62: How Weekly Check-ins Transformed a Team with Chris Zaugg

Very few people are eager to add more meetings to their calendar, but what would happen if you scheduled a weekly check in with each of your team members? That’s what this week’s guest did. Chris Zaugg has been leading people for over 40 years, and according to his own reflection, had made LOTS of mistakes and had a few victories. He has trained people in leadership principles and communication all over the world, and loves to share what he's learned from other leaders. He currently serves as the President of OPIN Systems, a software company based in Bloomington, MN. Chris and I talk about how he incorporated weekly check-ins with his team and the transformative effect they had. We get into his process and why weekly can be so much more effective than monthly touch-bases.   Read the related blog article: Strengthen Your Team With Weekly Check-Ins   Join the Modern Manager community (www.mamieks.com/join) to get three months of free access to Uptick, a software to help you with your weekly check-ins. This is doubly special because you get to skip the waitlist and to start using Uptick right now.    Subscribe to my newsletter to get episodes, articles and mini-guides delivered to your inbox.     KEY TAKEAWAYS: It’s not easy for employees to translate big company goals, vision and strategies into daily activities. Organizations need systems that allow staff to honestly share with managers and managers to really listen to their staff in order to truly know what’s going on. If you want your team members to feel like they’ve won every day, they need to end the day knowing they accomplished their most important priority. Have a regular 15 minute check in with each team member. As prework, they write down what they see as the priorities for the week. Work together to prioritize them so they are clear on what matters most and why. In those 15 minutes, (1) prioritize the work for this week - use their individual, team and organizational goals as a reference point, (2) Ask reflection questions like "Did anything keep you from being productive last week? When did you feel like you most productive?” (3) Celebrate by learning what they were most proud of last week or milestones accomplished. Keep basic notes which you can then use to for upcoming performance reviews, simplifying that process and removing recency bias. Employees don’t want to feel like they’re doing work just to check the box. If you ask them to write something down for you, read it and use the information.