As a leader, trying to stay connected to your people can be difficult even when you work in the same office.
But with virtual or blended teams, communication and connection are even more of a challenge – and you need to have an effective way to check in with the people on your remote team to know what is going on in their life.
As I have shared many times in my teamwork keynotes and conference events:
“High Performing teams build RELATIONSHIPS
strong enough to bear the weight of TRUTH”
But relationships require interactions and curiosity and vulnerability and sharing.
SO what are you to do?
Well, virtual happy hours are not really effective in making people feel connected – and you certainly don’t get the quality 1-on-1 conversations or sharing that you need to create a meaningful relationship and let the feel that you are aware of their needs and challenges.
That is why I love to suggest to team leaders the use of a fun and unexpectedly effective weekly activity that you can do IN PERSON just as easily as you can do it VIRTUALLY.
It is called “What’s Up Cards!”
And it is a SIMPLE invitation that allows your people to share what is happening in their lives that may be affecting their mindset and productivity.
The example at the top of this post was actually used by a volleyball coach to check in each week with her athletes –
but the need to know how your people are doing goes far beyond sports!
And as most leaders learn, when someone is not good EMOTIONALLY they are seldom very good TECHNICALLY with their role or responsibilities.
A WHAT’s UP card is an effective and fun way to learn about your team – whether in person or remote.
You can even download a free copy of a printable What’s Up Check in Card HERE!
And implementing it as a weekly activity is easy…
If you are working together in person, just have them fill out and turn in the cards every Monday or Friday and then reach out to follow up when the need arises –
It could even be fun to share the good stuff to help your team celebrate personal achievements!
If you are wanting to implement the idea virtually, you can send out an email that your team can reply to on Monday morning… or instead of email you could have them reply on your team communication platform of choice (slack, chanty, trello, webex, etc.).
You could even send a link to them after creating a simple one-question google form ; )
The trick is to ASSC!
Great leaders and teammates Always Stay Sincerely Curious!
And as difficult as it is to keep up with what’s going on with your people, this simple weekly What’s Up Check in allows you to stay connected and informed and improve relationships.
And together with clarifying a clear compelling common goal, creating and fostering better RELATIONSHIPS are the two vital roles of leaders who want to sustain excellent team performance.
Download you copy of the What’s Up Check in for teams HERE.
Building relationships and fostering collaboration start with checking in with your team to make them feel seen and valuable. This is one powerful and quick way for you to improve engagement and morale…
And if you are looking for other ways to improve your team interactions and performance, check out this video series that will help you FIX your Broken Team Culture!
