We’ve likely all heard the phrase, “There are no dumb questions,” in various settings in an attempt to encourage people to speak up and ask questions. While this may be a well-intentioned notion, the reality is that not enough people are asking questions. According to Fast Company, 49% of employees say they are not regularly asked for ideas. It’s not enough to assume that employees will approach leadership with their ideas or questions. Thus, it’s up to leaders to focus on asking more (and better) questions to build alignment and build meaningful relationships within their teams.

Why Questions Matter

Asking questions isn’t always just about finding the “right” answer. In fact, asking the right questions is an essential skill for a leader to hone through training, practice, and application. Still, many leaders leave it up to their employees to pose the questions.

When a panel of entrepreneurs was asked what they wished their employees talked about, one responded: “I wish my employees would talk to me more about questions or ideas they have. We have an open-door policy, so I wish more employees would stop by and be candid, direct, and assertive with me about what they’re thinking. I think they don’t because they’ve been taught you should just conform and do what you’re told. They might have it ingrained in their head to not ask questions or speak up.”

As a good leader, questions should not only be used to seek out an answer but to encourage creative thinking, problem-solving, and communication. Let’s start by defining the primary types of questions and how you can leverage them to pose better questions to your team.

All Questions are Not Equal

For leaders looking to hone their questioning skills, the most logical starting point is to know the different types of questions. There are four main categories of questions:

1. Factual: Questions with straightforward answers based on facts or awareness but may require an explanation. Factual questions can be either closed or open-ended.
2. Convergent: Close-ended questions with a finite set of answers, but most typically one correct answer. The most basic convergent question can be answered with a “yes” or “no.”
3. Divergent: Open-ended questions that encourage many answers or analysis of a situation, problem, or complexity in greater detail and then predict different outcomes. Frequently the goal is to stimulate creative thought or to expand the conversation.
4. Evaluative: Questions can be open or closed. To encourage a deeper level of thinking, evaluative questions elicit analysis at multiple levels and from different perspectives to arrive at newly synthesized information or conclusions.

While closed-answer questions are useful in some scenarios, they don’t encourage creative thinking or communication.

How to Ask Better Questions

With a leader skilled in asking the right questions, teams are stronger and more inquisitive. Asking questions is a trust-builder for leaders and teams, strengthening relationships and enhancing employee development. For many leaders, the art of asking questions is not an innate skill, so it requires practice to perfect. Here are three relatively simple steps to start asking your team better questions:

1. Ask open-ended questions. Without a prescribed “correct” answer, open-ended questions convey that a leader is receptive to new ideas and ready to start a dialogue. These questions can also help team members feel more giving a response without the pressure of needing to give the “right” answer. Instead, leaders can use these questions to help teams think of things from a new perspective, remove biases, and encourage them to explore ideas further. Examples include “Have you considered..?” or “What surprised you?” These questions can also create an inviting space for constructive discussions.
2. Practice listening effectively. When engaged in a conversation, the best approach leaders can take is effective listening. Leveraging both passive and active listening strategies, effective listening can help create an environment of trust. Through passive listening, the speaker may be motivated to fill in the silence with additional information and may perceive that the listener is fully engaged and listening to everything being said. When it’s time for a response, make sure that it is thoughtful, logical, and informed.
3. Ask many questions. An effective approach when responding to a question’s answer is to ask a stream of questions that can remove ambiguity, uncover opportunities, and more. Asking varying questions in response can help sustain engagement and deepen creative thinking.

Following these techniques, leaders can transform their teams into valuable sources of ideas and innovation by asking the right questions. Asking questions enables a team to look at a problem from all angles to identify the best solution while strengthening bonds of collaboration and communication. As a result, teams are more cohesive and can come together to solve challenging problems.

Are your leaders struggling to nurture their teams? Contact Connect the Dots Consulting and we can help guide your leaders to ask the right questions that create successful teams.

It’s wishful thinking to imagine difficult conversations will never arise in the workplace. As inevitable as it is uncomfortable, you’ll likely have to initiate a challenging conversation with a colleague sooner or later. Whether dealing with differing opinions, navigating sensitive topics, or addressing conflict, finding the right way to approach this tough task will help you improve the likelihood of a successful outcome.

When Are Challenging Conversations Necessary?

As much as you may try to avoid getting stuck in a difficult conversation, many issues within the workplace will not dissipate if they’re not addressed. Still, simply ignoring the problem at hand is the way that 53% of employees choose to handle a “toxic” situation. Only 24% of employees would choose to address the situation directly. Avoiding a challenging conversation can prolong the problem, lower team morale, and hurt business productivity.

For context, let’s imagine a scenario warranting a difficult workplace conversation. You and a colleague may share responsibilities–whether that’s managing client communication, handling administrative tasks, or producing certain deliverables–but you find them delegating tasks to you. Maybe they’ve started to hand off client onboarding, report generation, or other tasks they also should be managing. As your workload increases, finding the right way to discuss this imbalance with your colleague can help you remedy the situation and come to a mutually agreeable resolution. Without the right communication skills, you could be among the 49.7% of individuals who don’t report a positive outcome, such as increased stress levels, resentment towards your colleague, or lowered performance as you struggle to get all the tasks done.

Preparing For a Successful Conversation

Challenging conversations are difficult for a reason, but taking the time to prepare can help you effectively communicate your point of view without sounding accusatory or aggressive. Here are a few steps you can take to make the conversation productive and successful:

1. Determine Your Talking Points: Start by jotting down the key points you’re looking to communicate with your colleague. This can help guide the conversation, but remember, you don’t need to prepare a script. While you can try to predict what your colleague might say, the real-life conversation may not go as planned. Instead, approach the conversation with a flexible mindset and have a variety of potential responses ready to go. This will help you maintain a forward momentum throughout the discussion.
2. Focus On The Facts: Many workplace issues can stir negative feelings and strong emotions. While you want to convey to your colleague how the issue is affecting you, you’ll also want to focus on the facts of the situation. By focusing on the facts, you can help to separate what might be assumptions from the truth. Armed with facts, this can help you support your argument and avoid making the matter too personal.
3. Seek Understanding Over Agreement: When dealing with some challenging situations, it can be difficult to see eye-to-eye. Many workplace conflicts stem from misunderstandings, so establishing a mutual understanding between two individuals can ensure you’re not missing out on vital information. During the conversation, ensure your colleague feels heard and has the chance to express their perspective as well.
4. Work Together to Find a Solution: These conversations are not about who’s right and who’s wrong. If your conversation has been successful and productive, it should result in actionable steps you and your colleague can take together to resolve the issue. You can also seek to agree on a timeframe for a follow-up meeting to revisit the situation and ensure everyone is on the same page.

Difficult Conversations Pay Off

Even with the best preparation, tough conversations will never be fun. Still, they can have a significant, positive impact on colleagues and the larger organization. These benefits can include:

● Strengthening workplace relationships and fostering an environment of trust
● Clearing up misunderstandings or misconceptions
● Reducing workplace stress by de-escalating issues
● Improving productivity and collaboration by removing roadblocks
● Enhancing communication skills

Thus, individuals within an organization need to identify when there is an opportunity for them to address issues with a challenging conversation. Not only will they be able to seek a better outcome for themselves, but these colleagues can also drive valuable change within the organization.

For leaders who are unsure where to start tackling their team’s issues, Connect the Dots can help teams develop new tools to engage and be productive with their teammates.

Contact us to learn more about our team development and performance solutions.

Brenda will be part of a panel discussion with Washington University colleagues Andrea Kressel, Cynthia Marich, and Philip Payne, Ph.D. The panel topic is: The great disconnection: What leaders in academic medicine need to know and do to engage and develop talent.

Description:

Recent years have served as an accelerator for organizations to transform traditional workplace norms to more holistically support today’s workforce. Organizations can no longer argue that productivity decreases in the hybrid setting. Skilled knowledge workers in a healthcare and academic setting are in demand; if they are not entrusted to personalize and adjust their workdays, they will go elsewhere. To manage effectively, Peter Drucker writes, “means to face up to the new realities. It means starting out with the question, ‘what is the world really like?’ rather than with assertions and assumptions that made sense only a few years ago.”

Learning objectives:

• Define leadership traits and competencies needed for successfully managing today’s academic healthcare workforce, including managing ambiguity and instilling trust in colleagues and employees
• Address gaps that exist in much of the academic health workforce to support professional development and career transitions
• Provide current academic healthcare workforce data to support how to lead today’s knowledge workers
• Discuss tools that align most effectively for a hybrid workforce