Ask to Win
Good morning, fellow leaders. Let me give you a leadership behavior with which to start your year that will decrease tension with your employees, increase your knowledge of your operation and, as a bonus, even improve things for you at home. What’s the behavior? Asking questions of those who follow you.No, I’m not talking about questions like “Why haven’t you gotten that project done yet?” or “Do you know what could happen if we don’t get your department’s numbers up?” I’m talking about asking questions of your employees about aspects of the jobs they do, the technologies they use to do them, the aspects of their customers that only they know, and innovative insights they alone have into problems your company faces right now. The first set of questions is adversarial and creates distance. The second set is collegial and creates unity.
Why am I suggesting you learn to do this? Because about 15 years ago American business passed into the Information Age. What this means is if your company is actually competitive today, many of your employees know more than you do about key aspects of the business. So the groundrules have changed about how you manage people that Peter Drucker called Knowledge Workers.
So get with it, friend. And as you do, I’ll bet you notice a greater sense of team around you at work, and a reduced need to ask those badgering deadline questions.
As always, if you have any stories or questions to share, I’d love to hear them!
Joe Pursch
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