Avoiding "surprise" requests
Steer clear of this small, unassuming landmine to help encourage greater team productivity.
👋 Howdy! Claire here, CEO of Canopy. I’m currently out on vacation in Japan, then visiting my family in Korea 🇰🇷… While I’m out, have put together a quick leadership tip from Canopy. I’ll be back in full force with long-form, original writing in next week. Hope you enjoy this short ’n helpful tip in the meantime! 💚
You want to hold your team accountable.
So you ping them and ask, “How are things going?”
Or, “Wanna hop on a call in 10 minutes and have a quick catch up?”
While this gesture seems positive and well-intentioned on the surface, it might not be coming across how you hope.
Many times when we interrupt our team’s work and insert “surprise” requests for meetings and feedback, it can feel abrupt and off-putting to our team members.
Instead, to create a true culture of accountability on our teams, we need to be intentional and set up time to connect in advance.
This way you are giving your team members time to adequately reflect, process, and prepare.
For example, you might say:
“I would love an opportunity to grab some time with you, and to talk through our current project: Where you are at and how I can be more supportive to our goals and deadlines. Do you have any time later this week or next? Say carve out an hour or so?”
Don’t interrupt your team with surprise meetings or requests.
Be intentional instead.
Listen to the free audio version of this tip in Canopy here:
