporting on results, adding meeting notes and decisions to a document, or creating presentations.

Roles and responsibilities can be defined in various formats and places. In our team, we use the RACI chart, but we have expanded it because we found it was limited for our needs.

We explain this in our video. Our CEO has done a fantastic job of sharing the tool and template on our platform, Nova, to make it available.

The acronym RACI stands for the four roles that stakeholders might play at any point in a project.

• Responsible: The person(s) who do the work to achieve the task.
• Accountable: The person who is ultimately answerable for the correct completion of the task.
• Consulted: Those whose opinions are sought (typically subject matter experts).
• Informed: Those who are kept up-to-date on progress and outcomes.

To these 4 roles I am adding 3 more. You can use them if you think those are helpful. Watch the video for more information. (RACIPAL)

#3 — Individual Goals or OKRs

Often, you want to define clear goals for each of your employees. Defining those goals or objectives with the team can take different shapes and be done in various ways. For example, you can use our OKRs template. We often prefer to keep it simpler by defining all the key objectives and giving our team the opportunity to measure their own success while we do the same. This allows us to use the goals for feedback and to discuss ways to nurture their growth and potential learning opportunities.

Goals should not only help employees understand their main priorities for the year but also provide an easy way to measure their success. If their goals change over the year, remember to update them, ensuring they remain aligned with the company’s goals.

— Tool: Employee OO. (Objectives & Obligations)

This tool was created so that you can also use it to provide feedback and as a performance review tool at the end of the year. The tool is great because it is easy to use, lets you add notes on the status of things, and allows the employee to evaluate their own performance before you provide feedback.

— Tool: RPO Employees

Similar to the previous one, but it includes a section where company objectives and overall company values are mentioned. It provides more opportunities to discuss with the employee how they positively affect those company goals.

— Tool: Goals & Milestones

The tool shown below is probably the easiest to use. It simplifies the process by describing the overall goal and the main four goals for the employee. At the bottom, after having a meeting to discuss progress, you can add your notes and define the status and overall performance.

Learn more watching this video

#4 — 1 on 1s

One-on-ones are a wonderful way to spend time with your team, get to know them, learn what excites them, understand what blocks them, how they like to work, what keeps them up at night, what makes their work more difficult, and how you can help them. Most importantly, these meetings allow you to “get to know them” so you can better enable and support them.

Our leaders have a few favorite tools to manage one-on-ones and to prepare for them easily. These tools provide sample questions and frameworks to start the conversation and keep all your notes in one place.

Here are a few tools that we recommend.

— Tool: 1-on-1 Basic Check-in

One-on-ones are excellent opportunities to connect with your team, assess progress, understand their feelings, and foster growth. Here are the basic questions you should ask at least every three to six months:

The first question should help you gauge their emotional state. Do they feel overwhelmed? Are they happy and excited about their role and the company? Explore these questions to understand their mindset. Next, ask about who they have helped and how proactive they have been. This ensures employees recognize the importance of assisting other departments and being proactive beyond their ongoing priorities.

This tool provides the framework to ask all these questions.

There are other ways to approach one-on-ones. For example, you may want to encourage your team to bring their own topics to the table. You can ask, “What would you like to bring to this meeting today?” and let them own their growth. If that is the case, this tool may give you the flexibility you are looking for while allowing you to keep your notes private.

— Tool: 1-on-1 TFN

One-on-ones can take a lot of time to set up and organize, especially when managing a large team. If that is true, make sure you use the functionality of recurring sessions. Set up a session for each employee and choose how many times and how often it repeats. This will automatically set up the template, organize your notes by dates, and schedule it for your team.

If you are not using Nova, find a tool that can do something similar.

#5 — Team retrospectives

Team retrospectives are popular among product teams and are becoming increasingly common across various industries and departments. They are a great way to have quick conversations about improvements, blockers, and successes.

Team retrospectives usually happen on a recurring basis. As a manager, you might run them just twice a year, depending on the time available and the other activities led by different leaders and team members. For example, our product team holds retrospectives after delivering a feature, and we have high-level retrospectives twice a year.

Typical Questions During a Team Retrospective:

• What went well? Identify the practices and processes that are working well and should be continued.
• What should be improved or changed? Determine what is not working well, identify blockers or slow-downs, and decide what needs to change or stop.
• What else should we do? Consider new actions or experiments that could be beneficial or fill a missing need.

Additional Questions:
– What are you most proud of?
– What have you learned, and what are the main results?
– Who helped you during the process?
– What can we automate or simplify?

There are hundreds of tools and well-known templates for running team retrospectives. You can conduct them using whiteboards or traditional sessions, all of which can be collaborative and even done asynchronously.

Here is a quick video for more information.

If you are not using Nova, find a tool that can do something similar.

Watch the video here.

#6 — Team surveys

Understanding how a group of people feel and their key concerns can often remain invisible to you as a manager. People may not always feel comfortable talking about challenges with coworkers or other issues, and they may not be able to identify exactly what isn’t working. Team surveys help you get a general overview of how teams feel, what is working, and what isn’t. This is important because what people say and how they feel can be very different. While surveys are anonymous, the goal is not to identify individuals but to understand the challenges the team is facing and the areas that are working well.

Team surveys are often used to discuss improvement plans and explore better ways to do things. There are multiple ways to conduct team surveys. You might do this once a year, have a quick survey with just 3–4 questions that you send monthly, or send one after a specific project.

At Nova, we send one longer survey per year and another shorter mid-year survey with just four questions. The long survey evaluates the 12 dimensions of a healthy team and includes multiple questions. It is more in-depth and is used to discuss overall improvement company-wide. The smaller survey is sent to different departments or groups to evaluate how things are going on a smaller scale and to check in case we are missing any issues. This approach helps us spot challenges that team members are facing and solve them.

— Tool: Team pulse survey

A team pulse survey is a quick survey used to measure two or three areas within a small group to identify potential gaps and track overall team health over time. Because it is so short, companies use it on a recurring basis to monitor their team’s health and see if any new implementations are affecting the team negatively.

These are often scheduled and ongoing, sometimes even include a point system.

— Tool: Team survey (Thriving teams survey)

A team survey is often used once or twice a year to monitor multiple areas that are important for company and team success. These surveys typically include between 10 to 20 questions and are usually shared with large groups or company-wide, such as by department.

These surveys inform the management team about how things are going and must be evaluated to identify potential issues that need urgent support.

They should also be used to discuss and continuously improve the company’s overall approach to work, culture, and team activities to promote health.

For example, after conducting a survey, our team always discusses the 12 dimensions of happy teams. We identify the two areas that need the most attention and decide on activities to improve them. This discussion happens annually and helps us continuously improve.

Here is a quick video with more information:

#7 — Feedback

When providing feedback to the team, whether they do a good job or need improvement, it is essential for their growth and capacity to understand what is expected of them. Feedback is so crucial that it has become one of the most requested things by new generations in the workplace. They want to get feedback and be recognized for their work.

There are multiple ways to provide feedback:

1. Personal Feedback: This can be done by contacting them via Slack or during a meeting and providing feedback.
2. Public Recognition: Positive feedback can be made public. For example, at our company, we have a Kudos channel in Slack where we share gratitude with team members and mention achievements.

From there you have different ones:

• Work-Based Feedback: When an employee shares some of the work they have done, you can provide feedback on things that can be done better and things that are done well.
• Feedback Walls: These are spaces created for each team member where leaders or all team members can leave feedback. It’s a wall that captures all the feedback received during a specific period. It can be initiated by the employee or the manager. In our team, we like to ask employees to own their growth and encourage them to be curious. They are the ones who need to ask for feedback with intention, such as “What is the one thing I could do better that will help you?” or “What is the mistake that I keep making?”
• Project-Level Feedback: We have a tool called “Do I have spinach in my teeth?” where team members ask for feedback in a healthy way, understanding that if things are not improved, it’s like letting someone go to a party with spinach on their teeth.

#8 — Issues/Wins Tracking

When there are certain incidents, issues, or even great performances by employees, as a manager or HR person, you want to keep track of those and make sure they are accessible if something else happens. Keeping a track record of incidents is especially important, but we should not forget the good results either.

To do that, we have a few tools that are accessible at Nova.

— Tools: Performance or Incident Note or Feedback Notes for Employees

#9 — Performance Reviews

A performance review, or performance evaluation, sometimes shortened to “PA”, is a periodic and systematic process whereby the job performance of an employee is documented and evaluated. The performance review is a crucial part of the ongoing dialogue between managers and employees that usually happens once a year. It summarizes ongoing performance and development conversations and provides a record of past performance and expectations for work moving forward. Many employees think that performance reviews are directly associated with salary reviews, but that is an assumption made in the past few years. The performance review is really a tool for the employee to continuously learn and improve and have a way to self-reflect. It’s also an opportunity for the employee to understand where they thrive and which areas they seem to be naturally good at, what we will call their strengths or superpowers, and which areas are needed for the role but need attention or improvement. In some cases, it helps spotlight potential new career paths or areas in which the employee needs to grow to move forward in the next step of their career.

On top of that, it is an opportunity for the manager to evaluate how they can leverage those superpowers and give the employee more opportunities to shine and grow. It also opens a line of communication to discuss career growth expectations.

But what is a good way to provide feedback, and how should you manage this process as a manager?

We will be sharing some tips based on our processes internally and what works for us. Where should you start? In our team, we approach performance reviews in two different ways depending on the role. In some cases, we share key objectives with the employee at the beginning of the year, and of course, those can change as we can’t predict all the challenges along the way. In some cases, because the role is more focused on hitting certain responsibilities, we share a clear sheet with responsibilities and expected deliverables. The team knows how they are going to be evaluated. For example, we mention that all team members get feedback at the end of the year not only based on their performance and how they have achieved their yearly objectives but also we measure things like accountability, teamwork, collaboration and cooperation, problem-solving, and autonomy, etc. This is key because our employees should be able to know how we measure success as a company and as a team.

Next, they need a 360 performance review. That means that the way we approach feedback is by diversifying performance improvements based on the different areas that affect the performance of an employee. In our case, we evaluate the following:

• Team environment: What can we change or improve in the team environment that will enable this employee? What type of feedback can other team members provide that will help this team member?
• Leadership: What can we do better as leaders to help them improve?
• Individual: What do they have to change?
• Processes: What processes can be improved to better enable the team, provide more autonomy, create a fair and transparent workspace, and build trust?

To mention just a few, but you can view and learn about some of the other options if you watch our video.

The next step is self-assessment.

What we like to call “finding blind spots.” All our managers have to ask employees the following questions: “What do you think you are doing exceptionally well? Where do you think you can improve? Where do you think you should put more effort?” or sometimes ask directly about what they think about their performance on specific objectives. Understanding the employee’s perception of how they are performing will give you a general idea of how they feel, what areas they seem motivated to improve, and which areas seem to be their blind spots. Those are areas that have to be discussed during the improvement performance meeting, as this usually means that employees are not prioritizing those areas, may need training, or may need support.

Next, or while the previous step is happening, we ask peers to provide feedback about each team member, also known as peer reviews.

Peer Reviews.

Managers can’t be everywhere all the time (and shouldn’t be). Successful organizations have managers that act as facilitators, coaches, process and knowledge enablers, but not day-to-day peers. In fact, peers often have a unique vantage point to share insights and ideas about what that employee can improve. Often recognition can mean a lot more when it comes from peers because they are the people they work with on a daily basis, and peers are often the ones that identify and suffer from gaps and underperforming team members.

Now, the next step is extremely encouraged. For example, we often ask our team to provide feedback to their leaders. This is a process that can help not only give visibility to the manager on what the team needs from them and a way to learn but also encourage fair feedback. In this case, where the employee gets a chance to provide feedback in return and is not only getting feedback from the manager, it creates an opportunity for healthy dialogue where both the leader and the employee approach feedback with curiosity, growth mindset, and without ego.

Now let’s discuss the details of providing feedback during the performance review meeting.

During this meeting, the manager should ideally have all the objectives and responsibilities measured and have written all the details or areas that have to be measured. On top of that, they can even include some notes about behavior, attitude, and other related things, and can even add feedback from other team members. This is a document that can be shared with the employee but also with the HR team. It’s there to guide the conversation. In our case, our team shares this after the meeting, as often notes are taken and added right after. That conversation can start by mentioning all the achievements, then going over key objectives for the year and discussing those. For example, asking “How would you say your performance was during that project?” “What do you think you could have done better?” “What were you proud of or what was an exciting challenge?”

Then you can go over the areas that need improvement based on your observations or the team’s observations. Try as much as possible to be specific on the matter.

Discuss other areas like attitude and behavior, and think about what should be changed, what should continue, and what they should focus on next. By the end, provide clarity on areas of improvement and recommend potential activities and actions that can be taken to improve, from recommending books and training to weekly discussions.

#10 — Career Growth Plans

The career growth plan can start and be done in multiple ways, but it usually includes the career path plan. This is a document or something similar that illustrates the potential growth of a role inside and outside the organization. It includes details about what is needed to be able to move into a new position.

Often, this is also given to the employee with a career development plan, which is a space for the employee to conduct their own self-assessment and includes your recommendations.

Let us walk you through some tips.

#11 — Meeting notes

When discussing multiple things across team members and projects, it is normal to lose track of where things were left and what decisions were made. Having a good method to keep all decisions in one place is key. In our team, we like to have a Decision Log session per project or deliverable. The session is open to capture decisions over time.

We use it so that if any decisions are made during a meeting or even during a Slack conversation that leads to changes or improvements, they need to be saved there, including how this new decision affects everything and what the potential next steps are.

— Tool: Decision Log.

Decisions can make or break a project. Stakeholders have a vested interest in the decisions that have been made. Just as they are updated regularly with stakeholder presentations and status reports, a decision log explains why decisions were made and who authorized them. Use a log whenever there’s a key decision made in the project, whether those are mentioned during a meeting or through a Slack message or email. Chances are, stakeholders will get upset at some point and demand to know why certain actions were taken. The decision log is a way to communicate and monitor those decisions and also support the rationale behind them.

Meetings are a bit like a thermometer. They help you evaluate how healthy your organization is, how well your organization is adopting new technology, and how easily you can scale.

Here are a few questions that can help you evaluate what meetings are revealing about your productivity and organizational health.

• How many meetings do you have per week to check in on progress?
• Do you use your 1-on-1s to discuss the progress of things?
• Do you have a way to check progress without adding a meeting to the calendar?
• How often do you have meetings to explain the process and what is expected from people?
• How easy is it for you (if you are a manager) to delegate work?
• How often do people need to redo work because it wasn’t what you needed or expected?
• How often do you have or join meetings where you don’t say a word? Are we talking about one a month or four a week?
• How often do you go to meetings where you are sharing or someone else is sharing just information, and your participation is not required? Are we talking about one a month or two a week?
• How often do you come across a challenge and need to discuss it with a few people, and you can’t chat about it within the next two hours or the same day because their calendars are fully booked, so you put things on hold?

Let’s discuss a few of those questions.

For instance, having too many check-in meetings can be a symptom of a few things, such as a lack of trust between the manager and the team, a lack of processes in place to guide the team and ensure they know what the expectations are, or even a lack of digitalization.

Companies may not be using technology to track progress and have to depend on meetings, but this is key.

Another example is the use of meetings to share information or updates where there is no collaboration between team members or stakeholders, but the only objective is to inform. Often, this is a symptom of bad habits and a lack of digitalization.

Sometimes, this implies that there are no processes in place to track “who has read it or watched it,” and meetings end up being the only way to do that. Even if that means that people are just “present” while doing other things during the meeting. This is so common that it has become normal.

In how many of your meetings today did you not say more than 2 words?

Another example is the constant use of meetings to share proposals, ideas, new designs, or new strategies, whether the goal is to get them approved, get feedback, or gather information from stakeholders. These meetings tend to be ineffective in a live format, as people usually need time to digest the information. Many negative things can happen as a result, but this is a symptom of a lack of trust, lack of digitalization, and lack of processes — to mention just a few.

Additionally, we see that very few organizations have quick calls to troubleshoot a problem or have changed some of their meetings to workshops. We have found that teams manage their work and time based on their meetings. So, if they have something important to solve, they often don’t just call the team and add a quick meeting to their calendar because there is no time available. This leads to the inability to adapt to what is important now and puts things on hold. These are the meetings (workshops and troubleshooting meetings) that we should be having more of as they bring instant progress — but instead, we are spending a lot of time checking in and sharing information when that should be done asynchronously.

So let’s discuss a few of the things you can do:

1. Leverage technology to track progress. It’s important that you know if things are done or in progress without having to depend on a meeting or without having to send a message. To start, you can use any task management platform.
2. Document and track of how decisions are made over time and how stakeholders are involved in each decision. You can do that by organizing your projects and documents effectively and defining a process for it or using tools like Nova.
3. Move some of your meetings asynchronously. You can start simple, like moving all your check-ins into a message, where a team member sends the team or client an email with all the updates. Ideally, this is not done manually. You can also move your informative meetings asynchronously by using a tool like Loom or any other video recording tool. You can also keep track of who has watched it and make it more interactive by using Nova [watch this quick video]— and you can move a lot of your meetings asynchronously with tools like Nova.

Do you spend your entire day in meetings, wondering how you’ll find time to get things done?

You’re not alone!

However, let me clarify, meetings themselves aren’t the issue. Meetings play a crucial role in bringing teams together and facilitating progress. The problem lies in how we’ve been using them lately — excessively and inefficiently.

So, let’s examine your calendar and review the various meetings you have.

• One on ones: These are excellent meetings for establishing a connection between two people, especially when working remotely and social interactions are limited. Leave these as traditional meetings or go out for coffee whenever you have a chance to build a stronger relationship with your team.
• Workshops and Team Building Meetings: These meetings are valuable for fostering teamwork and often involve hands-on activities that engage everyone’s minds. Well facilitated, this workshop and team buildings will help you build a workplace where people want to work.
• Check-Ins: Consider how frequently you meet with your team to assess progress. Some check-in meetings can potentially be moved to asynchronous formats, and I’ll show you how shortly. To give you an example, at Nova we only have one check-in meeting a month using this tool, the rest of check-in meetings are done asynchronously.
• Team Formation or Planning: Meetings of this nature are essential for discussing and devising plans collaboratively. They provide opportunities to define roles, responsibilities, and identify areas where the team may require additional support or anticipate challenges.

For all these meetings, except check-ins, it’s often best to keep them as they are. Ensure that these meetings include an agenda and have a facilitator or leader to guide discussions and achieve meeting goals effectively.

Now, certain meetings occur regularly and can be effectively shifted to asynchronous formats, often working better than traditional meetings because it lets participants have a bit more time to digest information and provide well-thought input.

Here are the meetings that you can move to asynchronous formats:

• Informative Meetings: Meetings where one person shares updates or information about a topic or project and may conclude with a few questions or seek feedback on how participants feel about it. This meeting can be conducted asynchronously.
• Feedback and Approval Meetings: Teams often spend a significant amount of time requesting feedback or approvals from managers or team members, or even clients. However, these meetings can be ineffective because people struggle to digest information in a way that allows them to provide valuable feedback. This leads to more meetings, more emails and more questions.
• Document Approval: Often, team members ask managers or clients to review and approve documents, and these requests can get delayed or lost.
• Idea Feedback.

In this video I will be walking you through each type of meetings and how you can work asynchronously.

Changing your business culture to be more productive is a deliberate choice. Even agencies working extensively with clients have managed to reduce the number of meetings without compromising collaboration or productivity. It’s a matter of making that choice and implementing a few small changes initially. Once everyone becomes familiar with this way of working, scaling and achieving results become more attainable.

To start choose one or two types of meetings and move them asynchronously and then keep adapting overtime.

For further tips, please follow our blog and our social media channels, where we regularly share tips about productivity, innovation and collaboration.

Meetings have become essential for any role, and having strong skills and understanding how to best run productive meetings can help you improve how you work, save you time, enhance your relationships with coworkers and how they perceive you, improve your output, and even access more and better career opportunities.

This skill is not just about being able to share a good story (storytelling) or creating a good presentation/deck; what makes a meeting productive is the ability of the person leading the meeting to achieve the meeting objectives efficiently. In other words, having one meeting to accomplish the objective and making decisions during that meeting is better than having two meetings to discuss the same thing and still needing to chat on Slack about it for a week.

However, even facilitating meetings is a key skill; the majority of us haven’t been trained to be good at it, so we often make the same mistakes everyone makes because we have learn by mimicking our leaders.

So we often make these mistakes:

• We tend to start the meeting by sharing the agenda but don’t often share or clarify what the objective of the meeting is.
• We often share information (proposals, designs, strategies, updates…) and ask people to ask questions or raise their hands if they have any additional comments.

“Do you have any questions or comments?”

This is very similar to what we have seen in our school. The teacher shares information, and people have a chance to ask questions. It also follows traditional organizational hierarchy — where “the boss” used to be the one making decisions. So he/she would be presenting and then just letting everyone else ask questions.

This traditional way to lead meetings ….are just not aligned with the way we work anymore. Especially for knowledge workers and specialists, where each person (or stakeholder) in the meeting is there because they bring certain knowledge, perspectives, ideas, etc., to the table. So what you want is to leverage that!

To help organizations and teams have access to a training course that anyone can watch to improve their facilitation skills, our team has decided to start a training course on YouTube.

We wanted to make it accessible to everyone and ensure individuals and teams can use it to train their teams and ensure they have the basic skills to lead productive meetings. So this post can be shared with your team, or you can copy the links from the videos and make your own onboarding or training course for your team.

Intro

1. What Meetings Reveal About Your Productivity and Organizational Health

Run Productive Meetings

1. What to Do and What Not to Do During Meetings.
2. How to Run a Productive Meeting.
3. How to Run a Productive Meeting — A Practical Framework That Your Team will Remember. The OFQ Meeting Framework.
4. How to Encourage Your Team to Get Better? They can Ask for Feedback Like This! Learn About PI Meetings.

Move your meetings Async. Less meetings, more productivity: Get things done!

1. What Meetings Can You Move Async?
2. How to Move Your Informative Meetings Async?
3. How Can You Move 30%-60% of Your Meetings Async?

You can access the training program here for free. 

You can also begin by familiarizing yourself with the QFQ Meeting framework, a simple system that outlines three fundamental rules for all meetings. These rules are easy for your team to memorize and learn – and you can set the precedent by being the first to follow them (leading by example). The framework concentrates on aspects that can readily improve your meetings, making them more productive and engaging. Over the last three years, our team has tested these principles with multiple organizations, effectively evaluating their positive effects. Watch the video below to learn more.

One-on-one meetings with direct reports often feel disorganized and even a bit strange.

It’s important to check in regularly with each of your employees, but how can you make the best use of the time? How can you make the meetings about their growth? How can you better support them? What do you need to change as the manager, and what do you need to ask your direct report to do differently as well?

Experts say that your main goal as a manager during these one-on-ones is to show your “commitment to helping them develop and grow,” while also “bringing the organizational perspective to the table and thinking about how best you can work side-by-side with this person to get things done while ensuring the organization also achieves its goals”

Recommendations: 

• 2 Essential Frameworks for Effective One-on-One Meetings
• Mastering Mentorship Management — with the STEER Framework
• One-on-Ones: Building Stronger Team Connections

Hiring and onboarding can be challenging, especially because it doesn’t always happen at the most convenient time. It often takes longer and involves more work than expected.

As a manager, it can consume a lot of your time.

I believe managers and HR teams need clarity on the skills and competencies candidates must possess. These should be evaluated based on the tasks they will actually perform 60–80% of the time. Achieving this clarity begins with defining a framework for everyone involved in the process.

Looking for the ideal candidate for your company? The key lies in asking the right questions during interviews!

By delving into the individual beyond their resume, you can assess whether they possess the suitable personality for the job and whether they will flourish in your company culture. Don’t pass up the chance to genuinely understand your candidates — incorporate these questions into your interview process and manage the whole process easily.

Best Interview Questions

Screen Call Questions:

1. Can you tell me a bit about yourself and your professional background?
2. How do your skills and experience align with the requirements for this position?
3. Tell me a little bit about your experience in [X]?
4. What are your salary expectations for this role?
5. What is your availability for interviews and potential start dates?

Interview Questions:

General questions to learn about the candidate.

1. Introduce yourself: Tell me about yourself. Maybe add: 👉What are your greatest strengths? What do you consider to be your weaknesses?
2. What do most people get wrong about [business/marketing/product…]?
3. How do you handle unexpected changes or challenges? or Tell me about a time when you were under extreme pressure and remained calm and focused at work.
4. At times, you may be asked to do many things at once. Tell me how you would decide what is most important and why.
5. What’s your motivation for choosing to leave your current employer? or What are you looking for in a new position?
6. If you could have a superpower, what would it be? 🤓
7. What was the last gift you gave? 👾
8. What is your proudest achievement outside of your career?
9. Are you a hunter or gatherer?

Accountability Questions:

1. Tell me about a time when you had to deliver on a commitment that was difficult for you. What did you do to motivate yourself?
2. Have you ever been in a situation where your role or responsibilities haven’t been clearly defined? What did you do?
3. Tell me about a time when you felt compelled to immediately address a difficult situation with your boss or supervisor when others wouldn’t. (You had to do the right thing). What happened? What was the outcome?
4. Describe a situation in which you forecasted a problem and prepared a strategy for handling it. How did it turn out?
5. We can sometimes recognize a small problem and fix it before it becomes a major problem. Give an example of how you acted to prevent a larger problem from occurring.

Teamwork Questions:

1. Tell me about a time when someone else neglected or failed to deliver on their work commitments — and it had a negative impact on your productivity. How did you react?
2. Describe a time when you put your needs aside to help a co-worker understand a task. How did you assist them? What was the result?
3. Tell me about a time when you improved a process by creating a cross-functional team. What was the issue, and how did it turn out?

Communication Questions:

1. At times your workload may feel unmanageable. Describe a time when you recognized that you were unable to meet multiple deadlines. What did you do about it?

Problem Solving Questions:

1. How many balloons could fit on a Tesla?
2. How would you describe the taste of salt to someone who has never had it?
3. If given no other choice, would you rather fight one duck the size of a horse or 100 duck-sized horses?
4. In terms of square feet, how much pizza do people eat each year in the U.S.?

Learning and Adaptability Questions:

1. Describe your biggest failure related to your respective field. 👉
2. Tell me about a time when you used creativity to overcome a dilemma. 🤞
3. What’s the best idea you’ve come up with on a team-based project? 💥

At the same time, if you are managing an interview process, you know how difficult it is to manage all that process. Sometimes you want to get your team involved in the process or the HR manager or the leadership team is involved; sometimes the process is just complex, includes multiple interviews, multiple steps, and you have way too many candidates to evaluate. It’s never easy to manage all of that effectively. If you are looking for some tips and solutions, you can stay on this post and read further; if this is not a problem for you, we hope the list of questions provided above was helpful. Please share your favorite questions with our community in the comments below so we can all ask the right questions.🤞

When Managing a Complex Hiring Process:

When managing a complex hiring process with multiple interviews, a lot of candidates on the backlog, and maybe even a lot of team members that are involved in the interview process, it’s not easy to manage the process, know what’s done for each candidate, what are the notes from each interview, and even have a cohesive framework where all team members involved are evaluating candidates fairly and based on key competencies for the role.

If this resonates with you and your team, you may want to leverage a visual process, where you can see how the process starts. For example, you can see what the key competencies needed for the role are; you will have the first questions the team will have to ask during the first call, and then even each candidate that has passed the first screen call and will move to the first round of interviews. In there, the team can even have the questions ready and a way to evaluate the candidate as a collective. Also holds all notes from all interviewers.

Also, it provides even templates for parts of the process when the candidate doesn’t move forward and when the candidate actually does. Like the email they will receive so the team just has to copy and paste this and send the email or automate this on the platform they use to accept and decline resumes.

Every year when we define our objectives. We ask each department to define their action plan, their commitments, and their team norms.

This is something that helps us create a plan and especially helps us create the environment and mental models to work with clarity and velocity.

You start by adding or defining your company vision and mission.

Step 1: Define your Vision & Company Mission

Think about: ‘What do you want to be? What’s your dream and ambition?’

How is your team going to reach that vision? What motivates you every day?

Your company’s Vision and Mission are going to define everything else. Your team needs to be excited and committed to that vision and mission.

Step 2: Company objectives.

Create a list of objectives. How would your team reach your ‘Vision’? What are your main objectives for the next 12 months? What are the ✔💯 key priorities?

What choices do you need to make based on your strategy, current resources, and vision?

🔥🔥Tips:

• Select 3 to 6 priorities for the year.
• Be specific. Define the objective and key metrics.

If your organization and team is driven by results, metrics should serve as a guiding force. Rather than focusing solely on what needs to be delivered, encourage your team to shape their strategy around achieving specific results, rather than completing a list of tasks. While plans may change, the desired results should remain constant. This can help to ensure that efforts are focused on achieving meaningful outcomes, rather than simply completing actions.

Step 3: Actions.

What needs to be done?

What actions need to be done in the next 90 days to help you achieve those objectives?

What actions need to be done in the next 12 months to help you achieve those objectives?

This will be your action plan and it will include key projects and activities.

Step 4: Define your intentions and commitment.

Now that you’ve identified the actions required to get what you want, you must set intentions to implement them. We call them implementation intentions (also known as commitments)

They are commitments to perform an action at a specific time and location — you specify what you’re going to do when you’re going to do it, and where.

Add each implementation intention should follow this framework:

“I will [ACTION] at [TIME] in [LOCATION].”

Step 5: Values and Principles.

Define your company or team values and work principles. Culture’s values are the ideas and behaviours that determine what is good, right, fair, and just — and ultimately these values and principles should help people make decisions with confidence (having a fair and just system that supports them)

I highly recommend reading this book >>‘ Principles’ by Ray Dalio. My business partner got one for me when we decided to incorporate our business years ago — and today we use some of the principles he highlights inside the book.

Here are a few examples from that 👆👆book that we love:

✔ Perceive and don’t tolerate problems. Inventing and implementing solutions for them — move us forward.

✔ Be loyal to the common mission and not to anyone who is not operating consistently with it.

✔ Don’t let loyalty to people stand in the way of truth and the well-being of the organization.

When stepping into a management role for the first time, one of the biggest challenges is delegation. As you gain experience in your industry, you quickly realize that effective delegation is an art that requires careful planning, clear communication, and well-defined processes.

In this educational blog post, we’ll discuss some of they key tips you need to follow and walk you through the process of building a good structure for your team.

Let’s start with eight most important criteria you should keep in mind:

1. Know Your Team: Get to know your team members, what they’re good at, and what they like. Give them tasks that match their skills.
2. Make Things Clear: When you give someone a task, be very clear about what you want. Tell them what the job is, when it’s due, and why it matters.
3. Define What You Want: If you have specific things in mind, like how the task should be done, be sure to explain it. People have different experiences and ideas, so it’s important to be clear. If you don’t have preferences, say so. It’s frustrating for everyone to redo work because the boss changed their mind.
4. Set Priorities: Before adding more work, think about what’s already on your team’s plate. Help them understand how the new task fits in with everything else. Not everything is equally urgent or important.
5. Define the process and the thinking criteria: Think about how your team works together. Create some basic rules for everyone to follow. It’s like a structural roadmap to help your team work well and understand what needs to be done.
6. Lead by Example: Be a good role model. Speak up, ask questions, and use the company rules. For example, if you set a deadline for your team, stick to it.
7. Trust Your Team: Once you give a task to someone, trust them to finish it. Checking every little thing can make your team unhappy and less productive.
8. Learn from Mistakes: If something goes wrong, figure out how to do better next time.

Now that you have this simple list, let’s see how you can put it into practice.

Many times, as organizations grow and hire more people, they forget to set up good ways to share tasks, make decisions as a team and work together.

Even with a bigger team, the work might not get better or faster, and things might feel more confusing.

To make sure your team can work together and get things done as your group gets bigger, focus on number 5, which is defining the process.

Create some simple rules for how your team works and what’s the thinking criteria.

This won’t take a lot of time, and you already define this on daily and weekly basis whenever you explain things to your team. Now is time to turn your “silo conversations” and emails into processes that will help you scale and delegate.

Understanding the Delegation Dilemma

Delegating work isn’t just about handing them over; it’s about ensuring everyone is on the same page, working efficiently, and making informed decisions collectively.

However, as a manager, you are often held accountable for the success of the team, the department, and the decisions made therein, all of which significantly impact the organization’s success.

It’s not easy to let teams determine what to deliver, how decisions are made, and not have clarity on what is happening, how decisions are reached, or have visibility on progress.

For a good leader to effectively delegate, there must be clarity on decision-making processes, a basic structure defining deliverables, and a common standard of work across all team members, departments, clients, and other stakeholders.

In other words — a process!

While some team members are better at keeping their managers informed, it’s not always that simple. Even with constant communication, the delegation process can fail. Frequent manager-employee communication might make the team member feel micromanaged, eroding trust.

The only way a manager can effectively delegate is by first having a good organization. Ensure your documentation is well-organized so that people can find information easily, including yourself.

Secondly, define your processes. It’s not about specifying every single detail; it’s about outlining what is most likely to be delivered and considered during the process. Define the thinking process and criteria for making decisions.

Think about the emails or Slack messages you send, explaining what your team needs to deliver and the factors they must consider.

For example, perhaps your team always needs to evaluate costs, examine case studies, and factor in delivery costs.

Here lies the dilemma:

Should you continue delegating as you are doing now? This often involves sending various messages, arranging multiple check-in meetings to track progress, and frequently requiring people to redo their work.

Alternatively, should you try delegating effectively? This approach involves fewer messages, fewer check-in meetings, and automatic tracking of progress, decisions, and overall work. The process becomes transparent for everyone involved, enabling smoother collaboration and ensuring tasks are completed with precision and efficiency.

Writer: Ro Fernandez

As a manager, one of the most challenging tasks is to help low-performing team members improve their motivation and skill levels. It’s essential to understand that these team members are still valuable and can contribute significantly to the team’s success with the right guidance. To assist managers in this endeavor, I introduce the CARES framework — a five-step process designed to transform low performers into key contributors.

It’s also important to be aware of what their goals are and their motivations, as certain employees may be just not right for the role or the company and aren’t simply a good fit. I have personally tried to coach a few employees and spent months supporting them, taking away a lot of time from other team members, and it didn’t work out. So I don’t want to say that every time it is possible to improve things with coaching. If someone doesn’t want to improve and is not motivated by the role and the company, they may simply not be the right person for your team.

I am personally someone who will try everything and invest a lot of time and resources on my team but I have learned to also identify when I am just “forcing things” to work.

What is C.A.R.E.S?

CARES stands for Communicate, Accountability, Roadmap, Execution, and Support.

This framework is not another HR-initiated performance improvement program but a managerial tool to help team members enhance their performance without the fear of job loss.

Let’s dive into each step of the CARES framework:

Step 1: Communicate

Effective communication is the foundation of improving performance.

As a manager, you must address performance issues early and clearly, rather than waiting for year-end reviews. Here’s how to communicate effectively:

• Document Performance Issues: Before discussing performance, gather evidence of multiple instances over at least six months. Document the expected results, actual results, and how they relate to performance issues.
• Engage in Dialogue: In the meeting, listen to the team member’s perspective. It’s crucial to have a two-way conversation.
• Summarize and Share: After the discussion, send a summary email or document outlining the issues, agreements, and next steps. This sets a clear tone for the process.

What to Say: “Hi [Team Member], I wanted to discuss your recent performance. Over the past few months, there have been several instances where your work hasn’t met expectations, such as [specific examples]. I’d like to understand your perspective on these issues and work together on a plan to improve.”

Step 2: Accountability

Once performance issues are acknowledged, establish clear accountabilities. Define the specific responsibilities the team member must fulfill to meet their goals.

• Define Responsibilities: Outline clear and specific tasks, such as requirement clarification, timely task completion, and regular updates.
• Agree on Accountability: Ensure the team member understands and agrees to these responsibilities. Adjust if there is any disagreement.
• Document Accountability: Share a written record of the agreed-upon responsibilities.

What to Say: “Let’s clarify your responsibilities. For example, you’ll need to provide requirement clarifications before starting any coding, ensure timely completion of tasks, and regularly update me on any dependencies or issues. Do you agree with these expectations?”

Step 3: Roadmap

Create a detailed roadmap to guide the team member’s improvement journey. The roadmap should include granular tasks and milestones.

• Detail Tasks and Milestones: Break down tasks into manageable steps with clear milestones.
• Set a Timeline: The roadmap should span at least three months to allow for meaningful progress.
• Consider Role Adjustments: If needed, discuss potential role changes within the organization for a better fit.

What to Say: “To help you improve, we’ll create a roadmap with specific tasks and milestones. For the next three months, your milestones will include completing project documentation and attending relevant training sessions. We’ll review your progress regularly to ensure you’re on track.”

Step 4: Execution

With the roadmap in place, the next step is execution. The team member begins working on the agreed tasks while the manager monitors progress.

• Track Progress: Monitor the completion of tasks and milestones.
• Evaluate Regularly: Conduct evaluations at each milestone based on predefined criteria.
• Adjust as Needed: Make necessary adjustments based on progress and feedback.

What to Say: “Now that we have our roadmap, let’s start working on these tasks. We’ll review each milestone together to ensure you’re progressing as expected. If you encounter any issues, let me know immediately so we can address them.”

Step 5: Support

Provide ongoing support throughout the execution phase. Your involvement and encouragement are crucial for the team member’s success.

• Offer Regular Feedback: Give constructive feedback and course-correct as necessary.
• Provide Training: Arrange small training sessions if needed.
• Maintain Open Communication: Conduct regular one-on-ones to discuss progress and challenges.

What to Say: “I’ll be here to support you every step of the way. We’ll have regular check-ins to discuss your progress and any challenges you might face. Remember, this is a collaborative effort, and your improvement is my priority.”

As a new manager, it’s crucial to realize that each team member has different skill levels and varying degrees of motivation.

The situational leadership framework allows managers to view their team from multiple dimensions and adapt their approach accordingly.

Typically, the framework uses skill and motivation as key dimensions. For instance, you’ll need a different strategy for managing a highly skilled and highly motivated individual compared to someone who is highly skilled but lacks motivation. Without adapting your approach, a team member with low motivation, despite their skills, won’t deliver the desired results.

Situational Leadership Framework

In my experience, situational leadership is effective for any leader within an organization, regardless of their position. Here are two variations of the framework I use:

Skill vs. Motivation

• High Skill, High Motivation: These team members need minimal guidance and should be given challenging tasks to keep them engaged.
• High Skill, Low Motivation: These individuals may need more encouragement and incentives to boost their motivation.
• Low Skill, High Motivation: Provide training and development opportunities to enhance their skills while leveraging their enthusiasm.
• Low Skill, Low Motivation: These team members require the most support, with clear instructions and consistent motivation to improve both their skills and interest.

By understanding and applying these dimensions, you can tailor your management style to each team member’s needs, fostering a more productive and harmonious team environment.

In general, I can say that managing low performers can be challenging, but with the CARES framework, you can provide structured support to help them improve. By following these steps — Communicate, Accountability, Roadmap, Execution, and Support — you can turn performance issues into growth opportunities, fostering a more motivated and skilled team.

Remember, the goal is to help your team members succeed, not to push them out. With patience, clear communication, and ongoing support, you can guide your low-performing employees to align with the rest of the team and achieve their full potential.

When considering OKRs, it’s common to focus on only one or two concepts. For instance, some organizations may solely concentrate on revenue when defining their OKRs. However, it can be helpful to broaden the perspective and think about objectives, results, and activities related to the following areas:

1. People: Consider team members, necessary knowledge, and experience. Identify training requirements for continuous improvement and the implementation of other objectives.
2. Cash/Revenue: Focus on financial aspects and revenue generation.
3. Processes: Evaluate things that need removal, improvement, or change. Determine the type of training and implementation needed to achieve the objective.
4. Strategy: Encompass various elements such as product, service, communication, branding, etc.

How to build systems that help us achieve our objectives?

As the new year begins, we often find ourselves contemplating “what’s next” and setting new objectives for the year. 

This process can bring about a wave of insecurities and may be particularly overwhelming for those who have held the same goals for years or for those who are unsure of where to start.

These goals not only extend to the business realm but are also prevalent in individual team members who are taking action.

We will share insights on how to define your goals for greater success, guide your team in defining their goals if you hold a leadership role, and help you articulate goals for your team or organization. We’ll delve into where to start, what distinguishes a good goal definition from a bad one, and identify approaches that consistently yield positive results. By exploring these details, your likelihood of success will multiply.

Before we provide a few actionable frameworks to define your goals, we want to give you more insights into what can influence your success, as some of us need more support than others or certain things to be true to feel “confident” about it. Here are several factors that contribute to increasing the likelihood of achieving goals:

1. Specificity: Clearly define your goals and commitments. The more specific and well-defined they are, the easier it is to create a plan and take actionable steps. It’s essential not to think about goals as mere “one-sentence” statements to write and forget; define your goals as if you were outlining a commitment. Instead of saying “I want to go to the gym this year” or “I want to grow my business by 10%,” define the commitments you will have to make.
2. Measurability: Establish measurable criteria to track your progress. This allows you to assess how far you’ve come and provides motivation to continue.
3. Achievable: Set realistic goals. It’s not just about how big your goals are; it’s about understanding that our time is limited. We tend to add things to our lives without considering what we would have to change or remove to make time for that new thing.
4. Relevance: Align your goals with your values and long-term objectives. When goals are meaningful and relevant, you are more likely to stay committed to them. Additionally, explore other commitments you have and determine if this “new” goal is actually a priority.
5. Time-bound: Set deadlines for your goals. Having a timeframe creates a sense of urgency and helps prioritize tasks, preventing procrastination. When thinking about timelines, consider the amount of time you will need to achieve it and to maintain it. Things and people don’t stay if you don’t dedicate time to continue to nurture them.
6. Planning: Develop a detailed plan outlining the steps needed to reach your goals. Break down larger goals into smaller, manageable tasks.
7. Consistency: Consistent effort over time is crucial. Establishing daily or weekly routines can help maintain progress and build momentum. This is probably the key ingredient for success.
8. Accountability body: Share your goals with someone who can hold you accountable. This could be a friend, family member, or a mentor who can provide support and encouragement.
9. Adaptability: Be open to adjusting your approach based on feedback and changing circumstances. Flexibility is key to overcoming unexpected challenges.
10. Positive Mindset: Cultivate a positive attitude. Believing in your ability to achieve your goals can have a significant impact on your motivation and perseverance.
11. Social Support: Surrounding oneself with a supportive network can positively impact goal achievement. Building relationships with people who share similar goals or who encourage and inspire can enhance motivation and accountability.
12. Peer Influence: Positive peer pressure can be harnessed to create a supportive environment. When individuals are part of a group that values similar goals, the shared commitment can drive motivation and persistence.
13. Role Models: Identifying and learning from role models who have successfully achieved similar goals can provide guidance and inspiration. Observing others’ success stories can instill confidence and determination.
14. Feedback Mechanisms: Establishing regular feedback loops, whether through mentors, peers, or self-assessment, allows individuals to monitor progress and make necessary adjustments. Constructive feedback can be a powerful motivator.
15. Cultural Expectations: Shifting cultural norms to value and prioritize personal development and goal achievement can create a more conducive environment. Encouraging a culture that embraces lifelong learning and growth fosters a mindset conducive to goal attainment.
16. Educational Programs: Implementing educational initiatives that teach goal-setting strategies, time management, and resilience can empower individuals with the necessary skills to pursue and achieve their objectives.
17. Recognition and Rewards: Creating systems for acknowledging and rewarding goal achievement, either within social groups or organizations, reinforces positive behavior. Recognition can enhance motivation and encourage continued effort.
18. Reducing Negative Influences: Minimizing exposure to negative influences or environments that hinder goal pursuit is crucial. This may involve distancing oneself from individuals or situations that undermine progress.
19. Public Commitment: Making goals public, whether through social media or other platforms, can create a sense of accountability. The awareness that others are aware of one’s objectives can provide an added incentive to stay on track.
20. Mindset Shift: Encouraging a growth mindset, where challenges are viewed as opportunities for learning and improvement, can reshape individuals’ perceptions of setbacks and foster resilience in the face of obstacles.

Not all have to be true, and you don’t always need a new objective for the year. In fact, for some objectives, you may only need two of these factors to be true, and maybe some years you don’t have any new goals. Remember that even in a fast-paced world, you are the one defining what success means to you and to your company(or team).

For additional tips go to our blog.