One of the big “aha” moments for leaders is when they finally realize that they control very little. The sooner they realize this truth, the sooner they can become an effective leader.
Leaders spend so much of their time trying to shape, guide, motivate, incentivize and energize people to go in the direction they want them to. Interestingly enough, when John Kotter wrote his book on Leading Change, he suggested that 70% of change initiatives and programs have failed. He went on to describe a prescription for leading change that seemed to make practical and logical sense. However, with all those efforts, and over 1800 books on the subject later, the results haven’t changed (McKinsey & Company).
The authors of the McKinsey & Company research article, The Inconvenient Truth About Change Management suggest several new approaches to change management that leaders would do well to consider.
The one illustration that stands out in the article is reference to research conducted by Ellen J. Langer. A group of researchers conducted a study in which one group was given lottery tickets with randomly drawn numbers, while the other group was allowed to select their own combination of numbers for their tickets. Prior to drawing the numbers the researchers offered to buy back the tickets. They were trying to find out how much (if any) more they would have to pay someone who wrote their own ticket, compared to those who were given random tickets. As illogical as it may seem to you who are reading this, it took five (5) times as much money to purchase the tickets with the numbers the participants had self-selected, even though the odds of winning were really no different.
This story illustrates that when we chose for ourselves, we are far more committed to the outcome. With this being the case, it is critical for leaders to focus less on telling, rewarding, motivating, incentivizing, and more on asking, listening, and drawing out until people write their own story that engages them in our mutual effort.
I’ll never forget sitting in the office of the CEO of a very successful home builder as we discussed the reason people get up and come to work, i.e. the mission of the company, or the daily marching orders for the employees. As we went back and forth on this, I asked him to invite a random person in from the hall way and listen to them tell their story. It turned out that she was someone’s administrative assistant. I asked her why she worked at the company, or what really got her up and energized about coming to work every day. And in one sentence, she wrote the mission of the company when she said,"I love working here because 'We provide more people with more home than they ever dreamed possible'”.
The reality is that every person in that company has their own reason and story for what energizes them about what they do. These are stories that need to be drawn out and heard. It is these stories that elevate employee engagement and create the competitive advantage of great organizations.
Our job as leaders is to help them tell their story, and embrace it.
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Thursday, April 14, 2011
When Strengths Become Weaknesses
I have been working in the area of Executive Assessment, Executive Coaching and Leadership Development for several years. If we have learned nothing else about leadership over the past few years, we have learned that no one can be all things to all people, nor can one person have all the competencies required for all aspects of their role as a leader. Even the very strengths required for our success have their “shadow side” that has the potential to derail us, or at minimum, to create problems for us. If it is not bad enough that our strengths have potential to create problems for us, consider what happens to us under stress. Our stress behaviors, which under ordinary circumstances, are hidden from view, jump off the page, and tend to surprise everyone, sometimes even us. Here are just a few examples of the “Shadow Side” of Leadership Strengths:
- Sensitivity to Others – valuable for effective listening, collaboration, gaining cooperation, and building teams. However, the shadow side is the tendency to avoid conflict, failing to confront problem performers, or sidestepping a change that may create resistance.
- Organized, structured and detail oriented – great for pulling a plan together and driving to action. The shadow side may be the tendency to be rigid, inflexible and to micromanage their people.
- Smart, confident, self assured and competitive – great for leading others toward achieving a vision or goal. The shadow side could present as arrogance and intimidation.
- Valuing education, learning and keeping up with the latest trends in their industry or profession may present a shadow side that looks like arrogance and being a “know-it-all”.
- Solid, data driven, analytical problem solver may tend to show a shadow side as one who is cold and unconcerned about or unaware of the impact of their decisions on others.
- Friendly, gregarious, approachable, always making a positive first impression may show a negative tendency to wanting to be the center of attention, dominating social interactions, failing to listen, interrupting others, and overestimating their own importance.
We have all witnessed the tragedy of leaders whose strengths turned into their greatest weakness and eventually led to their derailment. The good news is that the latest trends in leadership development, especially with the addition of Assessments, 360s and Coaching, are providing leaders with the opportunity see themselves for who they really are, to see themselves as they are seen by others, to understand their personal patterns of responding to stress, and providing them with an opportunity to develop strategies that can keep them on the trajectory for achieving the vision they have set for themselves.
Your first step forward is to be open to the development process and to take advantage of every opportunity to develop your self- awareness, identifying your strengths and their shadow sides, as well as your tendencies under stress. With that insight you can develop a plan for maximizing your strengths, minimizing the impact of the shadow side of your strengths and begin to eliminate your unproductive stress behaviors.
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
Transtions
Transitions. We all go through them. Everyone we lead goes through them. Usually we are going through several at any given time. Some of these transitions are planned and prepared for, while others are imposed on us. We go through some transitions because they represent our greatest desires and help us move in the direction we have been pursuing. We go through others out of necessity or simply in order to survive.
My wife and I recently celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary. We were sitting in a restaurant that happened to have butcher paper as a table cloth. (Really! It was a very nice restaurant worthy of the occasion.) As we anticipated yet another transition in our lives, we began to recount the numerous transitions we had experienced during our 36 years together, and we wrote them on the table. We wrote of the birth of our three children, becoming in-laws, and grandparents, all our moves (too many), different jobs, unique places where we have lived, visited or vacationed, the variety of houses and automobiles (again - too many) we have enjoyed, and the unique experiences in which we have been blessed to participate. At the end of the dinner the butcher paper table cloth was full of little notes and lists. We recounted a life of transitions and realized how blessed we have been. And yes, we did take the paper with us for as a reminder of this special night.
Not all of those transitions have been easy. In fact, I would say that most of them, even the ones we have chosen, have been hard. We have learned a lot about our selves through them. The one thing that came out of the discussion is how important it has been for us to maintain our core values and our commitment to one another. Otherwise we would never have survived some of those most challenging transitions, and would be very different people than we are today.
We are fortunate that these core values have been in place from early on in our lives. They have been the anchor holding us steady through the joys and heartaches of life. In addition to those values we have had a clear vision for where we want to be when we get there. "There" represents some time in the distant future when we are wrapping up on life. That clear vision has helped us know what to say yes to and what to decline. It has enabled us to make choices that we believe will help us achieve our vision.
In conclusion:
Change Happens.
Change can be Tough.
Multiple Changes at the same time can be Tougher.
Core Values are the Anchor.
A Clear Vision serves as a Compass to Keep you on Track.
For additional reading, go to my website and read the Strong-Ties story.
My wife and I recently celebrated our 36th wedding anniversary. We were sitting in a restaurant that happened to have butcher paper as a table cloth. (Really! It was a very nice restaurant worthy of the occasion.) As we anticipated yet another transition in our lives, we began to recount the numerous transitions we had experienced during our 36 years together, and we wrote them on the table. We wrote of the birth of our three children, becoming in-laws, and grandparents, all our moves (too many), different jobs, unique places where we have lived, visited or vacationed, the variety of houses and automobiles (again - too many) we have enjoyed, and the unique experiences in which we have been blessed to participate. At the end of the dinner the butcher paper table cloth was full of little notes and lists. We recounted a life of transitions and realized how blessed we have been. And yes, we did take the paper with us for as a reminder of this special night.
Not all of those transitions have been easy. In fact, I would say that most of them, even the ones we have chosen, have been hard. We have learned a lot about our selves through them. The one thing that came out of the discussion is how important it has been for us to maintain our core values and our commitment to one another. Otherwise we would never have survived some of those most challenging transitions, and would be very different people than we are today.
We are fortunate that these core values have been in place from early on in our lives. They have been the anchor holding us steady through the joys and heartaches of life. In addition to those values we have had a clear vision for where we want to be when we get there. "There" represents some time in the distant future when we are wrapping up on life. That clear vision has helped us know what to say yes to and what to decline. It has enabled us to make choices that we believe will help us achieve our vision.
In conclusion:
Change Happens.
Change can be Tough.
Multiple Changes at the same time can be Tougher.
Core Values are the Anchor.
A Clear Vision serves as a Compass to Keep you on Track.
For additional reading, go to my website and read the Strong-Ties story.
Monday, January 3, 2011
Exceptional Leaders are People of Integrity
I was recently asked to speak to a group of business leaders in Florida on the topic of Integrity. This character trait is often sited as a critical success factor in the people we seek to employ. Some leaders have said that without Integrity all other success factors are null and void. I tend to agree with that statement, but I do so based on my own beliefs and values which form my definition of Integrity.
Integrity, simply means "wholeness". One has integrity to the extent they behave according to the beliefs and principles they claim to hold. So you see, a person can be a person of integrity and still do some pretty despicable things that are consistent with their own beliefs and values. That has become apparent to me on numerous occasions as I have witnessed people behaving in ways that are not only opposed to my own, but to the larger norms of the company or their society in general.
So, one's beliefs and values determine their Integrity. I happen to hold to a Christian worldview that defines Integrity as living in accordance with personal convictions that are based on an understanding of God’s purposes for creation, humankind, and for me as one of his followers. As I continue to study the Bible I have come to believe that these are pretty high standards and present a challenge to strive for.
So I have a few questions for you:
What do you believe?
Why do you believe it?
What kinds of behaviors do your beliefs demand of you?
Have you come to recognize your own vulnerability to violate those beliefs, and if so what are you doing to minimize that likelihood?
How do the answers to these questions shape your definition of Integrity?
Is that definition of integrity shared by those you report to, to the extent that you are comfortable reporting to them?
To those from whom you demand integrity, do they share your understanding of the definition you have given it, and have they agreed to abide by it?
Have you made your definition clear to them so they have clear guidelines or principles upon which to act and perform their duties?
If you haven't already taken your company through an exercise of values discovery, now would be a good time to do so. If you already have your corporate values defined and posted on the wall somewhere, maybe it's time to revisit them and make sure their is alignment around what they mean and what they demand.
Integrity, simply means "wholeness". One has integrity to the extent they behave according to the beliefs and principles they claim to hold. So you see, a person can be a person of integrity and still do some pretty despicable things that are consistent with their own beliefs and values. That has become apparent to me on numerous occasions as I have witnessed people behaving in ways that are not only opposed to my own, but to the larger norms of the company or their society in general.
So, one's beliefs and values determine their Integrity. I happen to hold to a Christian worldview that defines Integrity as living in accordance with personal convictions that are based on an understanding of God’s purposes for creation, humankind, and for me as one of his followers. As I continue to study the Bible I have come to believe that these are pretty high standards and present a challenge to strive for.
So I have a few questions for you:
What do you believe?
Why do you believe it?
What kinds of behaviors do your beliefs demand of you?
Have you come to recognize your own vulnerability to violate those beliefs, and if so what are you doing to minimize that likelihood?
How do the answers to these questions shape your definition of Integrity?
Is that definition of integrity shared by those you report to, to the extent that you are comfortable reporting to them?
To those from whom you demand integrity, do they share your understanding of the definition you have given it, and have they agreed to abide by it?
Have you made your definition clear to them so they have clear guidelines or principles upon which to act and perform their duties?
If you haven't already taken your company through an exercise of values discovery, now would be a good time to do so. If you already have your corporate values defined and posted on the wall somewhere, maybe it's time to revisit them and make sure their is alignment around what they mean and what they demand.
Friday, December 3, 2010
Executive Amplification
I ran across this term, Executive Amplification, recently in an article in the Wall Street Journal and latched on to it because it clearly identifies an impactful phenomenon for leaders. The impact can be positive, but unfortunately, it can also be incredibly negative. Executive Amplification refers to what occurs when you come into a senior leadership position. Your behavior begins to be scrutinized in ways you never imagined. The people around you are watching your dress, your behavior, what you joke about, what you laugh about. They hear your words of encouragement and your unintentional slights with greater amplification than you could ever imagine. I say "unintentional" because, so often, your intentions are not what are seen by those you lead or influence. As such, you can only rely on them so far and so long before you lose credibility because of your behavior.
Linda Parker Hudson of BAE Systems tells about a time shortly after her promotion to lead the U.S. division, when she told her direct reports of her intentions to increase responsiveness to e-mails. To her surprise her direct reports were sleeping by their blackberries to respond to the e-mails she would send in the middle of the night. Needless to say, she had to curb her behavior of sending late night e-mails to relieve their stress.
Don Soderquist, retired COO and Senior Vice Chairman of the Board for Walmart, and a friend whom I worked for for several years, tells of the time when he was first promoted to President of Ben Franklin Stores. In a meeting he made mention in passing how helpful it might be to have the data to demonstrate a specific aspect of the business. In no way had he given a directive to anyone. Nevertheless, to his complete surprise, he had a comprehensive report on his desk shortly after the meeting. Mentioning this to one of his colleagues, he was reminded that his words and gestures were now being viewed differently that ever before.
The worst aspect of this Executive Amplification is when it begins to have a negative impact on other great leaders. I witnessed one leader whose personal morals were questionable, but who had been able to get good results in the organization he served. When he took over as the senior executive of a particular division of the business, I watched in amazement at how quickly so many people who had previously demonstrated strong moral leadership in their personal lives and relationships set these high standards aside and got caught up in the immorality that was being demonstrated by this executive. Marriages were destroyed, families broken up, jobs were lost because leaders were having affairs with their subordinates, felonies were being committed and reputations were obliterated. Under the previous leadership in this organization, this kind of behavior may have been present, but it was minimal. I was struck by the impact that a single leader can have.
Not all Executive Amplification is a bad thing. It can actually be used for positive effects. As the previous example demonstrates, when the previous leader exhibited and demonstrated strong personal moral fiber, so did his subordinates. His behavior, reinforced by his speeches and actions, helped create a values-driven, family-friendly culture.
As senior leaders, the people in your organization are paying attention to your every move. They are determining what is important to you by watching what you do, who you hire, who you promote, who you demote or terminate, what gets your attention, what makes you laugh, what you say and whether your actions are consistent with your message. As one of my professors in graduate school made clear, You cannot not communicate. All of your behavior is communicating something all the time. You are always on. This is especially so for senior leaders and executives. It is critical that you are certain that the message that is being delivered is the message you are intending to communicate. Otherwise people are left to draw their own conclusions.
Too often, due to the lack of feedback or personal failure to be socially aware, leaders are blind to what they are actually communicating. That is where an Executive Coach can be helpful as they help you identify the blind spots and develop strategies for knowing what you are communicating, and for improving your leadership effectiveness.
Linda Parker Hudson of BAE Systems tells about a time shortly after her promotion to lead the U.S. division, when she told her direct reports of her intentions to increase responsiveness to e-mails. To her surprise her direct reports were sleeping by their blackberries to respond to the e-mails she would send in the middle of the night. Needless to say, she had to curb her behavior of sending late night e-mails to relieve their stress.
Don Soderquist, retired COO and Senior Vice Chairman of the Board for Walmart, and a friend whom I worked for for several years, tells of the time when he was first promoted to President of Ben Franklin Stores. In a meeting he made mention in passing how helpful it might be to have the data to demonstrate a specific aspect of the business. In no way had he given a directive to anyone. Nevertheless, to his complete surprise, he had a comprehensive report on his desk shortly after the meeting. Mentioning this to one of his colleagues, he was reminded that his words and gestures were now being viewed differently that ever before.
The worst aspect of this Executive Amplification is when it begins to have a negative impact on other great leaders. I witnessed one leader whose personal morals were questionable, but who had been able to get good results in the organization he served. When he took over as the senior executive of a particular division of the business, I watched in amazement at how quickly so many people who had previously demonstrated strong moral leadership in their personal lives and relationships set these high standards aside and got caught up in the immorality that was being demonstrated by this executive. Marriages were destroyed, families broken up, jobs were lost because leaders were having affairs with their subordinates, felonies were being committed and reputations were obliterated. Under the previous leadership in this organization, this kind of behavior may have been present, but it was minimal. I was struck by the impact that a single leader can have.
Not all Executive Amplification is a bad thing. It can actually be used for positive effects. As the previous example demonstrates, when the previous leader exhibited and demonstrated strong personal moral fiber, so did his subordinates. His behavior, reinforced by his speeches and actions, helped create a values-driven, family-friendly culture.
As senior leaders, the people in your organization are paying attention to your every move. They are determining what is important to you by watching what you do, who you hire, who you promote, who you demote or terminate, what gets your attention, what makes you laugh, what you say and whether your actions are consistent with your message. As one of my professors in graduate school made clear, You cannot not communicate. All of your behavior is communicating something all the time. You are always on. This is especially so for senior leaders and executives. It is critical that you are certain that the message that is being delivered is the message you are intending to communicate. Otherwise people are left to draw their own conclusions.
Too often, due to the lack of feedback or personal failure to be socially aware, leaders are blind to what they are actually communicating. That is where an Executive Coach can be helpful as they help you identify the blind spots and develop strategies for knowing what you are communicating, and for improving your leadership effectiveness.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Exceptional Leaders are Strategic Thinkers: Frank Broyles on Strategy
Though I am Texan with a fondness for the Longhorns, I have become an avid Razorback fan, and as a result, a fan of the entire Southeastern Conference. I have enjoyed the privilege (because of my association with Cameron Smith & Associates) of participating in the monthly luncheons of the newly formed Arkansas Razorback Touchdown Club where we have great camaraderie with other fans, listen to great speakers and get a little insight from players, coaches and sports analysts.
Today, I had the privilege of hearing Coach Broyles. I have heard him speak on many occasions, and I believe today, he was a strong as I have heard him. What impressed me most today came as a result of my current focus on Leader Development and Executive Coaching. One of the things that is required of the successful Executives is that they must be strategic thinkers. My experience is that many executives get so busy with their focus on the immediacy of the current tasks that the tyranny of the urgent eliminates their capacity for strategic thinking. Not so for the leaders of Razorback sports over the years. Frank Broyles told two stories today that helped me appreciate the strategic thinking of those that have led this enterprise.
When ask what the most significant defining moment was for Razorback Athletics, Frank (after pausing to consider the defeat of Texas in Austin) pointed to his predecessor, Coach Barnhill, who later became Athletic Director. He told the story of how Coach Barnhill, in the 1940s realized the uniqueness of the Arkansas situation. His challenge was to build a world class, competitive sports program in a university that was situated off in the Northwest Corner of the state, and in a state with a very small fan base potential. Coach Barnhill knew that in order to move the program in the right direction, it would require an energized fan base. He developed a strategy to gain the loyalty of those potential fans. He focused his attention on convincing the radio stations across the state to exclusively air the Razorbacks games, instead of those of the Razorbacks and the adjoining state competitiors. That strategy paid off as fans throughout the state rallied around those radio stations to support the Razorbacks. Additionally, the Gazette newspaper took on a similar focus. It wasn’t long before the fan base was unlike any other in sports. The strategy was paying off. Coach Broyles said that when he came here from his stints as a coach in Georgia and Texas, he was amazed at how a state of so few people could rally such support for its teams. That is when he made his decision to focus his efforts on getting the top job.
Of course, getting Coach Broyles to Arkansas was a pretty good strategic move as well. Not only was he a great coach, he was also a great strategic thinker. Maybe it was his mentor and predecessor that instilled that leadership trait. He described the thought processes behind the decision to switch from the Southwest Conference to the Southeastern Conference. As a leader who allowed himself time to step back and think strategically about his business, he could see both opportunity and threats. He saw major league sports come into states like Texas and dominate the headlines and erode the fan base away from college sports. He began to consider what might happen should this continue, or should Texas decide to leave the SWC. That is when he made the tough decision to transition to the SEC, (not a popular decision among most of the fans). Most fans today applaud that decision as having made an incredible impact on Razorback sports, which today boast a program that only states of two or three times the fan-base population can boast.
Are you taking time to step back from your business to think strategically, to get yourself out of the tyranny of the urgent to consider the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for your business, and what you are going to do about them? There two ways to make this happen. One is to force yourself to block time for the process. If you don’t make time for it, it will likely never occur. If it does not occur your competition may pass you by, or you may lose your job. Secondly, you will have to develop your people to take on the responsibilities they are capable of, so you can take time necessary to look two to three years out and consider what needs to change in order for you or your company to stay on the trajectory of success.
By the way, your people are capable of much more than you think, but that is a topic for a different discussion.
Today, I had the privilege of hearing Coach Broyles. I have heard him speak on many occasions, and I believe today, he was a strong as I have heard him. What impressed me most today came as a result of my current focus on Leader Development and Executive Coaching. One of the things that is required of the successful Executives is that they must be strategic thinkers. My experience is that many executives get so busy with their focus on the immediacy of the current tasks that the tyranny of the urgent eliminates their capacity for strategic thinking. Not so for the leaders of Razorback sports over the years. Frank Broyles told two stories today that helped me appreciate the strategic thinking of those that have led this enterprise.
When ask what the most significant defining moment was for Razorback Athletics, Frank (after pausing to consider the defeat of Texas in Austin) pointed to his predecessor, Coach Barnhill, who later became Athletic Director. He told the story of how Coach Barnhill, in the 1940s realized the uniqueness of the Arkansas situation. His challenge was to build a world class, competitive sports program in a university that was situated off in the Northwest Corner of the state, and in a state with a very small fan base potential. Coach Barnhill knew that in order to move the program in the right direction, it would require an energized fan base. He developed a strategy to gain the loyalty of those potential fans. He focused his attention on convincing the radio stations across the state to exclusively air the Razorbacks games, instead of those of the Razorbacks and the adjoining state competitiors. That strategy paid off as fans throughout the state rallied around those radio stations to support the Razorbacks. Additionally, the Gazette newspaper took on a similar focus. It wasn’t long before the fan base was unlike any other in sports. The strategy was paying off. Coach Broyles said that when he came here from his stints as a coach in Georgia and Texas, he was amazed at how a state of so few people could rally such support for its teams. That is when he made his decision to focus his efforts on getting the top job.
Of course, getting Coach Broyles to Arkansas was a pretty good strategic move as well. Not only was he a great coach, he was also a great strategic thinker. Maybe it was his mentor and predecessor that instilled that leadership trait. He described the thought processes behind the decision to switch from the Southwest Conference to the Southeastern Conference. As a leader who allowed himself time to step back and think strategically about his business, he could see both opportunity and threats. He saw major league sports come into states like Texas and dominate the headlines and erode the fan base away from college sports. He began to consider what might happen should this continue, or should Texas decide to leave the SWC. That is when he made the tough decision to transition to the SEC, (not a popular decision among most of the fans). Most fans today applaud that decision as having made an incredible impact on Razorback sports, which today boast a program that only states of two or three times the fan-base population can boast.
Are you taking time to step back from your business to think strategically, to get yourself out of the tyranny of the urgent to consider the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats for your business, and what you are going to do about them? There two ways to make this happen. One is to force yourself to block time for the process. If you don’t make time for it, it will likely never occur. If it does not occur your competition may pass you by, or you may lose your job. Secondly, you will have to develop your people to take on the responsibilities they are capable of, so you can take time necessary to look two to three years out and consider what needs to change in order for you or your company to stay on the trajectory of success.
By the way, your people are capable of much more than you think, but that is a topic for a different discussion.
Friday, November 12, 2010
The Art of the Question: Avoid the Destructive Hooks
Did you . . . ? Do you . . . ? Don’t you . . . ? Why didn’t you . . . ? Why don’t you . . . ? etc., etc., etc..
Have you ever worked for someone who had the knack of asking questions such as these, and all the while, you knew that he/she already had their mind made up as to the answer they wanted. Or, they ask the question as a means of scolding you for not thinking like them in the first place? Sometimes I wonder why these leaders hire other people. Why don’t they simply just do it all themselves? Or, if they already have an answer, why wouldn’t they outline what they wanted beforehand and tell others to get it done, rather than wait for the outcome different than what they wanted, then ask these types of destructive questions?
These are what have often been referred to as “loaded questions”. Whether intentional or not, these questions are often loaded with hooks attached to the end, i.e. “Why didn’t you . . . ?” And the invisible, unspoken hook at the end is “Stupid”! Rather than truly offering an opportunity for an explanation for your rationale in the decision making process, they often leave you feeling totally disrespected and incompetent.
I’ll never forget one executive asking me why I was documenting a plan for increasing the pay for one of our female managers. His question “Why would you do that?” The tone of the question and the inference was that such documentation was a stupid practice. Thus the hook: "Why are you doing that, stupid?" He went on to question my competence as an HR executive by pointing out that such documentation could be subject to deposition in a law suit. It was obvious that he wasn’t interested in my explanation that this practice would be exactly what would keep us from losing a discrimination lawsuit, because it documented both our intent to find and correct such problems, and it outlined our strategy for making this right and bringing her pay in line with others in similar roles and skill levels.
The arrogant leader will find this entire article ludicrous and blame the hearer rather than examine themselves.
The Exceptional Leader, however, works hard to master the Art of the Question for two reasons. First, they try to hire people smarter than themselves, and are very inquisitive about their thoughts, ideas and processes. They know that not everyone thinks like they do, and though they may have an idea about what they want done, they want others to bring their unique abilities and talents to the table to improve on the process. The more they ask open ended questions with an inquisitive mindset, the more they learn, and the more they appreciate the talented people in whom they have invested so much.
Secondly, these leaders know that the best way to lead a person is to help them discover better solutions. They use the Art of the Question to help people look deeper and analyze further. Rather than simply telling the “right way”, they ask questions that lead others through the process of discovery. They know that if the person is told, there may be compliance, but there is little learning and little commitment, but if people discover solutions through a deeper analysis, they have learned something new and their commitment is much stronger.
The next time you encounter something that frustrates you about the work of a direct report or subordinate, rather than reacting with one of the easy questions that has the invisible hooks, pause and consider a new approach. Ask the person to walk you through their thought, decision-making or problem-solving processes. You might actually learn something. If the answers are still inadequate, you have an opportunity to ask additional questions that will lead them to further discovery.
Have you ever worked for someone who had the knack of asking questions such as these, and all the while, you knew that he/she already had their mind made up as to the answer they wanted. Or, they ask the question as a means of scolding you for not thinking like them in the first place? Sometimes I wonder why these leaders hire other people. Why don’t they simply just do it all themselves? Or, if they already have an answer, why wouldn’t they outline what they wanted beforehand and tell others to get it done, rather than wait for the outcome different than what they wanted, then ask these types of destructive questions?
These are what have often been referred to as “loaded questions”. Whether intentional or not, these questions are often loaded with hooks attached to the end, i.e. “Why didn’t you . . . ?” And the invisible, unspoken hook at the end is “Stupid”! Rather than truly offering an opportunity for an explanation for your rationale in the decision making process, they often leave you feeling totally disrespected and incompetent.
I’ll never forget one executive asking me why I was documenting a plan for increasing the pay for one of our female managers. His question “Why would you do that?” The tone of the question and the inference was that such documentation was a stupid practice. Thus the hook: "Why are you doing that, stupid?" He went on to question my competence as an HR executive by pointing out that such documentation could be subject to deposition in a law suit. It was obvious that he wasn’t interested in my explanation that this practice would be exactly what would keep us from losing a discrimination lawsuit, because it documented both our intent to find and correct such problems, and it outlined our strategy for making this right and bringing her pay in line with others in similar roles and skill levels.
The arrogant leader will find this entire article ludicrous and blame the hearer rather than examine themselves.
The Exceptional Leader, however, works hard to master the Art of the Question for two reasons. First, they try to hire people smarter than themselves, and are very inquisitive about their thoughts, ideas and processes. They know that not everyone thinks like they do, and though they may have an idea about what they want done, they want others to bring their unique abilities and talents to the table to improve on the process. The more they ask open ended questions with an inquisitive mindset, the more they learn, and the more they appreciate the talented people in whom they have invested so much.
Secondly, these leaders know that the best way to lead a person is to help them discover better solutions. They use the Art of the Question to help people look deeper and analyze further. Rather than simply telling the “right way”, they ask questions that lead others through the process of discovery. They know that if the person is told, there may be compliance, but there is little learning and little commitment, but if people discover solutions through a deeper analysis, they have learned something new and their commitment is much stronger.
The next time you encounter something that frustrates you about the work of a direct report or subordinate, rather than reacting with one of the easy questions that has the invisible hooks, pause and consider a new approach. Ask the person to walk you through their thought, decision-making or problem-solving processes. You might actually learn something. If the answers are still inadequate, you have an opportunity to ask additional questions that will lead them to further discovery.
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