Engage your staff

This post came out from The Straits Times (16 October 2012)
Title - Engage your staff - Learn more about your team members by enhancing the quality of your conversations

Some pointers that I've got are:
1. Go beyond conversations focusing on work matters or problems at work. Expand your conversation to appreciate the relationship this person has with his work. For example, "How did you get started in this industry?", "What motivated you to join this company?", or "What is the best thing about what you do?"
2. Uncovering people's thoughts involves asking opening ended questions to learn what makes them tick. You will discover their interests, passions, priorities, life history, achievements and issues that they are for or against. This shows you are genuinely interested in them.
3. There is more to a person than his job and profession. When you take time to understand a team member's background and family, you will uncover the underlying drivers that motivate him. In the process, you may even discover you share a lot in common. This reinforces the feeling of kinship and trust.
4. End with the influential question: "How can I help you?" In short, you need to make it about them first. People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.

Yours,
Something Small Thinking Big