Meaningful Questions About What Matters Most to Ask Your Employees
I had so much fun speaking and leading a workshop around well-being and culture with the amazing leaders and Inner Fifth Members founded by Tracy Holland.
One part of the session members told me they found especially inspiring and informative was around the power of curiosity. To reflect on the degree they are a curious leader and learn how to ask more meaningful questions about what matters most to their team members.
Insights and data can be powerful. Tips are great. But the greatest answers and solutions often come in the form of questions. The power doesn’t just come from asking any questions — it’s about asking the right questions. The better the question, the more impactful and enlightening the answer. Asking intentional, specific, and personalized questions is like swapping out a cheap flashlight for a high-powered spotlight—it illuminates everything you need to see. People know when you’ve put thought into your questions, and they’re much more likely to open up and share those golden nuggets of wisdom you’re after.
A Powerful Bridge Builder
“When it comes to creating psychological safety, there is nothing more powerful than asking good questions.” —Amy Edmundson
Curiosity and “good questions,” as Amy Edmundson put it, are powerful bridge-builders to create greater vulnerability, trust, and psychological safety. Genuine curiosity can lead to unexpected and valuable places, to uncover hidden gems. If you are truly open and curious, it’s an invitation for people to answer with greater vulnerability even if the question isn’t incredibly comfortable. It’s difficult as an employee to walk into your office (or zoom room!) and say “I feel you micromanage too much and I don’t have the decision-making power I’m supposed to have,” or “I feel like I have to pretend I’m someone I’m not to fit in on our team.”
If you make meaningful one-on-one’s and team discussions part of your culture it’s a gateway to asking questions like “What’s one area you would like more freedom for your role and how can I best support that?” or “Can you tell me about a time you have felt included and like you belong on our team, and a time where you didn’t?”
Think of questions as invitations to answers you wouldn’t get otherwise. These answers can provide SO many benefits but a huge one we discussed in the workshop is retention. You gain information on what’s working on your team and what’s not. You show your employees you care about their needs and work happiness. You connect on a deeper level strengthening your relationship. You also catch smaller problems before they become big problems. All of these are game-changers to create cultures people don’t want to leave.
Examples of Meaningful Questions
If you’ve been following our research at Motives Met, you know we’ve uncovered 28 driving human needs, or motives, that are the foundation for thriving at work—as individuals, as leaders, and within your company culture. Our platform, which you can learn more about below, gives you meaningful motive questions and the ability to facilitate awesome conversations.
Here are a few example motive questions as inspiration to get you started:
PRESTIGE Motive —> Where do you feel most pride and admiration for our team or company and where do you feel it least?
FUTURE SUCCESS Motive —> What is the biggest obstacle, distraction, or limitation that delays or potentially inhibits the future goals and ambitions at work you desire?
WORK-LIFE HARMONY Motive —> What is one small change we could make on our team that would help with workload and time management to support greater harmony between work and life?
INNOVATION Motive —> What is your relationship with failure? What do you think our team’s relationship with failure is? How does this either help or harm the ability to create and innovate?
PEER CONNECTION Motive —> What is one experience we could engage in as a team this year that would deepen our connection?
PURPOSE Motive —> When do you feel you are “on purpose” most at work and when do you feel “off purpose?”
APPRECIATION Motive —> What would you say your greatest contributions are at work? Not just what you do, but also who you are and how that affects others?
Leading With Curiosity
The best leaders aren’t the ones with all the answers. They’re the ones who ask the right questions and listen with intent. Let your curiosity run wild, ask meaningful questions, and watch your team—and your workplace—elevate.
How Motives Met Can Help You
Our platform was created to provide tangible tools and experiences to help leaders create cultures where people can be well and perform well at work.
The Motives Met Human Needs Assessment™: The ultimate door opener to creating a culture where the 28 motives thrive. Uncover which motives matter most to each employee, support employee well-being, and lead with an individualized approach rather than a one-size-fits-none leadership approach that doesn’t work.
Human Connection Software: Empower meaningful conversations and create action plans around the motives that must be met at work. This is a simple addition to the assessment and leaders dashboard that makes leading a people-first culture and impactful one-on-ones easy and effective.
Motives Met Experiences & Workshops: From sharing “motive stories” to creating roadmaps to amplify well-being, our experiences build off the assessment and are interactive and unique, not your same old team-building. We create meaningful experiences with big impact.
Want to see how our tools can help you? Drop us a line, and we’ll send you some info to learn more.