{"id":10199,"date":"2012-04-11T12:53:41","date_gmt":"2012-04-11T18:53:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/?p=10199"},"modified":"2014-10-18T16:46:13","modified_gmt":"2014-10-18T21:46:13","slug":"lean-manager-asking-wrong-questions-leads-to-poor-management","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-manager-asking-wrong-questions-leads-to-poor-management\/10199\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Leaders Ask Questions and Listen Intently"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"a296a24fa2fc69ef5487857f02f111e8\" data-index=\"9\" style=\"float: none; margin:10px 0 10px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- Single Post readerboard -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:inline-block;width:728px;height:90px\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-8207522353004717\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1144967431\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>As we move from isolated Lean &#8220;events&#8221; to Lean Management, producing Lean Managers becomes more and more critical, <a title=\"kumbaya leadership is bad leadership\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-manager-asking-wrong-questions-leads-to-poor-management\/10199\/\">bad leaders<\/a> don&#8217;t necessarily ask questions &#8211; they just tell you and broadcast things outward. Part of managing a lean organization, however, requires that our lean managers know how to manage, coach, and teach. A critical part of teaching is knowing how to ask the effective questions. Bottom line: Great Leaders Ask Questions. And, <a title=\"unhappy customers are a function of how happy your employees are\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/unhappy-employees-result-in-unhappy-customers\/3064\/\">unhappy employees lead to unhappy customers<\/a>. Don&#8217;t forget that.<\/p>\n<div align=\"center\">\r\n<table border=\"1\" cellpadding=\"5\">\r\n<tbody>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Other Articles in our Lean Leadership Series<\/strong><\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<tr>\r\n<td>\r\n<ul>\r\n\t<li><a title=\"lean leadership behavior through manage for daily improvement\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-manager-series-business-as-usual\/10398\/\">Manage for Daily Improvement is Lean Leadership in Practice<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a title=\"show empathy as a lean leader\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-manager-demonstrate-empathy\/10338\/\">Showing Empathy is a Lean Leadership Trait<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a title=\"listen to feelings as a lean manager\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-manager-listen-to-feelings\/10286\/\">Listen Intently with the Goal of Helping as a Lean Leader<\/a><\/li>\r\n\t<li><a title=\"ask the right questions to be a good lean manager\" href=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/lean-manager-asking-wrong-questions-leads-to-poor-management\/10199\/\">Asking the Wrong Questions Is Not Lean Leadership<\/a><\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/td>\r\n<\/tr>\r\n<\/tbody>\r\n<\/table>\r\n<\/div>\r\n&nbsp;\n<p>Asking questions is a skill and, when done well, leads to effective leadership and good management of a business and people. But, the opposite is also true: when wrong questions are asked, then that leads to poor management and bad leadership.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-15312\" src=\"https:\/\/staging.opexlearning.com\/resources\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/04\/7408940_f260.jpg\" alt=\"great leaders ask questions, lean leaders listen\" width=\"260\" height=\"195\" \/>Before going into examples of effective questions, below are ineffective ways to ask questions:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Positioning: &#8220;I know I&#8217;ve been working here for 2 months, but . . .&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Avoidance: Ignoring the obvious elephant in the room.<\/li>\n<li>Posturing: &#8220;The VP listens to whatever I say. So, why . . .&#8221; &#8211; in other words, projecting an &#8220;I&#8217;m in charge&#8221; or &#8220;I&#8217;m better&#8221; image prior to asking the question.<\/li>\n<li>Speaking in Jargon: In general, use clear and plain language. One litmus test I use is whether my Filipino Immigrant mother will understand what you are saying. If the answer is &#8220;No&#8221;, then let&#8217;s try to explain more clearly.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;No Question&#8221; Question: This is confusing. Making a statement, but using an intonation that makes it sound like a question. It&#8217;s another way of making a statement, but pretending it&#8217;s a question. For example, &#8220;When I managed this department, we always met our monthly metrics. It wasn&#8217;t even hard, right?&#8221;. If you notice, this is really a statement about how good this person managed the department, but it&#8217;s couched as a question.<\/li>\n<li>Casual Question: All questions have context. So, there&#8217;s really no casual questions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The above are common errors we fall into in asking questions. Knowing the above is good so that we are careful in how not to frame our questions.<\/p>\n<p>So, how do we frame our questions? That&#8217;s a topic for our next article. Stay tuned.<\/p>\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As we move from isolated Lean &#8220;events&#8221; to Lean Management, producing Lean Managers becomes more and more critical, bad leaders don&#8217;t necessarily ask questions &#8211; they just tell you and broadcast things outward. Part of managing a lean organization, however, requires that our lean managers know how to manage, coach, and teach. A critical part [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12327,"featured_media":15312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[661],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Great Leaders Ask Questions<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Great Leaders ask questions. They just don&#039;t bark and tell, but they try to discover and they listen. 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