Several years ago, every day before I left the office, I would walk around and ask each of my direct reports, “Can I do anything for you before I leave?”
During this time, I was still holding out on having a cell phone with me at all times. So I think my motivation was simply to avoid getting the “urgent” call in the evening after I finally got home from a long day. Not a great serving the team intention but an honest one. But as with most things, I was surprised by what this did truly accomplish.
I became accessible. I provided an opportunity to actually help my team.
Most of the time, the answer was always: “Nope, have a good day.” But every once in a while, I would get a “well, I wasn’t going to ask but…” or “would you mind…” or “actually, I could use help with…”. Those were my open doors in to helping. Not sitting in my office telling people I have an open door policy but creating doors.
Today, I don’t really do the exact same thing. For starters, my cell phone is now attached to my hip and I’m always available. But I have found other ways to open those doors but this question still comes out of my mouth frequently. “Can I do anything for you?” Only now it’s with a serve the team intention 🙂
How do you open doors?
