What's happening right now?
Pick what you're facing today. You'll get the words to use.
A conversation I am dreading
- I have to say something difficult and I do not know how to open
- I have been putting a conversation off for weeks
- Someone's work is not good enough and I have said nothing
- I have been quietly redoing someone's work
- I need to give someone feedback and I am dreading it
- I said something vague and nothing changed
- A deadline passed and I do not want to nag
- I need to chase someone without micromanaging them
Someone on my team
- Two of my people are not speaking to each other
- They keep coming to me separately to complain about each other
- Someone brings me every problem instead of solving it
- I keep solving things that are not mine to solve
- My one-to-ones have turned into status updates
- Someone goes quiet in our one-to-ones
- Someone has gone flat and I do not know why
- Something that works on one person does nothing for another
- Someone did something great and I do not want to just say "nice work"
- My quiet people never get noticed
Too much on my plate
- I am doing work that should be theirs
- Every decision comes back to me
- The work came back wrong and I do not think they were being lazy
- I keep having to explain what I meant
- My boss has given us more than we can do
- I need to say no to someone more senior than me
- I am doing my real job at night
- My week was full and nothing important got done
- My team meeting is a waste of everyone's time
- Nobody can tell me what we actually decided
I have just started
How am I doing?
- I ask for feedback and get "no, all good"
- I do not know whether I am doing this well
- Something has gone wrong and I have to tell my boss
- I want to hide this and I know I should not
- Nobody above me knows what my team actually does
- I do not know what my boss really cares about
- I want to move up and I have never told anyone
- I was told to "show more leadership" and I do not know what that means
- My boss is making my job harder