Tired of always having the answer?
What questions is your leadership team asking? Perhaps more importantly, what questions is your leadership team NOT asking?
Your organization’s ability to ask the “right questions” is critical to its success. Unfortunately, your business, like mine, is likely at the effect of the training and experience each individual has received for years through American academia and culture - the training called having the “right answer”.
We see it daily in our lives:
- Our children are rewarded at school for the highest number of right answers
- Our businesses and organizations reward employees for having the right answers and doing the job correctly
- Our clients pay us handsomely for giving them the right answers
- We spend thousands of dollars a month or year marketing ourselves as “experts” - i.e. the one who has the best answers
So, it’s not surprising to consider that all of us have been programmed to have the “right answers”.
At first glance, having the right answer offers many benefits:
- Students who have more right answers get higher grades
- Workers who can solve problems quickly get more money and promotions
- People are recognized as experts when they have more of the right answers
It would seem that having the right answers is all we need to succeed in life.
Today, I’m going to challenge that belief. Consider our emphasis on having the right answers actually debilitates us and keeps us small and safe.
You see, when we insist on having the right answers:
- We are attached to being right which drastically narrows our ability to create vision or get altitude (perspective) on situations
- We develop a powerful context of black/white or either/or thinking that kills off tremendous possibility
- We inhibit powerful creativity and access to new perspectives
- We frequently dis-empower our team leading to dissention and confusion
As leaders, we cannot afford to have the right answers.
Case in point - GM, Chrysler and Ford have all been playing the game of “right answers”. For years, they’ve been telling us what the best cars are to drive. For two of those three organizations, that philosophy has led to some incredibly tough times.
So what’s the alternative?
Please take a moment to reflect on the following question:
What’s possible for you, your business and your team if you spent just 20% more time focused on identifying the right questions?
In Germany, major business organizations (Diamler, Siemans, SAP for example), have entire departments dedicated to Grundsatzfragen, meaning “fundamental questions”. The primary role of this department is to create and discuss fundamental questions. When many of these companies have been acquired by a US company, the Grundsatzfagen departments have been eliminated. (Click for attribution and more)
Questions are the life-blood of creativity, reinvention and evolution. Questions stir vision, purpose and passion. Questions lead to some of the richest conversations that not only spur collaborative and intimate relationships, but ultimately lead to the most effective “right answers”.
Do you know what question led to the invention of the McDonald’s fast food empire? Ray Kroc asked, “Where can I get a good hamburger on the road?” Ray didn’t start with having the right answer.
Leadership Practices:
- Play a game. For one week, record the number of times you give people the answer. Scoring key = 0-3 times - great work empowering questions; 4-6 times - you’ve got some room to practice asking more questions; 7-10 times - congratulations - you’re not only the “answer-man/woman but you’ve effectively eliminated all creativity and have trained your team to be entirely dependent on you!
- Practice asking questions that evoke a future vision rather than solve a problem. For example, “What’s the possibility or opportunity we see inside our overtime situation?” rather than “How do we reduce overtime?”
- Create a semi-monthly meeting (twice a month) in which you and your leadership DO NOT answer a single question or issue. Make the sole purpose of this meeting to identify the “right questions” your leadership team needs to be asking.
- Invite a facilitator in to run a Leadership Cafe for you - it’s a powerful, structured experience that allows you to identify the right questions your oganization needs to be asking.
Giving up always having the answer may not happen overnight, but focusing on the right questions will get you further, create more success and, ultimately, have you develop a more fulfilling business and team.
Happy Curiosity,
-Coach Preston
Preston True Career Development, Leadership Development, Marketing Career Development, Client Development, Coaching, Leadership, Professional Development, Spirituality
Goal #144 - “Ask my partner to give three hours of his/her time per week, to release me to do something I really enjoy.” ~ Thomas Leonard, www.thomasleonard.com
As leaders in business and life, we’re called upon to have lots of answers. Frequently, we come up with an answer that works. As well, we come up with ones that don’t.