The Association Blog

Five questions to ask your team to reflect on

Welcome to your #MondayMotivation with Tip of the Week.  In this weekly column, we share tools, time-savers and just-plain-genius ideas that your colleagues and members of the The Association have suggested and tested. Today’s tip is an oldie-but-goodie, courtesy of Purrfect Pals Sanctuary. Former ED and now Development Director, Kathleen Olson, CAWA, shares some strategy for your staff surveys.

Putting together a strategic planning meeting? It’s always a good idea to do some prepwork to get a sense of your staff’s needs, successes and challenges. In advance of Purrfect Pals Sanctuary’s annual management team retreats, Development Director Kathleen Olson encouraged all managers to consider the following questions:

• What work issue is keeping you awake at night?
• Has anything recently changed your work/life balance?
• What changes, if any, have you had to make to your annual work plan?
• What tools do you need going forward to better equip you for your program responsibilities?
• In five years, what achievements do you envision being able to list for yourself professionally, your program and our organization as a whole over the previous five years?

This allowed staff time to sit with the questions and think beyond first-response reactions, so they were ready to discuss roundtable style in person.

What’s next? Shares Olson, “Each manager will look at their program work plan for this year and update it for next year in bullet-point format.  We discovered that flexible schedules with the ability to work from home some days was a priority for three managers, and will be incorporated into their plans.”

Bonus insight: Olson was struck by the types of resources her staff requested this year in comparison to last year’s needs. “Surprises came when asked what tools they needed,” she says. “Previously, it included additional trainings.  This year it was physical items — new cleaning tools, ergonomic keyboard, office chair, new stainless steel sink with a sprayer for the laundry room…”

Managers and leadership teams, are you seeing something similar at your organizations?

More Classic Tips of the Week

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