In my quest to help organizations take meetings and conversations up a notch, one of my pet peeves is how (and even if) people ask great questions. As a consultant and coach, asking questions is a power tool in my tool kit. The tendency for managers and leaders to talk more than they listen is like throwing a bucket of water on your team and its engagement and performance.
In today’s video, I’ll share with you a few of my favourite tips in “The Power of Asking Questions.” This video series draws on some of the concepts and tips from my new book, Lead Conversations that Count: How Busy Managers Run Great Meetings.
I’d love to hear what kind of questions you find are really useful in your work! Please share your wins, or your challenges with me and I’ll do my best to address them in upcoming videos.
TRANSCRIPT OF VIDEO
I’m here today to share with you my next tip in my Lead Conversations That Count video series which is sharing insights and tips from my latest book Lead Conversations That Count: How Busy Managers Run Great Meetings.
Today’s tip is about the power of asking questions.
What I’ve seen in organizations is people who are in that position, perhaps they are new in that position of leading a group, perhaps you’re managing a group of colleagues who used to be your peers. It requires a bit of a mindset shift, doesn’t it? The mindset shift I want to offer in this video is about shifting from that pressure to feel like that you need to have and give all the answers and directions to opening up the space and asking more questions.
The problem when you’re busy talking all the time and giving all the answers to people is it’s not a discussion anymore. It’s not really even a dialogue. It becomes more of a presentation, it’s a one-way communication. Honestly, there’s a problem with that. You’re not hearing all the voices in the room, which is really important. As a result, you might be missing some key insights, and ideas, and perspectives that you need to take into account. Especially when we’re working in a hybrid or a virtual situation, people will zone out if they don’t feel that they can step in, collaborate and contribute to the discussion. Questions are a great way for unlocking the creativity and the commitment of the group to contribute their best to the conversation.
The first tip I want to offer is to Dial Up Curiosity. Even before you get into your session with your group, I want to really just have that question in mind, “Ooh, what am I going to discover today?” So get curious. Be like that scientist. Sure, you might discover things about the work, and people, the priorities and all the work and professional stuff. But I’m going to say that if you learn something about yourself as a leader, about what your comfort zone is, and how you’re stretching out of it, or what strength is that you bring, that’s valuable information as well. So dial up your curiosity, tip number one.
Tip number 2 is I want you to think about Asking Questions, not just at the tactical level, but at the strategic level. Go big picture as well. So many times in meetings I’ve seen people really drill down into a, “Well how are we gonna do this?”, “When is that gonna happen?” and, “I don’t know.” That’s important, but we also need to zoom back out sometimes. It’s part of your job as the leader of this group to ask the bigger questions like, “Where are our blindspots that we might be missing right now?”, “What is the next most important thing that we need to do?” “Are we asking the right questions here to solve this problem?” can be a great question to offer to your team. Ask questions that aren’t only just at the weeds level, but you want to also raise it up a level and make sure you’re looking across all the dynamics of the group, all of the dynamics of the problem that you’re trying to solve.
My third tip for you is, Let the questions land. Asking those questions, you will often be met, especially if they were good ones, you’re about to be met by silence. Live in that pause a little bit and let the questions land. So many people need to percolate on it, and think about it before they can answer. A big mistake I see sometimes with teams is that people ask great questions, there’s that pause, but then they rush in to try to answer. “I’m just going to offer a few little tidbits of maybe these are somewhat possible answers.” Resist that temptation if you can. Let the questions land, give people the space to really think about them and then get into the answer and discussion about it.
Okay so three tips for you. Dial up your curiosity, ask great questions at a strategic not just a tactical level, and give your group time and space for those question to land with them.
I hope that’s been helpful to you today! If you have any questions or you’d like some support with helping your manager lead conversations that count please reach out to me, I’d be happy to connect with you. Thanks so much, and I’ll see you soon!
