After reading my article here last week, and clicking through some of the related links to find this one, a Lifehack.org reader sent me an email with this request;
“I notice you mention the Daily 5 Minutes pretty frequently, and seems you’ve written a lot about it. Can you point me to one how-to kind of post that I can share with the rest of my managers?”
I didn’t have something to send him at the time, so I wrote it up, and thought I’d share it with all of you this week.
Hearing about it for the first time? When asked to zero in on the best of my Managing with Aloha recommendations, I tell managers that if there is just one tool they incorporate into their everyday practice, have it be The Daily 5 Minutes. Very briefly, it is a simple habit. Each day, without fail, managers are to give five minutes of no-agenda time to at least one of their employees.
Your time is one of the most precious resources you have, and to give it as a gift to someone in the form of the Daily Five Minutes just may be one of the best work-expressions of unconditional aloha there is.
When you give it, creating it as your habit and as your workplace expectation, the D5M does so many things for you:
- It trains you to be a better listener, a better manager, and a better coach
- It trains you to ask great questions
- It improves communication effectiveness with its ease and regularity
- It establishes great relationships with each person you give it to
- It converts unproductive time into found opportunity
- It eliminates workplace interruptions due to the ‘I forgots’
- It teaches people to both give and receive time and attention at work, and
- It assures that none of those people slip below the radar
- It promotes inclusivity and collaboration, engagement and ownership
- It is straightforward and simple, employing something we all can do (just talk to each other)
- Best of all, it’s quick! It only takes 5 minutes a day!
How can you deny yourself all these benefits if you are a manager?
So about that how-to … This is the latest I have written on The Daily 5 Minutes, capturing the best of my links on the practice all in one post as Gary had requested: The Daily 5 Minutes: 9 Questions.
The 9 Questions are designed to walk you through getting started with a full understanding of what the Daily Five Minutes involves, and the post includes a link to a pdf which is the D5M excerpt from my book. These 9 Questions come from a seminar format we teach the D5M with, when practicing via situational art role-play in our SLC classes for new supervisors. They cover what the D5M is, why it must be a habit and who it involves, what the how-to and benefits are for both givers (managers) and receivers (staff), and how to start and end it.
Why do I give it away for free? I want you to do it. Within you is all the talent we need to engineer a workplace revolution of aloha, and I am convinced that the D5M can get you started. Start it today.
Related posts here on Lifehack.org:
- Break the Mold and Create Your Own Work
- Be the Best Boss
- The Role of the Manager
- Everyday Performance Reviews
Post Author:
Rosa Say is the author of Managing with Aloha, Bringing Hawaii’s Universal Values to the Art of Business. She fervently believes that work can inspire, and that great managers and leaders can change our lives for the better. You can visit her here each Thursday, and on www.managingwithaloha.com. Rosa writes for Lifehack.org to freely offer her coaching to those of us who aspire to be greater than we are, for she also believes in us. Writing on What Great Managers Do is one of her favorite topics.
