15Five's Best-Self Kickoff is a strategic meeting that aims to help employees and managers understand each other and their work needs, building a stronger working relationship. The questions discussed in the Best-Self Kickoff are science-backed and help create psychological safety in employees, as well as increase manager effectiveness: the biggest driver of employee performance, engagement, and retention.
In this article, you will learn...
- What is a Best-Self Kickoff? 🌐
- Benefits 💡
- Best practices 🌟
- Additional resources 📖
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ❓
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👥 This article is relevant to managers and direct reports.
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What is a Best-Self Kickoff? 🌐
A Best-Self Kickoff is a meeting held between a manager and one of their direct reports. During this meeting, managers and employees discuss the answers that they each gave to the questions on the 'About' page of 15Five.
Benefits 💡
- More effective managers. By holding Best-Self Kickoffs, managers will better understand their direct reports so they can better communicate with, coach, and engage them.
- Improve employee engagement and performance. Participating in a Best-Self Kickoff leads to employees feeling seen, understood, and appreciated for who they are by their managers. This, in turn, can lead to increased job satisfaction, as well as increased performance and engagement.
- Stronger working relationships. With a mix of both work-based and personal questions (all research-backed), the Best-Self Kickoff helps build strong working relationships between managers and their direct reports from the start. After the meeting, managers and employees will have a deeper understanding of what they need and expect from one another.
Best practices 🌟
The Best-Self Kickoff is designed to help managers and their direct reports form a strong working relationship, set expectations, and ensure that employees have role clarity. That said, we suggest holding a Best-Self Kickoff each time a person changes managers or moves into a new role. We suggest scheduling the meeting within the first week that a person is in a new role or has a new manager and holding the meeting sometime within the first month.
After a manager completes a Best-Self Kickoff, we recommend they hold a role-clarity conversation with their direct report. This meeting helps set their direct reports up for long-term success by walking them through what’s expected of them as both an employee and teammate and discussing opportunities for growth. Access a template to guide a role-clarity conversation.
Note
Ensure that employees' job descriptions are uploaded to 15Five and up-to-date before managers hold role clarity meetings to ensure the conversation is productive. Learn how to upload and manage job information.
- Why: We heard from our most recent review cycle that we need to provide more support and clarity around XYZ
- What: Best-Self Kickoff and Career Hub
- When: Provide a timeline
- Who: Everyone
- Next step: Everyone is encouraged to fill out their “About” Tab on the 15Five homepage.
Make filling out the 'About' tab on the 15Five home page a required step in your onboarding process for new hires. Once everyone has filled out their 'About' tab, managers should schedule Best-Self Kickoffs with all new hires. Leaders can assign managers the task of holding Best-Self Kickoffs with their direct reports using bulk actions or as part of an Action Plan.
Additional resources 📖
- Help Center article 💡: Hold a Best-Self Kickoff
- Template 🗒️: Role-clarity conversation template
- Blog post ✍️: Unlock Psychological Safety At Scale With The Best-Self Kickoff
- Blog post ✍️: Take Employee Onboarding To The Next Level With The Best-Self Kickoff
- Video 🎥: Introducing the Best-Self Kickoff
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) ❓
Leaders can assign managers the task of holding Best-Self Kickoffs with their direct reports using bulk actions or as part of an Action Plan.
Ideally, Best-Self Kickoffs should be held at the very beginning of a manager/employee relationship. They can also take place after a promotion or role change, or at any other point that managers want to reset and reconnect with their existing direct reports.
No— Best-Self Kickoffs are intended to build employee <> manager relationships and can only take place between managers and their direct reports.