I’m all about growing your business with a team and not doing it alone! But just because you hire people (contractors or w2 employees) does not mean that business is all of a sudden easy peasy. In some ways, it actually makes your business more complex. There are a lot of challenges that come with having a team, especially with remote teams. I have team members who I’ve literally never met in person but I’m in communication with daily or weekly, so it CAN work! And today, I’m sharing 3 questions I ask my team members every week that have made a HUGE difference in my team community and productivity. Plus, it’s easy and can even be automated!
Before we jump in, if you want these questions in a downloadable format (that you can copy/paste) and peek BTS of exactly how I set this up in my own business… download my free guide here where I share what it looks like (with examples!).
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Remote Team Communication Tools
In case you are curious, my two main tools I use with my team are Slack and ClickUp (use my link for a free trial and a discount). Personally, we are on the free version of Slack and I pay for ClickUp.
Setting up Slack for Weekly Check-ins
For these three questions that I’m going to share, I post them in Slack each week!
I created a slack channel called “check ins” where these questions get automatically posted. I schedule the question set as a slack comment in that channel so it’s always in the same place. I go in and schedule these once a quarter (and it takes about 5 minutes).
Then, I set it up to auto post from me at 8 am CST every Monday morning. For my team, the expectation is that at some point on Monday, every one should answer the questions (unless it’s a holiday week or something)!
The reason I like Slack for this is that then we answer the questions in a thread. I love the “thread” feature on Slack for keeping things organized. In my opinion it’s better than doing this on Voxer or ClickUp or somewhere where it could become a long chain each week.
Read More: How to Host a Team Vision Meeting to Kick Off the Year (or Quarter!)
3 Questions I Ask My Remote Team Every Single Week
Now, let’s talk about the three questions I ask each week:
- What are 2-3 things you’re working on this week?
- What do you need from Elizabeth or another team member for your job to keep going?
- What is happening in your life this week? What’s something you’re excited about? And/or what’s something you could use prayer/support in?
Then, we usually answer by “bolding” each category and then answer in bullets. We don’t write long paragraphs to each other. I read all of them and we will all “heart” or “like” the comments to let people know we’ve read it! I answer these questions too!
It sounds simple, but this is sooooo helpful for just touching base and keeping track of what’s happening in the business!
Why These Questions Help A Remote Team
With the first question, everyone answers with what they are working on in THIS business (so it’s not just like a random place to share their to-do list).
Then, with needs, this is so helpful because sometimes I will miss something or won’t realize that people need something from me to get their job done. So it gives them a place to make sure they get what they need from me or someone else on the team.
The last question might be my favorite though, because that’s where they say what’s going on in their life! As a remote team that doesn’t do meetings as a group often, this question helps us all know what’s going on with one another. You can see some examples of the way my team has answered here.
I love this question too because I love to pray for my team (which I talked more about here when it comes to integrating my faith into my business) but it also just helps you show up with more empathy as a boss in your business. So if someone comments that they're having a really hard week and XYZ is happening in their personal life, you'll never know that unless you ask these kinds of questions. Especially with a remote team when you're not all going into the office together every day, so it doesn’t naturally come up “at the water cooler.”
Read More: 3 Subtle Shifts That Make a BIG Difference When Growing Your Team
I Schedule These Out Each Quarter And Try to Include Fun Details!
I also will say at the beginning of these three questions, you can see it in the guide if you want to see some examples, but I'll say, Happy Monday, or add something relevant to that week if there is something (like happy launch week, or Merry Christmas, or if it’s someone’s birthday week). That’s why I like to do it every quarter instead of automating it forever and ever. I like to customize it a little. Plus, it literally takes me five minutes.
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