Human Resources In Government

I’ve been coaching a municipal executive who believes she is inclusive and respectful with employees.  The feedback we’ve gotten from her staff is that she is a micromanager.  They say she doesn’t trust them and that she does not value their input.  Why the dicotomy?  These problems run deep and will be a challenge to overcome.  Still, there are some behaviors she exhibits that send a subtle message  that she really doesn’t want to hear from her employees.  Here’s the tip I’ll share with her the next time we meet:

Make your questions open-ended.

This concept is a bit of a “duh.” We all know that open-ended questions, those that require more than a yes/no answer, are more appropriate if you are trying to engage the other person in the conversation. Still, how conscious are you of the openness of your daily questions? Here are a few examples.

Example: “Do you like your work?” is not open-ended. You are likely to get a short, blunt answer to a question like this. An alternative way to ask the question which is open-ended is, “What about your work do you most enjoy?” The response is more likely to be robust enough to give you insights into the employee’s motivations.

Example: “Are you going to make that mistake again?” is closed-ended and will likely put the employee on the defensive. It is parental in nature and does not allow the employee to participate in the problem-solving. An open ended alternative would be, “What are you going to do next time to make sure the outcome is more effective?”

Example: “Have you considered calling the vendor back?” is a question that is really a directive. You may have a clear picture of what the employee should do. In fact, you may have several suggestions for the employee. In time, you can offer your suggestions. However, if you want to engage the employee in solving the problem or if your goal is to coach them to higher levels of performance in the future, giving them the answer, even in the form of a closed question, is not the most effective approach. Instead, use an open-ended question like, “What solutions have you considered?”

My coachee has some work to do and it will start with being conscious of the questions she asks.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 15th, 2009 at 9:57 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.