The most infamous, most unwanted response we got as children from our parents is, “Because I said so.”
Have you ever gotten that kind of response at work? I recently approached someone in leadership asking the question ‘Why’ because I didn’t quite agree with something and wanted a better explanation. In which I got a response of ‘It’s just supposed to be that way.’ WOW! I was taken aback and didn’t know how to respond to that.
As a young, up and coming leader, I feel that I get mixed messages when it comes to being open to learning and questioning leadership decisions. Older leaders have more knowledge and experiences that I just want to soak in and at the time of hire, we are supposed to be willing to learn. In a previous role, I was perceived as having a bad attitude for asking ‘Why’ but at the same time was told by the CEO of the company to never stop asking ‘Why’ (as words of wisdom).
What I have learned from my experiences is that ‘Why’ is a very important question for anyone at any level of business. ‘Why’ helps those lower level employees to understand the ins/outs of a business and the ‘Why’ helps those leaders to understand the wins/shortfalls. Why can determine the root cause of any problem. Six Sigma uses the 5 why rule – asking why 5 times will get to the root of the cause when someone doesn’t know what to ask.
“If you don’t ask the right questions, you don’t get the right answers. A question asked in the right way often points to its own answer. Asking questions is the ABC of diagnosis. Only the inquiring mind solves problems.” ~Edward Hodnett
If you don’t know what to ask, just ask ‘Why’ using the 5 why rule. For example: Business is good and yet staff morale is down.
1. Why is business good? – Sales are up
2. Why are sales up? – An internal sales contest
3. Why was there an internal sales contest? – Staff morale was down
4. Why was staff morale down? – They are complaining about their hours
5. Why is staff complaining about their hours? – They are all on mandatory overtime and we can’t hire anyone else due to the hiring freeze.
Along with questions, comes listening. When asking a question, listen for a complete answer or allow the person to research the answer. Also, what I learned, in my first example of questioning leadership, is that some people are surprised by a question and need a few moments to think about how to answer it. After a few moments of silence, the leader followed up with a few more questions for me and offered up a legitimate explanation.
I remind myself every morning: Nothing I say this day will teach me anything. So if I'm going to learn, I must do it by listening. ~Larry King
- Courtesy Heyde M.
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