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In EOS (the Entrepreneurial Operating System), the quarterly conversation is a chance for managers and their direct reports to provide bidirectional feedback and recommit to your organization’s core values and goals.
If your team runs on EOS, odds are you’re very familiar with the EOS quarterly conversation. It’s a cornerstone of the “people” component of your EOS implementation. Even if your company isn’t running on EOS, you should consider holding a quarterly conversation with your direct reports that dives deeper than the 1:1 meetings you’re (hopefully!) having on a regular basis.
Read on for tips that will help make your quarterly conversations extra awesome and effective.
What a quarterly conversation should look like
Let’s start with what a quarterly conversation shouldn’t be: a surprise. We’re big believers in the power of 1:1s between managers and direct reports. When you’re having your 1:1 meetings on a regular basis, you’ve established a steady feedback loop and great communication.
The quarterly conversation is an opportunity for you to dive deeper and get teed up for the next quarter. It’s an opportunity for you and your direct report to step out of the day-to-day and look at your organization and their place in it from a broader perspective.
How to prepare for quarterly conversations
It’s a good idea to have your quarterly conversations after you do your regular EOS quarterly planning. That way, you can create a plan with your report that ties their work into your company’s larger goals.
You should also make sure your report’s place in the Accountability Chart is accurate. Check the seat (or seats) they sit in are accurately described and cover the work your report actually does.
Finally, if you’re using EOS as your business operating system, you should also make sure your People Analyzer™ is up-to-date before you begin your quarterly conversation.
If you’re a Strety user, you’ll be able to tie all of your EOS tools to your Quarterly Conversations™ to make prep work a breeze. Hop on a quick screen share with one of our experts if you want to learn how it works.
Tips for great quarterly conversations
Be consistent.
Try to hold your quarterly conversations within a week or two of your quarterly planning session. Things get busy and it’s easy to feel like you can push off your quarterly conversations, but doing so is a signal that you’re deprioritizing your employees. Schedule your quarterly conversations out in your calendar and don’t alter them except in case of emergency.
Be prepared.
Make sure you fill out your quarterly review with plenty of time to take note of anything you want to discuss live. Take your time filling out the review and really think about your answers. Give yourself plenty of time to review your report’s answers as well. When you show up, be prepared to discuss anything that has you worried or that you want to keep an eye on, and anything that your report flagged in their review.
Be authentic.
Your quarterly conversations are an opportunity to do more than just check a few boxes for performance management. It’s a chance for you and your report to communicate frankly about their role in the company and their career. It’s important that you show up willing to hear them out and truly caring about how you as a manager can support them through authentic leadership.
Customize the conversation.
While we’re big fans of using the EOS framework to guide quarterly conversations, we’re also even bigger fans of tailoring processes to best work for you. We support custom agendas in your quarterly conversations so you can dig in where needed. One of your reports having trouble keeping up with their Rocks this quarter? Add your Rocks tool to your quarterly conversation so you can make note of what exactly went wrong, and how to make it go right next time.
Tie everyday work to the larger picture.
Your quarterly conversations are also a great place to reaffirm the role your report plays in larger company goals. If you make a custom agenda in Strety with an Issues section, you can create an Issue from any company Rock that pertains to your report and send it to their person space. Then you’ll have that Rock on your agenda and you can discuss it with your report, as well as making To Dos for them that support the Rock. This way, their work is tied directly to larger company goals, and there’s an audit trail for visibility.
Best employee review questions
Want to go beyond a normal EOS quarterly conversation and add custom questions to your agenda? Here’s some ideas from great conversations our team has had over the years:
- What projects did you struggle the most with?
- What was your favorite work to do this quarter?
- What are you most proud of from the past quarter?
- Are there any blockers you find yourself running into consistently?
- How can I better support you?
- Were there any projects you wished you were a part of?
- Is there anything you’d like to learn from another department?
- Do you feel like you’re making progress toward your personal goals?
- What are your professional goals for the year? How can we make progress toward them this quarter?
- What are your highest priorities for the next quarter?
- What can I do to help you grow?
- How do you see your role evolving over the next 6 months?
Choose a couple of the most relevant questions, add them to your quarterly conversation agenda, and you’re off to the races! You’ll get more insight while forging a better connection with your report.
Are you feeling ready to make your next quarterly conversation the best one you’ve ever had? Then you are ready to Strety 🎉
Get started with a free trial or book time with one of our team members for a quick 20-minute rundown of how Strety can help your team.
