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Managers still think their job is to tell people what to do. But it’s not the right way to manage your staff. If you want results, stop telling employees what to do and, instead, ask them thought-provoking questions.

In reality, workers know much more about the work they are doing than the boss does. Being told what to do can actually sap their motivation for the job.

If you don’t tell your staff what to do, it gets people thinking for themselves about possibilities and, when they come up with their own answers, they are energized and excited about implementing them.

The problem is that even if you do have a winning idea, your staff may still be resistant to it because the suggestion came from you. People often question and react negatively to ideas they didn’t think of themselves. On the other hand, when your team members come up with an idea themselves, it creates positive feelings that make them want to take action.

How to make that happen? People should be encouraged to focus their thinking by answering questions from their own experience. That will make them come to a solution on their own.

Planning and organizing the questions has a series of steps:

• Describe the process. Tell people that you’re going to ask them questions about what they are expected to do and come up with their own conclusion.
• Start with the present. For instance: “What are you stuck on? How long have you been thinking about this?” That will identify the issue and get people focused on how much energy is being wasted spinning their wheels on the problem.
• Clarify their understanding. For instance: “What have you done so far? What alternatives have you identified? Which do you think is the best alternative?”
• Listen carefully. Restate what they have said in simple terms to clarify the insight. For instance “I hear you saying that you would like to… Is that correct?”
• Stimulate action. An example might be “What is the most logical next step?” If more than one option is identified, ask further questions to help your staff decide which one to pursue.

The goal is for your team members to conclude “I just decided what I need to do”. At that point, because it’s their idea, they will be committed to take action on it.

In asking, the focus should always be on finding a solution rather than identifying a problem. Suggests a question like “What do you need to do to make this work?” Or “What do you want to do next?

However, it is important to make employees comfortable with a question-based technique. Being questioned can scare people because they fear they are being evaluated on their answers. So it is vital that managers explain the goals to their team members and stress that they are not being judged.

How can you help employees gain problem-solving insights?

Here are the kinds of questions to ask.

How clear is your thinking on this?

This might lead team members to analyze if enough time has been spent thinking about an issue.

What would your most desired outcome look like?

This helps to create a mental picture of the goal.

How are you going to be accountable for this?

People often make promises they don’t really intend to keep. Making a commitment to be accountable strengthens resolve.

What would need to happen for this to be an outrageous success?

This question gets people thinking in new ways, opening up possibilities for grander outcomes.

Source: The Strait Times