Tag: leadership best practices

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Inquiry: The Art and Benefits of Asking Good Questions

Always the beautiful answer/Who asks a more beautiful question.[i]

― e. e. cummings

Inquiry is a vastly under-appreciated skill, yet foundational for learning, problem solving, and relationship building. Good questions change lives and the course of history, and the resolution of big thorny problems requires them. Few are taught in their professional training to ask good questions. Journalists may be the rare exception.[ii]

Inquiry seeks to discover or learn what others think, know, want, or feel.

How can you foster better exchanges and relationships with important people in your life using inquiry? Fine-tune your inquiry skills to strengthen your capacity to lead?

The basic inquiry skill is knowing how to ask good questions. Good questions typically begin with words like how, why, or what. They go beyond requests for a yes or a no response. Instead they encourage people to think and talk: to provide information, describe and unpack their thinking, explore ideas, share their perspective, or consider new possibilities.

Good inquiry is necessary for testing ideas, seeking feedback, learning from others, and accurate situational diagnoses.

Tightly connected to good inquiry is active and attentive listening. The benefits of inquiry are lost if others see it as manipulative technique and not a route to your deeper understanding.

Edgar Schein introduces the concept of “humble inquiry,”[iii] defined as the fine art of asking others questions based on your curiosity and sincere interest in them. The purpose is to draw others out and into a closer and more trusting relationship. Schein sees humble inquiry as an investment of your time and attention to build foundations for effective teamwork – at work or home.

Inquiry is a habit of the mind that does not come easy to many, especially in a “tell” world that values experts who “already know.” Business organizations and “let’s get on with it” cultures often view questions as “inefficient” and the antithesis of action, task completion, and forward momentum, according to Clayton Christensen,[iv] an advocate of good questions as a way to foster disruptive innovation.

The culture of the charismatic extrovert – someone who speaks out and speaks up with clarity and drive – still dominates everyday beliefs about effective leadership; and more than a century after Dale Carnegie launched his first public speaking course at a New York City YMCA, his best-selling book How to Win Friends and Influence People is still a staple on airport bookshelves and business best-seller lists[v].

So how can you enhance your inquiry skills?

There are two places to start: (1) increase your use of questions, and (2) ask better questions. Where do you stand on each?

In our book, Engagement: Transforming Difficult Relationships at Work, Lee Bolman and I provide a tutorial on inquiry. You may want to try these recommendations from it:

Compare your advocacy and inquiry counts: Over the course of the next week, be mindful in your conversations with others about the balance between your advocacy (telling people something) and your inquiry (asking them a real question). Take time after a number of selected conversations to think about: How many questions did you ask the other vs. how many statements did you make? How often were questions real requests for information vs. rhetorical devices and advocacy in disguise? Tracking your ratio of advocacy and inquiry allows you to work on changing the balance.

Descriptive questions: Take as a goal for a day or a time period to avoid asking questions that evoke a yes or no answer. Substitute instead questions that begin with how, why, or what. How easy is that for you? How does that change the tenor of your conversations? Why do you think that is? What have you learned about others as a result?

Successful leadership is steeped in the search for information and learning – about others, the situation, and the best steps forward. How can improving your inquiry improve the impact of your efforts?

[i] e. e. cummings. Introduction to New Poems. Accessed December 12, 2015 at http://poems.writers-network.com/pdf/article-662.pdf

[ii] Warren Berger (2014). A More Beautiful Question: The Power of Inquiry to Spark Breakthrough Ideas. New York: Bloomsbury.

[iii] Edgar Schein (2013). Humble Inquiry: The Gentle Art of Asking Instead of Telling. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

[iv] Clayton M. Christensen (2011). The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change the Way You Do Business. New York: Harper Business.

[v] Susan Cain (2013). Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking. New York: Broadway Books.

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Leadership, love, and authenticity: Howard Schultz and Starbucks

I just finished Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life without Losing Its Soul for a chapter on compassionate leadership that I’m writing.  And I’ve fallen in love with the leadership of Howard Schultz. His philosophy — leadership is not just about winning, but about finding a right way to succeed that brings hope for a brighter future to others – is a reminder that if you love what you do and respect the people who help you do it, you’re on a good path.

On the day in 1987 that Schultz bought a local business in Seattle called Starbucks, he held an all-employee meeting. He had three talking points: “1. Speak from my heart. 2. Put myself in their shoes. 3. Share the Big Dream with them.” Schultz saw two requisites for Starbucks’ growth: (1) sustain the passion and personality upon which the company had been built; and (2) instill in every employee a reverence for the coffee experience – the capacity to recreate the transcendental “blend of craftsmanship and human connection” that Schultz encountered with the Italian barista who brewed his first espresso in Milan in 1983. Create a high-quality experience for people, and they will reciprocate with loyalty. Profits will follow.

To quote Schultz:  A company can grow big without losing the passion and personality that built it, but only if it’s driven not by profits but by people . . . The key is heart. I pour my heart into every cup of coffee and so do my partners [the company name for employees] at Starbucks. When customers sense that, they respond in kind … If you pour your heart into your work, you can achieve dreams others may think impossible. That’s what makes life rewarding. 

Starbucks is an amazing success story. In the 1990’s, it was opening a new store almost every day and is now the world’s largest coffeehouse company with more than 18,800 stores in 55 countries and more than 10 billion U.S. dollars in annual revenues – a ten-fold increase in a decade that also necessitated Schultz’s return as CEO (from his position as chairman) to address the company’s 2007 financial slide and reignite the innovation needed for continued success in an increasingly competitive global market.

Starbuck is also, by Schultz’s label, “a love story:” a testament to his love of coffee and of the work in growing a company and building a corporate culture that inspire and excite customers, vendors, and employees.

To quote Schultz again:  Infusing work with purpose and meaning is a two-way street. Yes, love what you do, but your company should love you back. As a merchant, my desire has always been to inspire customers, exceed their high expectations, and establish and maintain their trust in us. As an employer, my duty has always been to also do the same for people on the other side of the counter.

Schultz translated his personal philosophy into a company philosophy to treat all employees with respect and dignity and into company practices like affordable comprehensive healthcare for employees (even part-timers), flexible work hours, competitive wages, stock options, and other perks that repeatedly land Starbucks on Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to Work For” list – and got Schultz named Fortune’s 2011 Businessperson of the Year. 

So are you doing what you love?  Bringing your best self to the workplace so as to encourage others to do the same?  Walking your talk?  Creating a work environment that inspires your employees to create transcendental experiences for your customers?  Making contributions to a more hopeful future? 

If not, grab a cup of coffee and get out your pencil.  You’ve got some personal – and organizational – planning to do.     

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Leadership Best Practices from Ronald McDonald

Every year the Hay Group does a study of the Best Companies for Leadership. I wasn’t expecting to find McDonald’s high on their list (#7).

Mea culpa, I wasn’t associating serious things like leadership best practices with Ronald McDonald. I stand corrected. We can all learn from looking at McDonald’s recipe for assuring the right leadership at all levels of the operation. The company emphasizes:

1. teamwork

2. proactive performance management with clear and consistent expectations and high standards

3. attention to education, training, coaching, and leadership development, and

4. leadership continuity through an impressive retention rate of over 95% of the graduates from the company’s internal accelerated leadership program.

The result is a strong, consistent corporate culture, with reliability in product delivery and innovation to stay ahead of the competition in a globalized, customer-centric, fast-changing, fast-food market.

How are you doing on important dimensions like teamwork, performance management, leadership education and training, and retention in your business? What could you be doing more or better?

To get you thinking, here are excerpts from the Hay report on how McDonald’s talks about the issues.

What are the leadership practices that differentiate McDonald’s?

It starts with having high standards. Performance management is at the core: we employ a 20/70/10 performance distribution model across the organization: 20 per cent at the exceptional level, 70 per cent significant and then 10 per cent needs improvement. We make sure we keep these standards high. Also, around talent, when we talk about people being ‘ready now’ and ‘ready future’, the ‘ready now’ candidate has to be someone who can be better than the incumbent over time. And, if every time you have an opening you put somebody in that’s stronger, you’re going to increase your organizational capability.

How is McDonald’s adapting to all the shifts that are happening in demographics, globalization and technology?

We’re a very team-based environment. So whenever we have a business issue, our natural inclination is to put together a team of people to look at it. It’s typically cross-functional and in some cases cross-geographic as well. This focus on team goes back to the restaurants. All you have to do is walk into a restaurant during the lunch "crush" and see 15 or 20 people working hard together. The whole culture revolves around working as a team. We’re preparing leaders for what they will face in the future, with two accelerated development programs for different levels of leader. There’s a heavy emphasis around technology, globalization and speed of change. The programs include a business simulation component; an action learning component, a lot of coaching, assessment, self insight and awareness.

Can you talk a little about what you’re doing on the goal setting and coaching side?

We have a pretty good process of cascading our major business goals to our business units. If there is one thing important at McDonald’s, it’s having this alignment of business strategies. I think our team-based approach helps immensely in this regard. We actually hire and promote people based, in large part, on their ability to be able to work effectively in teams. People are generally working at McDonald’s over the long haul. It’s not uncommon to find people at McDonald’s that have been with us 35, 40 years starting out at the restaurant level. So, I think the combination of all of these things drives a lot of alignment.

Beyond core financial results, how do you track the success of leadership programs?

We look at retention, which at 95 percent plus, is where we want it to be. And we look at the percentage of people who are promoted that come out of the accelerated development programs. This program has a big impact on retention. It’s actually one of the most visible signals of how much we are investing in you.

What are you working on for the future of leadership at McDonald’s, say 10-15 years from now?

Our CEO and COO have put together five strategy teams that we believe are going to help us continue our performance run. One is on talent management. We have a cross-geographic, cross-functional team that’s looking in particular at strategic workforce planning – anticipating what resources are going to be required to deliver against our business plans. We also plan to work more collaboratively as a senior team on developing top talent proactively. Third, we want to make sure that whenever we fill key jobs that we put a lot of discipline and rigor into the process. This helps us to improve our ability to make the right call on filling critical jobs – there is nothing more important than this. So far, this team’s work is paying off.