Have you ever interrupted your team with requests for status updates?
- How far along is A?
- Where are you on B?
- What’s the status of C?
These may seem like important questions. As leaders, we are responsible for delays, missed deadlines, and setbacks.
Ask too frequently, and it seems like you don’t trust your team. And you definitely don’t want your team summarizing their progress in lieu of making progress!
But ask too infrequently, and you have abdicated your responsibility.
Although you shouldn’t do away with check-ins and updates, there is another way to stay in the loop.
Here are a few points to consider:
1: Make it easy. No update should take more than a few minutes of their time.
2: Make it automatic. Set a specific cadence for information sharing with the person and/or team.
3: Make it asynchronous. Don’t set a meeting, and instead allow communication to happen on each person’s own schedule.
For updates to be as unintrusive as possible, my team and I used a daily standup as our model. At the start of each person’s day wherever in the world they might be, they shared the following in Slack:
- What they worked on yesterday.
- What issues they might have faced.
- What they intend to work on today.
At most, each person wrote a few sentences, taking no more than 2-3 minutes of their time. If there were any questions or concerns, then they were addressed asynchronously. No one was expected to immediately answer messages.
➡️ If necessary, I could ask: “What can I take off your plate?” This let me provide support without taking over the project or undermining their trust and confidence.
➡️ Or I could say: “Don’t worry about those other tasks.”
➡️ And with a collaborative team culture, then these status updates also allow others to share resources, provide input, or offer help.
➡️ It was never used as an excuse to remind people of deadlines. They already knew, and instead the team and I could find ways to support.
➡️ And if there is a team member who often struggled with managing their day and delivering results on time, then these issues were discussed in 1:1s with solutions implemented. It’s not a sufficient reason to interrupt everyone’s focus and flow.
You don’t want to become a micromanager, nor foster an environment in which you interrupt other’s work.
Happy Tuesday!