Those who know me are
well aware of my rooted aversion to the BBC Radio 4 Today programme primarily
because of their interviewing style.
The cricketer and
commentator, the late great Richie Benaud, used tell new entrants into the world
of communications that they should "never
ask a statement". How often
does that happen and I confess to letting it irritate me.
It normally starts with
"Do you think......?" and continues with a statement that is the
opinion of the interviewer, in other words it is usually a biased question.
Even more toxic is that
question after discussing a problem that starts with "Who do you blame?" and then moves into "heads must roll" or "someone needs to be held to account".
It is all very negative
and leads to people avoiding making mistakes in any way which says that they
tend to avoid doing anything with even a modicum of risk that might end up
with a mistake and a reprimand.
In other words the
blame culture is an inhibiting factor rather than an influence intended to
encourage imaginative thinking and a willingness to take risks.
Generally speaking
incompetent people need something or someone to blame for any perceived
shortcomings. It leads to closed minds and low morale.
On the other hand great
open-minded leaders value their people, they encourage them, they trust them, they reward them with praise and they get out of their way and let them get on with their jobs.
This is not to be a
closed mind to the possibility of mistakes occurring. The clever thing is the
way to handle the consequences
There is a story of a
business where an employee made a mistake that led to a cost to the company in
excess of £250K.
He immediately offered
his resignation that was just as promptly rejected. The leader told him that he was the best
person to design a process to make sure that it wouldn't happen again.
Perhaps this is a rare
and very enlightened approach to the situation. Nevertheless it is eminently
sensible and accepts we are all vulnerable to the occasional error.
I accept that
constant and repeated mistake making needs to be handled in a different and more
positive manner. Even so if you
consider how infrequently this happens we can see that special though unusual actions
are necessary.
There is no
question that regular scheduled one-to-one meetings between the leader and
members of the team are extremely valuable. Not only do they foster a better
mutual understanding but also they encourage both sides to give and accept positive
challenge.
A great
one-to-one needs to be to the agenda of the team member rattan that if the
leader. The leader can prompt
information and discussion through judicious questioning, drilling down in
fact. It is a ritual part if the
leadership coaching function.
Leaders need
to be on their guard against asking biased closed questions especially during
one-to-ones with their ream members. We always need to ask the open questions
that will bring out the deeper feelings of team members.
Rudyard Kipling
wrote a poem that started:
"I have six honest serving men
(They taught me all I knew)
Their names are What and Why and When
and How and Where and Who"
Use these
words as starters to any question and you are likely to have a considered
response rattan than a simple Yes or No. By the way, try the What Else? question as a follow up then sit back and
just listen.
You may well
be surprised by the result. Above all
avoid looking to allocate blame for anything that has gone awry. It is a futile exercise and will close down
any reasoned debate.
An enlightened
approach to resolving an error means that you take it seriously while accepting
that we are not all percept, inclosing
ourselves.
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