Few years back, I had the opportunity to work closely with an executive who went to GE school of management and I found his leadership style very inspiring. One of the key things that inspired me is the way he makes everyone around him really think by asking the RIGHT questions. In my early interactions with him, I thought he's asking the questions because he just doesn't know the subject area and he wants the team to answer for him which is a perfectly good approach. Only after several interactions, I recognized that it is his leadership style and he truly believes that the team around him can come up with better answers by engaging in a focused discussion led by him asking very pointed and thought provoking questions.
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| Make People Think!!! |
As simple as this might look, it's very difficult to practice this approach in our every day interactions and one that could be very powerful when solving complex problems. I wanted to learn this trait from him and started practicing it and found it very difficult in the early stages. Especially if the subject area is one where you have a lot of expertise, it takes a lot of discipline to keep quiet and lead the team with good thought provoking questions. But what I started to notice is when I was able to successfully do it, the teams that I work with were able to come up with better solutions than what I could think of and everyone that participated in the discussion felt very empowered and owned the solution. Few things to watch out for in this approach though are not to sound too intimidating by bombarding the team with questions and to make sure the topic don't drift away from the problem at hand. Another key thing to note is that this approach could take a little longer to solve the problem but its worth investing that extra time to get high quality solution and complete buy-in from the team.
In summary:
1. Thought provoking questions will lead teams to higher quality solutions.
2. As a good leader, restrain from offering up solutions and encourage your teams to think through the problem and come up with better solutions collectively.
3. Be willing to invest a little more time in leading through thought provoking questions and its well worth the investment as you get immediate and complete buy-in from the team.
What do you think of this topic and approach? Have you tried it before? Did it work? What worked and what didn't? Please share your thoughts....
