Even before COVID-19, senior managers in large companies had a hard time knowing what their employees needed to execute their corporate strategies effectively.
And serving hundreds of different markets, it is inevitable that different country managers and employees need different things to succeed.
All around the world, governments are scrambling to get their countries and economies “back to normal.” But while our societies are starting to open, the world as we knew it has changed irrevocably. There is no normal to go back to. There’s only the next normal. And organizations that hope to be successful in the next economy must adapt and evolve—and right away.
Have you ever held back a question or an idea because you were afraid of how your leader might react? If you have, you are not alone. In a survey of more than 3,000 employees from a wide range of firms and industries conducted by Harvard Business School Professor Francesca Gino, 70% said they face barriers to asking more questions at work.
Globally, employee engagement was recently reported at an abysmal 15%. With a number that low, it comes as no surprise that organizations are making significant attempts at improving employee engagement. Surveys are the tool most commonly used by leadership to engage employees and measure workplace conditions. But what if the surveys used to understand engagement actually stifle it? Here are a few reasons why surveys are actually doing more harm than good.
Questions have the power to connect us, and they also have the power to separate us. In my recent TED talk, I explain why the key to successful communication is not about asking better questions, but instead about achieving a better balance of questioning and answering.
In the talk, I cover how:
It's good to be good at asking questions. Also as a leader. But good management is also very much about when NOT to ask questions. The following are examples of five situations where you should carefully consider your questions.
Many leaders use questions to disguise their own power. Using questions in situations where the intention is to provide feedback will either play out as manipulation or turn into a responsibility game. If, as a leader, you try to convince yourself that you are "just asking” a question, when both you and the employee know very well that there is a “right answer", then you have actually abdicated your managerial responsibility.
Knowing what employees actually talk about sounds like a simple task. It is not. When managers and consultants show up, the conversation changes.
But there are some simple dos and don'ts to remember when you want to know what's on peoples' minds at work. And once you know what gets talked about and how it is discussed, you have a much better chance at being an effective change leader.
