“Asking” versus “Telling”

Why "Ask"

Your boss is a full service 24/7 encyclopedia there is no question that he cannot answer and will not answer. Is it a good problem or a bad one? Actually it is bad problem to be facing as it means that there is only person who is shining in the organization and if he leaves or dies the operation will come to a standstill. Even while he is alive this organization is not growing as the boss is firefighting, doing others’ job and has no time to take the organization forward.

In a participant survey conducted 3 months after initial training on “Performance Coaching” one of the participants wrote “Initially it may help by showing ‘how to’ but it is far more productive if you use the approach ‘how would you.’ There could be not a better endorsement to the concept of “ask.”

Consider another scenario at a CA firm when managers started practicing “ask” approach with employees they found that the employees started genuinely researching business issues versus simply copying the results from Google search.

To “tell” is easy, the instructor feels good as it shows that he is intelligent, competent and knowledgeable. The listener too plays along as he does not have to take ownership. If the solution works there is no issue; if not the standard fall back is I did exactly as I was told -I take no ownership of the consequences.

Cynics might highlight what about when there is a medical emergency, people need to be rescued from raging fire; or on the borders where fighting has broken out. In everyday business these situations are few and far between and even in such exigencies it will be sensible to sit down and use the “ask” concept post event.

Asking is not that easy

First and foremost when you “ask” others for possible answers you believe that others have potential to come up with an answer. And you realize that the answer may not be perfect but once executed it will give much better results because the gap in the answer will be made up by excellent execution. There is an old adage that people support what they help create. All of this when looked through the prism of people development justifies the approach.

 The Magic formula of 1-3-1

 A successful leader had an interesting approach when it came to using the “asking” concept. This is what the formula stood for: when you go to the boss with a problem make sure that you have three possible solutions and one approach which you feel most strongly about already determined. I guess this boss did not have much problem in delegating, helping his people think critically, succession planning or in delivering on time.

 

“Asking” forces people to think, and more often than not when it is accompanied by some good questioning it helps in generating new ideas and new neural connections. Repeated use of this approach helps in developing talent. By the way it works with children at home too-try it out it is one of those safe and healthy activities.