Team leaders readily switch to question mode, once I demonstrate that their team does not understand the objective if they simply tell them. This is why I recommend to Ask – don’t tell.
But they raise a valid question: Isn’t it the Team Leader’s role to define the objective? If we ask questions of team members, about the objective, do we not abdicate this responsibility? And is there not a chance that the team will settle on a wrong interpretation of the objective?
No, there is no chance. As team leader, you guide the conversation. You reinforce what you agree with. You discuss the areas you disagree. The goal is to use questions as a means to clarify – so that you understand what the team members are thinking. Then you can “adjust”, if necessary.
Team Leaders, however, find it hard to relinquish control. So they ask leading questions:
From the coaching file: (TM: team member)
Lead: What to you understand the objective to be?
TM: We must prove that the upgraded sub-system supplies the same functionality as the old system.
Lead: Why use the new sub-system?
TM: The old one is not supported anymore.
Lead : Can you think of other reasons? (note: starting to lead)
TM: Quality is probably better, easier to validate?
Lead: Hum, that’s true – Can you think about what are the uses of this new-system?
TM: (getting a bit upset) It’s just about the migration, why should I worry about why we transition?
We can see that the Team Leader is trying to get the team member to see something – using leading questions to do so. Roles are reversed: The Team Leader was supposed to clarify the team member’s understanding of the objective – now the team member has to guess where the leader is going.
See what happened, when the Leader agreed not to lead, but to clarify and influence:
Lead: What to you understand the objective to be?
TM: We must prove that the upgraded sub-system supplies the same functionality as the old system.
Lead: What do you include in “same functionality?”
TM: Every thing the old system used to do: I must make sure the transition did not break the old system. (note: here we see his true focus)
Lead: yes, that’s very important. But is the new system exactly the same functionality?
TM: Well no, there are improvements – but like I said, we can’t break the old system.
Lead: I agree with that – but does our objective end there?
TM: I suppose not.
In this example, the Team Lead went on to discover that the team member did not understand the new functionality very well and as a result had naturally focused on the old functionality. The Team Leader was able to agree on the importance of not breaking the old functionality, but was also able to provide guidance on the new functionality so that the team member could focus equally on both.
Leading questions do not work – they are simply different form of telling:
- Leading questions will usually frustrate the team members.
- Leading questions will not allow the Team Leader to understand the details of how the team members view the objectives.
It is counter-intuitive: Although clarifying questions appear to simply follow the team member’s train of thoughts, they also allow the Team Leader to control the outcome of the discussion:
- Clarifying questions let the Team Leader see what the team members really understand, where they place the emphasis and what they consider important.
- After clarification has occurred, the Team Leader can easily identify what is missing and point it out to the team members to guide the objective definition.
From the coaching file:
When I try to “lead the witness” I never get to where I want to go. But if I just ask them what they mean, I can drive them to see exactly what I want them to see. This is weird: the only way to drive is to not touch the steering wheel.
Warning: it’s not easy to catch yourself asking leading questions. But it’s easy to see somebody else doing it. One manager I worked with, found that he usually fell back to leading questions, even when he did not want to. So he told his team to let him know when he did it. It worked quite well.
