Tag Archives: questions

The Right Questions

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“Your team has its old method of solving the problem, but with this client, with this project, the old method is not working?” I asked.

Simon nodded in agreement.

“Your team has its own reasons for continuing the old method, even when it doesn’t work?” I continued. “What are those reasons?”

“I don’t know,” Simon suggested. “I suppose because that is the way they have always solved the problem before.”

“If you don’t know, then you are surprised when they don’t follow your direction,” I observed. “How are you going to find out?”

“Okay, okay,” Simon relented. “I have to ask them.”

“You have a goal, a target, a problem solved and a project complete,” I said. “How do you draw the team to productive behavior in solving the problem? They have their old way, you have a new way, but there is still a gap. How do you draw the team to your new way?”

“That’s the problem. If I ask, we will likely squander the precious time we have to fix the problem. They are likely to come up with unproductive solutions,” Simon was convinced.

“If you are not getting the response you want,” I smiled. “Are you asking the wrong questions?”

Under Deadline Pressure

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“I don’t get any respect,” Simon complained. “I was hired away from my old company because I was promised I would have my own team, run things the way I see fit. But, I get here and all I get is pushback from the team. All my ideas are challenged, sometimes behind my back. It’s almost toxic the way the team agrees with me in public and then goes back to the old way of doing things.”

“So, how do you think you will earn their respect?” I asked.

“Not sure,” he replied. “I had my manager come in and give a little pep talk to the team, including the part about how I was the new manager and they were supposed to do what I say.”

“And, you are telling me that didn’t work?” I smiled.

“It seems to have made things worse,” Simon lamented. “We have a big project that has been stuck for six months and the customer is threatening to cancel the contract and take it to one of our competitors. I know how to fix the bottleneck, but I can’t get the team to implement a new process. The more project pressure, milestone deadlines, the more they fall back on their old methods.”

“So, if you can’t tell them what to do, because that seems not to work, have you tried asking?” I continued to smile.

“You mean get on my knees and beg?” Simon snorted.

“You will have to come up with better questions than a lame request,” I said. “What happens if you open the team up with a question instead of a directive?”

“First of all, it will be time consuming. If I ask about a better way of doing something, they are likely to come up with all kinds of rabbit trails leading in the wrong direction.”

“But, it does open up the possibility of a better way than the old method, no?” I pressed.

“But the time,” Simon pushed back. “It will take a lot of time, time we don’t have.”

“Which would you rather?” I asked. “To spend an appropriate amount of time exploring alternative solutions, or an elongated period of time fighting the pushback to your solution?”

Questions and Stupidity

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“Instead of telling my team what to do, you want me to ask them questions?” Eliana confirmed.

I nodded.

“But, won’t that make it seem like I don’t know the answers?” she protested. “I don’t want to look stupid.”

“Better to ask a question, and appear stupid for a little while,” I replied, “than to never ask the question and be stupid for a long time.”

Shoelaces Untied

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“It’s time for my monthly coaching session,” Manuel explained. “I have some things I need to point out to some of my team.”

“Yes,” I agreed. “Negative feedback is necessary. If my shoes are untied, I need to know so I don’t fall on my face. But tying my shoes do not make me a high performer.”

Manuel looked down at his shoes, to make sure he was not the focus.  I continued, “What kind of feedback do you need?”

“Not a lot,” he said. “I have a pretty good idea when I perform well and when I fail.”

“Most competent people do,” I nodded. “You have a good sense when you are in struggle and when you are in flow. You have internal feedback sensitivities. When you are in flow, your body generates endorphins. When you struggle, your stomach doesn’t feel right.”

Manuel smiled. “That’s me. What about my team?”

“Reality always wins,” I replied. “You biggest job is to get in touch with it.** You are about to enter a coaching session with one of your team members. Giving advice, negative feedback, corrective action may get some shoelaces tied, but your biggest impact is getting your team member in touch with their reality. And, your description doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is their perception, their perception of circumstances, their perception of intention, their perception of performance and their perception of outcome. You only have a marginal impact with advice. You have a larger impact with questions. The best managers are not those who tell people what to do, but those who ask the best questions.”
—
**Shades of Pat Murray

Smartest Person?

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“I’m not trying to show off,” defended Alex. “I have the answer, it’s quicker, it solves the problem. I know it looks like I am a just being a glory hog, but I call it a touchdown!”

I waited. Alex was in no mood to listen, not even to himself. So, I waited some more. Finally, I spoke.

“Alex, three months ago, as our best technician, did we expect you to have the answers to the biggest decisions on your projects?”

“Absolutely, that’s why I got the promotion.”

“Yes, three months ago, we expected you to be the best, the smartest person in the room. That’s why we promoted you to manager. Do you think this is a different game now?”

“I suppose it is or I wouldn’t be sitting here in front of you.”

“Alex, the game is different. Before, we expected you to have all the answers. Now you are a manager. We expect you to have all the questions. Instead of being the smartest person, you may have to be the dumbest person. I want you to ask,

What if? By when? Why did that happen? When do we expect to finish? What could we do differently? How come that happened? What is stopping us?

“Just a few simple, dumb questions. It’s a different role you are playing, now.”

Constructive Criticism?

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“Never criticize, condemn or complain,” – Dale Carnegie.

To provide corrective feedback or constructive criticism may spring from a noble intent, AND the effort is futile, likely counterproductive to correcting a behavior or increasing the level of performance.

As a manager, are you required to deliver both positive feedback and corrective feedback?

Yes.

Delivering positive feedback is the easier of the two.

It is the corrective feedback that consternates most managers. Sometimes, delivering corrective feedback is so uncomfortable that managers avoid the conversation altogether.

Managerial effectiveness does not come from telling people what to do. Managerial effectiveness comes from asking the most effective questions.

Positive feedback – a strength I saw in your project, was your adherence to the schedule you created in the planning stage. The reason I say that is most people don’t have a plan, even if they do, they rarely use it to effectively guide the project.

Corrective feedback – if you had to do the same project again, what would you do differently? What impact would that have on the outcome of the project? If you made that change in the project, how would that look in the planning stage? What change would that make to the schedule? Who would need to be in the loop about this change?

The most effective managers are those that ask the most effective questions. And, it doesn’t sound like criticism.

What Else Do You Need to Know?

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Before you make any decision, before you solve any problem –

  • What do you need to know, to more clearly understand the problem?
  • Does what you know point to the symptom of the problem, or point to the cause the problem?
  • If you gave the cause of the problem a name, what would be its name?
  • What else do you need to know, to more clearly understand the cause of this problem you named?
  • Do you know enough about the cause of the problem to generate a plausible solution, or do you need to know more?
  • How would you explain the cause of the problem to someone else?
  • If you were someone else, how would you understand the cause of the problem differently?
  • If you were someone else, what other alternatives would you suggest?
  • As you consider these alternatives, could some be combined? Could you take the front end of one idea and patch it to the back end of another?
  • What would happen if you ran an alternative backward or upside-down?

Sometimes, solving a problem has more to do with questions than answers.

Shift the Coaching

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Arguments pit two people at loggerheads against each other. The interchange consists of declaratory statements that contradict.

Arguments shift to exploration when the declarations turn to questions. You will likely never persuade with declaratory statements. You will likely only influence with exploratory questions.

Declaratory statements can be ignored, interpreted, misinterpreted or rejected.

Questions require consideration, reflection and critical thinking.

Why? You Ask.

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The most effective managers are not those who tell people what to do, but those who ask the most effective questions.

Yet, some people would rather complain about a problem they can’t solve, than execute a solution they don’t like. Or, you miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take.

You will never learn from questions you don’t ask. So, why do we hesitate?

  • It’s uncomfortable to admit we don’t know.
  • The answer is obvious to everyone. Or it should be obvious to everyone, even if it’s not.
  • Our assumption may be wrong, but to ask a question requires us to re-examine what we believe to be true.
  • We might be wrong, but no one will notice, unless we ask the right question.

Asking questions takes us out of knowing mode and places us in learning mode.

Homage to Lee Thayer and Wayne Gretzky.

But, My Team Gives Me the Wrong Answer

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Our Working Leadership Series kicks off Sep 9, 2016 in Fort Lauderdale. For more information follow this link – Working Leadership.
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Question:
I use questions to coach my team members, and they provide answers but not always the right answer. As a result, the conversation can appear like an inquisition. It’s challenging, at that time, not to revert to “telling” rather than “asking“.

Response:
If you are asking a question and you don’t get the response you want, it’s not because the response is wrong, it’s because you are asking the wrong question. -Tom