Michael Stanier, in his brilliant book “The Advice Trap” quotes Naguib Mahfouz, 1988 winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, as follows:
“You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.”
When I first read this quote, it stopped me in my tracks. As a hospital administrator, wasn’t I paid (quite well) to have lots of answers? Physicians, department directors, my administrative team, our corporate overlords, weren’t they all coming to me for answers? Town hall meeting Q&A’s, newspaper, radio and TV interviews, the Mayor, the guy who lived across the street from me – weren’t they all interested in my answers to their questions?
Maybe, just maybe it makes some sense to ask more questions before, or instead of giving answers. When you get the urge to say, “If I were you, I would do . . .,” don’t. You’re not them. You can’t possibly know all their strengths and weaknesses, the culture of their organization, the demands of their boss, the needs of their spouse and kids, and so on. Perhaps you can be of more help to be more curious, ask more questions, let them come to conclusions that are likely to be better than your answers.
One of the problems about giving quick answers to questions or problems is that the act of doing so decreases the opportunity for your team members to exercise autonomy, which is the ability to manage one’s self,. Many researchers have found that increasing autonomy, along with the knowledge of results and tasks that have real meaning, results in higher performance, greater job satisfaction, lower turnover and lower absenteeism. I think we all want these for our organizations. (For the references I can send you my MBA Thesis as a cure for your insomnia).
When we’re curious, when we ask better and more thoughtful questions that invite people to come up with better solutions than the answers we might have given them. Then those answers are their answers which better fit their situations.
Be curious, ask good questions, get better performance.
