The Stop-Start-Continue Leadership Question

Would you want to be led by You?

One of my mentors told me a long time ago that a leader is only as good as the questions they ask. As an executive coach, I find that many leaders have a blind spot here; they aren’t asking hard questions about themselves, their teams, and their companies. We know it’s important as a leader to give feedback, but for personal growth, improved self-awareness, leadership development, organizational growth, and culture enhancement, it’s equally important to receive feedback about ourselves, our teams, and our companies.

The Stop-Start-Continue leadership question poses three simple questions that invite clear feedback. I encourage my clients to use Stop-Start-Continue in one-on-one meetings with their direct reports, as well as in team meetings. The method provides an opportunity to get feedback on leadership style, as well as to identify areas for improvement within their teams, and/or company. Used with a positive and self-searching mindset, it’s an effective and quick way to increase awareness and, therefore, emotional intelligence.

What are the Goals of Stop-Start-Continue?

Step 1: Stop – The goal is to “stop” and take some time to identify processes, actions, and behaviors that the leader and/or the team need to stop doing: things that are inefficient or counterproductive; things that demotivate or damage trust; and in general things that don’t achieve desired outcomes.

Step 2: Start – The goal is to “start” correcting the identified areas for improvement by determining what new processes, actions, and behaviors the leader and/or the team need to start doing to improve efficiency, communication, engagement, productivity, and in general help to achieve desired outcomes.

Step 3: Continue – The goal is to identify which processes, actions, and behaviors that are already working well and should be “continued.”

How Does Stop-Start-Continue Work?

Let’s look at some hypothetical examples. These illustrate how each question in the Stop-Start-Continue set can help to stop counterproductive behaviors or processes, start new, positive ones, and continue doing things that are already working well.

The Stop Question

• By considering the Stop question, a leader realizes that continually questioning the team’s decisions causes them to feel micromanaged, and instead begins to focus on empowering and supporting team members in making their own decisions.

• A team considers the Stop question together and decides to stop using an inefficient process or technology that slows down productivity or wastes their time with manual tasks.

  
  

The Start Question

• A leader, using the Start question, realizes that the team is not communicating effectively and starts having monthly one-on-one meetings to improve trust and collaboration.

• A team considers the Start question and decides to start quarterly team outings to build relationships, engagement, and trust.

  
  

The Continue Question

• A leader continues to let members of the team take turns leading the monthly team meeting, because it is clear the team members value the opportunity to build group communication and presentation skills.

• A team continues acknowledging each other’s help and the team’s successes in the monthly team meeting, because they realize that this boosts morale and strengthens trust.

  
  

When Should You Use Stop-Start-Continue?

While Stop-Start-Continue can be valuable in a wide range of contexts, these examples illustrate its typical use:

• When improving team performance as a new or established manager

• To enhance communication across the organization

• For boosting employee engagement and motivation

• To optimize productivity, execution speed, or workflows

• To build trust

  
  

Implementing Stop-Start-Continue with Direct Reports

Stop-Start-Continue is an ideal exercise to use on occasion in one-on-one meetings with direct reports. Ask each team member to consider these questions in an upcoming one-on-one meeting and discuss their answers in a subsequent meeting.

Question #1: What do I need Stop doing that gets in the way of leading and communicating with you and/or others on the team? 

Question #2: What do I need to Start doing that would improve how I lead and communicate with you and/or others on the team?

Question #3: What do I need to Continue doing that is working well in terms of how I lead and communicate with you and/or the team?

Implementing Stop-Start-Continue with a Team/Company

When going through this exercise with a team or company, I recommend doing this in a strategy type meeting and setting. Allow ample time to brainstorm each question together as a team and use the process as an opportunity for team building.

Question #1: What should we as a team or company Stop doing? Get the team to talk about what hasn’t worked out as planned, what’s not producing the desired result, or anything that is hindering team performance.

Question #2: What should we as a team or company Start doing? Ask for ideas on what you or the team can do to make things better, improve performance, provide better customer experience, or increase efficiency.

Question #3: What should we as a team or company Continue doing? It’s important to remember the things that went right, so be sure to affirm what’s working well and should continue. This is a great opportunity to remind people of the good things to be proud of.

If there are more than eight people in the team meeting, I highly recommend pairing people up in groups of two or three to brainstorm as a small group, then go around the room and have each group share their ideas and thoughts.

Best Practices for Getting the Most from Stop-Start-Continue

Remember to ask these questions from a curious mindset. Be careful of your tone, facial expressions, and body language. You want your direct reports and teams to feel comfortable and give you their open and honest feedback. If you are defensive or try to rationalize things, they won’t want to speak honestly in the future. If you don’t get any feedback, then that’s a signal that you need to work on building trust. In that scenario I recommend “priming the well” by sharing some feedback you’ve received about yourself in an area where you are currently working to improve.

Here’s how you might make this work. Identify the Stop (what you need to work on, as in a target goal). Then identify how you’re going to accomplish this (including specific actions, behaviors, and frequency that help achieve the target goal). Be specific about when these actions will occur (timelines and/or dates to start seeing results). Finally, identify a metric that would be a good indicator of how you’re moving the needle in the right direction.

Stop-Start-Continue Worksheet

Here’s a link to a Stop-Start-Continue Worksheet that provides a helpful guide for documenting the feedback you receive in asking these questions and the action plan to achieve desired results.

I hope you find the Stop-Start-Continue Leadership question an effective tool that you will “Start” and “Continue” using with your teams.