March 2005 Leadership Coaching Newsletter
This Month's Topic: Leading with Questions, Not Answers
At a management holiday party, a Rodney Dangerfield “wanna-be” had the house roaring at his boss’ expense. His most memorable line of the night was more like a joke: “As an executive in this place, I pride myself in not being a yes-man – seriously, if the boss says no, I say no.”
His punch line raises an important matter for discussion: If you feel your management team acts like a bunch of “yes-men,” how will you ever get to the heart of important issues – or get to the “brutal facts,” as author Jim Collins writes in his management book “Good to Great?”
Collins notes this common trait about great companies, “A primary task in taking a company from good to great is to create a culture wherein people have a tremendous opportunity to be heard and, ultimately, for the truth to be heard.”
There’s an age-old dilemma about truth telling, and what to do about it in most companies. All too often the truth of “confronting the brutal facts” takes a back seat to the “yes-man” syndrome already mentioned.
Imagine your boss at the office saying to you, “Looks like we’re going to hit our numbers this month. Isn’t that GREAT?” You’re likely to say something like: “Wow! That IS great! But, the unspoken truth might be more like, “Yeah, but I wonder if we had listened to that customer suggestion for increasing our service in the X area if we would have doubled our numbers instead of just meeting them?” But, that’s not what you say. Explaining how you really feel about hitting the numbers will not change the outcome, or will it?
Unsaid “stuff” The trouble is, there is a lot of unsaid “stuff” in most organizations – silence that embraces the status quo. There are a lot of reasons managers decide to stay on the sidelines instead of getting in the game, they:
If you just want people on your team who follow your lead rather than engaging you and other colleagues in constructive debate, you are likely making many poor business decisions over the long haul.
But if you want to take your performance to a higher level, consider holding people accountable for rooting out and questioning objective data, being more honest in sharing their opinions, and confronting the brutal facts. It will help you affirm your direction, suggest a course correction, or create a new direction or predict a head-on collision.
Where this kind of open culture exists, you’ll find energy everywhere - from confident leaders to excited employees. Sometimes frank and open discussion creates an energetic, creative, and innovative culture that helps to further embrace the original premise or conviction, generate an entirely new idea, or create a paradigm shift in the direction or strategy. It all starts with curiosity to know more about a topic and be willing to ask a myriad of questions to open up a discussion.
Excuse me – I have a question. How and when you confront the “brutal facts” of your business, however, may depend on your position. If you are the leader, you can avoid the “echo-effect” of hearing what you’ve already said by asking questions yourself:
If you hold a junior position and wish to proceed with caution, your first question may be: “Can we continue the discussion a little further?” With agreement, let the questioning begin.
How does questioning help? Questioning helps you:
The management teams that Collins profiled do not simply invite debate; many behave like legal prosecutors – digging, digging and digging for truth that will help them in their strategic decisions, respecting individual opinions in the process.
In other companies engaging in the questioning process is more of a “blood-sport” used to “score points.” Remember: you’ll achieve much better results, by staying focused on opportunities for improvement and respecting others opinions and suggestions. You’ll be surprised at the results after everyone realizes it’s OK to ask questions and challenge peers and leaders without repercussions.
Next Time, Lead with a Question Come to your next leadership meeting or one-on-one meeting with questions that dig a little deeper. Lead with curiosity. Try to avoid asking only questions that only have “yes” or “no” answers, and you will be surprised at what you find out. Think about your questions in advance.
What you are attempting to do through the questioning process is to get from being “good-enough” to being great! One way to do that is through honest discourse among your peers and employees.
If you want to learn more about building a team that uses questions effectively, call me. I will have a lot of questions - to help move you forward.
Leadership Coaching Newsletter is written and produced by Wendy Capland. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to: wcapland@visionquestconsulting.com. We'd love to hear from you.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, visit our website: Click Here. Feel free to forward this newsletter. Permission is granted to reproduce, copy, or distribute as long as copyright and full author contact information is included. Thank you. Copyright Wendy Capland 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005. All rights reserved. - Want to “play nice”
- Fear reactions from their boss or their peers
- Are concerned expectations of the value of their contributions may be viewed as too low
- Find “going with the flow” is sometimes just easier
“We guarantee refunds on all our products – so, why are we having to make good on the guarantee 17% of the time? How much can we cut that number? What will it mean to the bottom line? What would have to change in the way we do our business to have this number reduced?”
“Three of our competitors have taken 10% of our market-share through online sales. What do we need to do to get those customers back and to start growing the business again?” What opportunities can we create? What roadblocks might we run into?
“Energy costs are adding more than two percent to our operating costs. What can we do to get back on plan?”