Asking questions is part of a leader’s job in church, politics, schools, or business.
Much is written in books, blog posts, and magazines about being a leader who asks and keeps asking questions. Hopefully, that’s you.
But you also want people in your organization who ask challenging, even annoying questions, and you better listen.
After thoughtful consideration, you’re beginning a new customer service policy, technology, or compensation plan. The county board you’re serving on is looking at projects that will cost significant sums.
You’ve consulted your advisers, who tell you it’s a great idea.
Your management team, for not all the right reasons, perhaps, says you’re on the right track.
You believe you looked at all the alternatives, and your decision is rock solid.
As the leader, you are brimming with confidence that the folks on the front line, along with your customers and constituents, will immediately see the benefits of your wise decision. And then…someone asks, “Why are we doing this again?”
It is a challenging and uncomfortable question at any time, especially when it comes from one of your front-line employees as you begin a new initiative. How dare they question you, the leader of this organization?
Why are people questioning you now?
Because you didn’t gather all the input that was there, despite what you believe.
No matter how good your outside advisers are, they can’t know all the questions they must answer. But they know you and how far they can go in challenging your assumptions. Did they challenge you enough?
Your management team may love or loathe you, but they always know how far they can go to question your decisions. Too often, that is not far enough. Keeping the boss happy may mean not asking the hard questions that are pressing on their minds.
The people closest to your customers and business processes see things you don’t. But, like your management team, they might think that you don’t want to hear the hard questions—likely because you’ve made that clear to them in some way at some point in the past.
As you add and develop staff, seek out those who ask a seemingly endless stream of questions. Assure them that you’ll consider every question and explain every decision. With the freedom to ask the hard ones (amid some nonsense), they will do so. And they’ll get better at it with time.
Thus empowered, they will be valuable collaborators in building a successful organization, and you will be a better leader.
One tactic to encourage your people to ask questions before making decisions is frequently conducting “Question Storms.” For example, what are 50 questions that need to be answered before we move forward with this project?
