Interaction Guidelines form the structure for productive discussions with employees, and help to enable leaders to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. There are five guidelines:
- OPEN with what and why. Let the employee know what you want to talk about and why it's important.
- CLARIFY details. Before you begin discussing ideas or solutions, make sure the employee understands the details by clarifying any facts, figures, or information needed for others to be able to move forward.
- DEVELOP ideas. Cultivate ideas to achieve the main goal and do this by seeking involvement from employees. Only share your own ideas after listening to the employee’s.
- AGREE on actions. Once you have a list of good ideas and alternatives, involve the employee in choosing the ideas to put into action, and specify what will be done, who will do it, and by when.
- CLOSE with review and set follow-up. To make sure the employee understands what's happening, go over the main points of the discussion and what was agreed upon.