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Great Leaders Don't Answer Questions
- By Dike Drummond MD CPC
- Published 11/24/2008
- Leadership
- Unrated
Dike Drummond MD CPC
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Let's face it ... Business is a Team Sport ... with the Entrepreneur as the Team Leader.
Consistently growing your Team's capabilities is a high priority. Over time, a growing Team will become more productive and efficient ... accelerating the growth of your business and producing clear changes in your bottom line.
As the Leader you also get asked a LOT of questions.
One sure way to slow the growth of your business is to develop the habit of answering them.
Clients tell us that their Teams sometimes drive them crazy by asking for decisions on even minor things. There is only one way they learned to do that - YOU TRAINED THEM TO. You trained them by answering their questions in the first place.
And that habit of answering questions and making all the decisions will slow the growth of your people and the growth of your business.
===============
Here's are some examples:
===============
"Boss, Chuck and I just noticed the last bunch of widgets came off the line without flanges - there's 200 in the box already - what should we do?"
"I just found out the Havarti Cheese we need for today's sandwich special didn't get ordered ... what should we do?"
"We posted that article on http://EZineArticles.com last week and it didn't get any hits at all ... what should we do?"
Now you probably have a real good idea what you would like them to do
AND
What happens if you tell them?
What happens if you "Fix" the "Problem"?
You feel great - a real problem solver... take charge kinda person... a decision maker ... perhaps even a bit
of a HERO.
AND at the same time ...
- They learn to come to You for all problems in the future
- They are taught Not to think for themselves
- They take actions based on only one person's ideas - Yours
- The possibility for professional growth and Team problem solving is eliminated
- If your solution does NOT work, you get blamed and morale suffers
- In many larger business, over time the employees become "Sheep", just waiting passively to be told what to do
=================================
What else could you do? Try out this scenario.
=================================
"O.K. let's have a Team Meeting ASAP"
- Ask the whole team for ideas on how to respond to the critical issue
- Listen to everyone's ideas without evaluating or interrupting and, if you give your input at all, make sure to GIVE YOUR THOUGHTS LAST
- Help the TEAM decide the most appropriate response for the TEAM to take
** WHAT HAS HAPPENED? **
- The Team has learned to solve its own problem
- The entire Team's talents and experience were applied to the challenge
- Since the Team participated in creating the action plan, they are automatically bought in to putting it in place
- The whole Team has grown
- You didn't have to work so hard now and you will be able to count on the Team's expanding problem solving capabilities in the future!!
You just accelerated the growth and profitability of your company by NOT answering that question.
NOW THAT'S LEADERSHIP !!!
Challenge:
For the next month, keep a tally of the number of questions you DIDN'T answer and problems you DIDN'T solve. It just might be a tally of how much your Team grew in that same time frame.
Consistently growing your Team's capabilities is a high priority. Over time, a growing Team will become more productive and efficient ... accelerating the growth of your business and producing clear changes in your bottom line.
As the Leader you also get asked a LOT of questions.
One sure way to slow the growth of your business is to develop the habit of answering them.
Clients tell us that their Teams sometimes drive them crazy by asking for decisions on even minor things. There is only one way they learned to do that - YOU TRAINED THEM TO. You trained them by answering their questions in the first place.
And that habit of answering questions and making all the decisions will slow the growth of your people and the growth of your business.
===============
Here's are some examples:
===============
"Boss, Chuck and I just noticed the last bunch of widgets came off the line without flanges - there's 200 in the box already - what should we do?"
"I just found out the Havarti Cheese we need for today's sandwich special didn't get ordered ... what should we do?"
"We posted that article on http://EZineArticles.com last week and it didn't get any hits at all ... what should we do?"
Now you probably have a real good idea what you would like them to do
AND
What happens if you tell them?
What happens if you "Fix" the "Problem"?
You feel great - a real problem solver... take charge kinda person... a decision maker ... perhaps even a bit
AND at the same time ...
- They learn to come to You for all problems in the future
- They are taught Not to think for themselves
- They take actions based on only one person's ideas - Yours
- The possibility for professional growth and Team problem solving is eliminated
- If your solution does NOT work, you get blamed and morale suffers
- In many larger business, over time the employees become "Sheep", just waiting passively to be told what to do
=================================
What else could you do? Try out this scenario.
=================================
"O.K. let's have a Team Meeting ASAP"
- Ask the whole team for ideas on how to respond to the critical issue
- Listen to everyone's ideas without evaluating or interrupting and, if you give your input at all, make sure to GIVE YOUR THOUGHTS LAST
- Help the TEAM decide the most appropriate response for the TEAM to take
** WHAT HAS HAPPENED? **
- The Team has learned to solve its own problem
- The entire Team's talents and experience were applied to the challenge
- Since the Team participated in creating the action plan, they are automatically bought in to putting it in place
- The whole Team has grown
- You didn't have to work so hard now and you will be able to count on the Team's expanding problem solving capabilities in the future!!
You just accelerated the growth and profitability of your company by NOT answering that question.
NOW THAT'S LEADERSHIP !!!
Challenge:
For the next month, keep a tally of the number of questions you DIDN'T answer and problems you DIDN'T solve. It just might be a tally of how much your Team grew in that same time frame.