We’ve learned to walk around carrying a bucket.
Remember when we recommended you always be ready to pitch a pitch? Always be ready to answer the questions you know people will ask. Each question is an opportunity to support your team. Carry a bucket of responses.
“How’s it going today, Dave?”
My bucket has operations-specific responses, “Solid, we have an embed coming up and it’s all coming together.” I provide useful information to an ops minded person, opening the door for more questions or productive discussion.
My bucket has resource specific responses, “It’s going great. We have what we need and no more. Thanks for your help in setting us up for success.” I made this guy part of our solution.
My bucket has support-specific responses, “Today is really good, we are launching the new advanced comms program this week.” I spread the word about a new program we need organizational support for.
I could say, “It’s going great, how about you?” I could only nod. But we’re in the business of meaningful conversation, so if you ask us how it’s going, we’re going to tell you.
Just like you can forecast media questions for an RTQ, you can forecast useless pleasantry questions. You know it’s Monday, people are going to ask you about the weekend. Something big happened in the news, people will ask you about it. It’s raining, so useless weather talk will be rich.
Get ready, consider your responses ahead of time and start supporting your team through meaningful conversation. Time is our only limited resource.
Simple, right? Good, because you know your boss is going to ask you the same things he asks you every time. Be prepared, it’s your job.
