The 1 Question All Managers Should Ask Their Employees

As a manager, it can be easy to get into the mindset of using your employees to achieve your strategic goals set by those with a higher pay grade. You hire people to do a job, hold them accountable for their results, and often times implement corrective action when their performance is not up to par. But is it all about what your people can do for you?

Imagine, for just a moment, if you had no employees around you to get work done. You were the only one making the sales calls, meeting with customers, preparing the reports, and communicating to your executives. Would you be able to get it all done with high results and in a productive fashion? My guess is that the answer is probably not. You need your people. You couldn’t survive without them. So why not do everything you possibly can to make them successful?

I can remember back to my intern days when I had my first one-on-one meeting with my manager. She sat down with me to review a proposed project plan for the summer, which included several deliverables and deadlines. I don’t remember much about the specifics of what was discussed in that meeting. But I do remember the one question she asked me that will stick with me forever:

“What can I be doing to make you more successful?”

The project that I was working on was very important to her success as a leader in her division and she knew that if I carried it out successfully, it would bring positive results to her bottom line. She knew that my success was her success and she wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to make sure I had all the tools I needed to get the job done.

At the management level, it is likely that you have far more experience than that of your employees. You’ve been in the trenches and seen what works—and what doesn’t. So, instead of reminding your employees of how much more you know than them, give what you know to them and empower them to be successful. As leadership expert John C. Maxwell once said, “People don’t care how much you know, until they know how much you care.”

To show that you truly care, make sure you do two things during every one-on-one or touchpoint meeting.

1. Ask the “Million Dollar Question.” “What can I be doing to make you more successful?” is called the million dollar question because, in reality, what you do to help make them successful could make the company a million dollars! Whether it’s giving an employee sales coaching or a connecting them to a key contact to help complete a large project, take the time to pour your knowledge into the minds of your employees so that they can achieve the goals that they’ve set for themselves AND the ones that you have set for them.

2. Monitor their capacity. People only have so much space in their minds—and fingers on their hands. If you don’t give your employees the optimal amount of work to be successful, they can become overwhelmed. After you have asked what you can do to make them more successful, ask them how their workload is feeling. Do they have too much? Do they have too little? More often than not, the problem is usually the former, but you still will want to check just to be sure.

Bottom line: Your main job as a leader is to enable your people to be successful. When they perform well, your results soar to new levels and your organization’s reputation for success is enhanced. Do everything you can to make sure that your employees have what they need, and you’ll always be successful.