3Q Check-ins
The Best Employee Check-ins on Planet Earth
3Q Check-ins are an Easy-to-Learn/Easy-to-Maintain One-to-One Check-in tool for the Employees and Volunteers you can’t afford to lose.
Why 3Q Check-ins?
“When was the last time your boss checked in with you?” For most people, the answer is never … unless we throw fairy dust at an annual review and call it a check-in.
This is not because bosses don’t want to develop and support the people who report to them. Most bosses just aren’t very good at it. For a lot of leaders and managers, consistent, substantive check-ins are a soft skill that's very hard.
The Three Questions, if you know how to ask them, are easy:
1. How are you?
2. How are we?
3. How can I help?
There is zero magic in the 3Q Check-in model — none, zilch, absolutamenté nada — we know exactly why it works.
Results
Salvation Army Major Kelly Collins
Three Questions:
• How are you?
• How are we?
• How can I help?
It seems so elementary.
Jim Henderson came for a weekend to talk about leadership development, and in the midst of that he talked about 3Q.
What was intriguing was the intentionality — asking those questions in a very scripted way, in a very intentional way, in a very responsive way, by writing things down, listening, making an appointment with people...
Because it’s scheduled, every single month after the first three Check-ins, they know I'm really interested in their development and in how they are doing in their role.
I'm finding when I checked in with Jim Henderson to show him how my Check-ins have gone — and the other team members were doing the same — he saw a pattern and said, "Are you aware that your other team members are dealing with the same issue that you're dealing with?" I thought it was a small problem with one of my people; it turned out it was a pervasive problem in my office — that I dealt with.
I think the opportunity I’m seizing the most is business leadership development, not just leadership management. Before a problem comes up, when I say "How can I help?" I'm able to help my team solve that problem themselves.
I have been so much more conscientious and intentional about showing my team members how to be leaders. It’s giving me space because of the calendar schedule, and it's giving me language to say, "This is how you lead." I give them the authority, I give them tools, I give them time — for them to talk out how they are leading and to see better ways for them to do it.
It's making me think more about how I’m leading, so I can say, "And this is how you can lead."
I see greater trust growing — more quickly — because of this intentionality. It's becoming cohesive because of those questions.
— Major Kelly Collins, Divisional Commander, The Salvation Army
3Q Check-ins are designed to make monthly employee and volunteer check-ins easy and efficient for managers who aren’t naturally talented at that sort of thing … so … most of us.
What 3Q Leaders Say
FAQ
We get questions. Here are some of the most frequently asked…
Q . Are there really only Three Questions?
Yes. Three questions, and a whole bunch of ways to keep them fresh. We can help you learn to 3Q people in a way that’s engagingly evergreen, because 3Q Check-ins are not magic — we know how they work, and you’ll come to understand that as well — and they’re never meant to trick or manipulate anyone (If that’s what you’re looking for, best move along … nothing to see here ... these are not the droids you’re looking for….).
Q . Who are 3Q Check-ins for?
3Q Check-ins are for people who lead people — and must, therefore, deploy, direct, guide, manage, evaluate, affirm, correct, reward, recalibrate, train, develop, promote, and, God willing, retain as many of those people as possible.
If you can answer two questions ...
1. Who do I want to develop?
2. Who do I not want to lose?
… then you’re the sort of leader who will see quickly how 3Q Check-ins can help you increase alignment, improve performance, and extend the length of time until you must replace your most valued employees or volunteers. [See more at Results]
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