03 Jul 3 SIMPLE IDEAS TO EMPOWER YOUR TEAM.
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I was asked in a group client session this week, ‘What are some quick tips for leaders about asking questions.’
I love that this question was asked, because it showed this group of leaders are thinking about how to move from ‘tell’ to ‘ask’ when working with their people. This is a significant step towards integrating more of a coaching approach into your leadership.
And adopting a coaching approach means you no longer must be the expert at everything or know the answer to everything. Rather you are tapping into your people’s expertise, ideas and initiative.
Here are 3 of the tips I shared about how to integrate questioning into your leadership approach.
1. CRAFT YOUR QUESTIONS WITH CLEAR PURPOSE
For example, if your purpose in asking the question is to elicit information, or to explore a topic, then you would use open questions.
Questions which begin with What, How, Who, Which or Where.
Alternatively, if your purpose is to gain confirmation or validation, you might use a closed question like:
- Is this ….?
- Do You …?
- Will you …?
- Have you …?
Your questions will have many different purposes. Knowing the purpose before you ask helps you frame the question to serve this purpose and move the conversation forward.
Make sure you are clear on your purpose before you ask.
2. ASK WITH THE INTENTION OF LISTENING TO THE ANSWER
Have you ever had someone ask you a question, and then had the feeling they didn’t listen when you answered them?
Probably.
And it doesn’t feel good, does it?
Why ask the question if you’re not really interested in the answer?
Consider this when you are interacting with the people around you. Are you asking the question you are interested in knowing the answer to?
Then, focus on really listening to the response.
3. ASK SPECIFIC QUESTIONS
Ask a general question, and you will likely get a general answer. Which is often not helpful to moving the conversation forward.
For example:
Q: ‘How was the meeting?’
A: ‘Fine’
Not a very useful response.
If you ask a specific question, you are more likely to get a specific answer?
For example:
Q: ‘What was the outcome of the meeting?’
The answer that follows is more likely to include the specific outcome of the meeting.
Now you can move the conversation forward.
Adopting questioning into your leadership does many things. Including building independence from you. Using an asking approach helps people to recognise what they already know, what they can figure out themselves, that they can make decisions, and much more.
You are simultaneously building capability and accountability.
When you use an asking approach, you help your people to take ownership of their area of responsibility. This is where integrating coaching, taking on the ask approach before telling, has so much power. You can help your people grow from “Tell me what to do” to “I think …” to “I recommend ….”
I see leaders so often get caught in being the expert, continuing to mentor, guide and tell people what to do, which can be exhausting, rather than scaling their leadership impact by adopting a coaching approach.
If you realise you need to be asking more questions in your everyday conversations, pick one of these ideas and see how many times you can bring this into your conversations during the next few days.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
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