What should you include in your report if you are using a direct approach?

The best leaders inspire their direct reports to carry out their organization’s goals enthusiastically. Indeed, with adept leadership, employees not only share these goals, but they also make them their own. But galvanizing speeches, cogent e-mails, and meticulously prepared PowerPoint presentations go only so far in mobilizing a diversely talented group of people.

Before a manager’s direct reports will follow her into the fray, she must forge a personal connection with each of them by learning what makes them tick and using that knowledge to appeal to their particular goals, motivations, and interests. Making and sustaining these connections is an ongoing process for leaders, one that requires them to take a truly strategic view of how they spend their one-on-one time with direct reports.

In other words, you don’t just go in there and ad-lib during one-on-one meetings; you must plan ahead for what you will say and how you will say it, while anticipating the other person’s reactions. In short, you should prepare for these engagements “as you would prepare for giving a speech,” says Jeswald W. Salacuse, author of Leading Leaders: How to Manage Smart, Talented, Rich, and Powerful People (Amacom, 2005).

Yes, this kind of preparation and thoughtfulness takes time, but it’s time well spent. For one thing, engaging with employees this way builds strong relationships, which engender trust. The more employees trust you, the more willing they will be to follow where you lead. For another, surfacing what motivates them shows you respect their professional expertise and aspirations—always important when you lead a talented crew—and allows you to frame your leadership objectives in ways that show them how following and supporting you will further their own goals.

Here is a three-step guide to leading conversations that generate strategic payoffs. Keep in mind that this model is not limited to your interactions with your direct reports; it can be adapted for managing up in an organization.

1. Before the conversation

Lay the pathway to a successful one-on-one interaction before the conversation, says Salacuse, the Henry J. Braker Professor of Commercial Law at The Fletcher School at Tufts University (Medford, Mass.). For a discussion to deliver the most value, go into it with clear goals, carefully framed questions, and a plan for solidifying the other person’s commitment to decisions made.

Keeping smart people on topic, even in a one-on-one situation, is often like steering an oversized truck down a steep mountain pass—it takes concentration, determination, and persistence. To keep the conversation focused on your goal, first you need to clarify what the goal is.

Take, for example, a situation Salacuse cites in Leading Leaders.Hans, a seasoned engineer who is new to his company and is assigned to an important project, announces that he no longer will attend team meetings because they are not a good use of his time. Before broaching this issue with Hans, his manager must determine what she wants to accomplish with the conversation and plan accordingly. If she is OK with Hans’s decision, there is nothing to discuss. If she wants to work out a compromise, she needs to formulate some options that work for everyone. If her desired outcome is for Hans to attend these meetings willingly, she must think through ways to show him why his participation is important for both him and the team.

2. During the conversation

Once you’ve defined your goals, prepared targeted questions, and formulated a plan for gaining your direct report’s buy-in, you’re almost ready to sit down to the discussion. But there’s one more thing you need to do, says Salacuse, and that’s to put yourself in a receptive, empathetic frame of mind. The ability to listen and detect important cues, and a willingness to see things from the direct report’s perspective, will go a long way to determining how successful your conversation will be. Prepare to “pour yourself into listening in order to grasp and decipher the many messages that the other person’s seemingly simple statements contain,” Salacuse writes in Leading Leaders. Now you’re ready to talk. To keep the conversation directed to your strategic objectives for it, Salacuse recommends the following tactics:

Ask open-ended questions.

In addition to being an active listener and interpreter, it is important to ask questions without coming off as an interrogator. To do this, Salacuse recommends asking open-ended questions. For example, when asking Hans about his decision to boycott staff meetings, his manager should couch the question in a neutral, non-threatening way: “I heard what you said about team meetings, and I’d like to know more about that. Can you tell me why you don’t plan to attend?” “To ask somebody ‘Why?’ is not aggressive,” says Salacuse. “It signals that you are truly trying to understand. Of course, your tone and demeanor also matter.”

Another benefit of asking open-ended questions is that they encourage employees to think about their work in new ways. In responding to his manager’s probing about his background and goals, Hans may realize that he wants to tackle more projects and play a greater leadership role.

An additional, if occasionally uncomfortable, reward for asking such questions is that you’ll get valuable feedback about your own managerial style. For instance, when his manager asks Hans about his decision, his response could contain messages ranging from his feelings about meetings in general to the way the manager runs hers. “What you are hearing from people may be uncomfortable, and you may view it as subtle criticism,” says Salacuse, but it’s crucial to your growth as a manager to pay attention to it.

Frame projects and issues to appeal to their interests.

While one-on-one conversations can help solve problems, they also play a critical role in helping you learn what drives your direct reports as professionals. Use conversations as occasions to look at the surrounding landscape from their vantage point: What opportunities could be open to them that aren’t now? Is there a chance to participate in a cross-unit initiative that will raise a subordinate’s profile within the company?

Armed with a greater understanding of an individual’s interests and goals, you can frame projects and challenges in such a way as to appeal to them. If you learn, for example, that a direct report wishes to develop project management skills, you could emphasize that component when presenting a new assignment. If that kind of alignment isn’t possible, strike a bargain: if he’ll take on a program that involves a lot of grunt work, you will make sure his next assignment taps into skills he wants to develop.

Putting yourself in your direct reports’ shoes demonstrates that you value their growth as professionals and as members of your team, which, in turn, will foster loyalty and make you seem more approachable.

Invite collaboration on solutions.

Using strategic conversations with your direct reports to generate possible solutions to a challenge taps into their creativity and expertise. For instance, Hans’s manager can explore with him ways to make team meetings more productive.

Collaborating on solutions and reviewing pros and cons with your direct reports allows you to address their issues while giving them input into your decision. By considering their concerns and ideas, you set the stage for them to accept your decision— even if it is not the one they had hoped for. “Research indicates that persons are more willing to accept an adverse decision if they believe it was arrived at through a fair process,” writes Salacuse.

3. After the conversation

Finally, once there is an agreed-upon plan of action, Salacuse suggests a few techniques to seal the deal. First, he recommends inducing team members to publicly state their commitment to what has been decided. “This creates social pressure to live up to doing what you said you were going to do,” he explains. For example, once an agreement has been made with Hans, his manager can announce that Hans will brief the team on his project at the next staff meeting. “Once he does show up and make that presentation, he has made a step toward integration,” says Salacuse.

Another method to secure commitment is through what Salacuse calls installment payments. In this case, the leader delivers promised benefits once commitments have been fulfilled—for instance, by agreeing to help a direct report develop an original project as long as he continues meeting his other deadlines. Finally, you and your direct report should agree upon a method and schedule for verifying that the commitments have been met.

Which report uses the direct approach for organization?

Which type of messages should be written using the direct approach?

What is the direct approach in writing quizlet?

When should you consider using the indirect approach for a report or proposal?