What have you accomplished so far that you are most proud of? What about that accomplishment do you most appreciate? What will be the benefits for our customers if you can meet all these objectives? For our company? For our team? For you personally?
I trust these questions ask you to think. Are they typical of questions you might receive at work? During one of our leadership forums we discussed the fundamentals of these kinds of questions - often called effective questions. What is it about effective questions that is important for us to understand? At the heart of effective questions are seven main points: they "mine" the real experts in your company - your employees - for essential information, they build positive attitudes and self-esteem with individual members of the team, they unlock available potential of an organization, they determine what it will take to do what has not been done before, they involve people in management and decision-making processes, and create a high energy / high trust environment, and lastly, they dissolve resistance to change.
One of the first things you will notice about effective questions is that they begin with "what, how, who, or where. These questions allow another person to "fill in the blanks" and ask him or her to offer their best knowledge and opinion on the subject. These questions affirm the other person in that the individual may know the, or an answer, and therefore be validated.
In our businesses, certainly we want to be profitable. However, from an employee's perspective (one who isn't always connected so directly to the bottom line) it is really about being effective. Effective questions are essential to helping us be effective, and productive. The question throughout the business is really, "Are we effective or not?"
Questions can be productive, or they can be counter-productive. They can energize us or drain our energy. They can elicit our creativity or stifle it. Questions can open us and build trust, or they may cause defensiveness. Sometimes a person may ask great open questions and we may feel eager to answer. Those are empowering moments. There is the possibility that the person who may ask many questions that promote our feeling intimidated and disempowered.
One of the underlying factors we are getting at here is that statements do not elicit the information and buy-in that effective questions do. When we are involved in finding an answer, we feel validated and contributive. When someone makes a statement about what they think, or think we ought to be doing, we may shut down the communicative processes.
Let's look briefly at some fundamentals of effective questions. Effective questions are open-ended. This means they give people the opportunity to search deeply within themselves for possibilities rather than making a simple "yes" or "no" judgment. What deeper information does a simple "yes" or "no" give us?
Effective questions ask "what" or "how" instead of "why." Why questions may get to the significant part of the matter, however they also seem to generate instant resistance and defensiveness. We may feel we have to justify what we did. This shuts down creativity, and therefore affects productivity.
Effective questions help people learn through the process of answering. The most effective answers for people are their own. Few of us like to be told what or how to think. When people are told the answers they may understand them intellectually, however they still need to clarify and internalize them for themselves. Several years ago one of my CEO friends said, "By talking about my problem, oftentimes the answer comes up through my own throat." We invest in our own answers.
A major component of asking questions of others is to listen. By asking effective questions and listening, leaders show people they are open and willing to hear the answers - whatever they may be. By demonstrating interest and openness, leaders begin building trust and developing more effective relationships. "What would (how can we...) help build greater trust in our organization?"
What is the real message here? Effective questions build relationships among people. We can do nothing without people in our organizations. Whether people become part of the problem or the solution relates directly to the way leaders ask questions, or make statements. Effective questions are a gift to the person being asked the question, just as the answers are a gift to the person asking them. "What can I do to help you do your job better?"
What questions do you use to lead your organization? What questions do you ask of yourself? What would help you to be more effective?
Ref: Oakley, Ed and Krug, Doug, Enlightened Leadership, Stonetree Publishing (1991)
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