If you’re a leader, then you’re probably interested in how to prevent constant questions from employees. While it’s good people want your input and direction, too much of that will keep you from focusing on your top goals at work.
Time is money and you have to be mindful of how you are investing yours, especially when distractions are on the rise.
Before Covid-19, a Canadian survey found that 57% of respondents said they were distracted at work on a regular basis and some reported losing up to two hours of productivity a day, due to disturbances. Now with more people working virtually, those distractions may have grown.
What Can Happen
Are people coming to you, as a leader, with every single problem, expecting you to solve it? This can be a big time eater, because before long, all you’re doing is triage.
Some of the problems may be pretty minor, like what kind of coffee should be in the break room. Should those requests fill your day? Think back about all those priorities you had that you never had time to address. Maybe you had the time but you spent it on the wrong things.
Ask for Solutions
Tell your employees, if there is a problem they’re bringing to you, then they also need to bring a couple of possible solutions. This can boost employee engagement and take you out of the role of having to research and fix every problem.
You’re not obligated to follow their suggestions but you save time by not having to approach every problem from square one.
Control the Flow of Constant Questions from Employees
You may want to discuss levels of urgency with your team. You want to know when an issue needs to be addressed in a timely fashion. But does everything else need to be treated the same way?
Encourage employees to group non-urgent questions or updates into an email that can be sent once or twice a day. That way, you can tackle all of these issues, at once, rather than every few minutes.
Do You Create Constant Questions from Employees?
Are employees coming to you, all the time, with questions because they don’t know what to do? If this is the case, then you have a training issue.
The good news is there are more ways to receive training than ever before. Great expertise is within reach and at different price points.
You should also consider whether people are coming to you with questions because they don’t think they’re allowed to make a decision on their own. While you may want control in your business or department, do you need to oversee everything?
That level of supervision takes a lot of time and may distract you from your big picture goals.
Instead, you may want to outline expectations, provide training, review the outcomes, and make adjustments at needed. This process will save you a lot of time and prevent constant questions from employees.
Ken Okel Performs Virtual Keynotes Too
