Aaron Huizenga shares how asking the right questions builds better solutions

Last month, we talked about closing our mouths and listening more, but there is a time and a place to speak. Let’s be clear with this idea, though. We want to use our speaking time carefully so that we can create more listening opportunities.

In order to do this effectively, we need to take on a mindset of being genuinely curious about the other person and/or the situation.

For example, you are talking with a work colleague about an issue or a customer. Then you as the leader are going to need to offer a solution to the issue; you need to know as much as possible about the landscape surrounding it – the who’s, the what’s and, most importantly, the why’s around how this situation came to be.

For those of us who have been in the business for a while, there are situations that arise that are very similar to things we have had to deal with in the past, but very rarely are any two of them exactly the same.

This is where questions come into play. Ask about who was involved. Ask about how the colleague came to learn of the issue. Ask about steps taken to correct it already. Ask about ideas to mitigate the possibility of it happening again. Ask about any known expectations from the customer’s or employee’s perspective. Then ask follow-up questions based on the answers that you receive to any of the initial questions. If it goes really well, you are speaking only a sentence or two and collecting a paragraph of information. When this interaction is done, you as the leader should now have a full understanding of events leading up to the issue, actions already taken and some forward-looking direction for correction.

When done well, this practice can actually help the customer or the colleague walk themselves to a solution. Then as the leader, you simply knew what to ask, in what order and helped them solve it for themselves. With that kind of outcome, you are also going to have 100 percent buy-in from them for the solution.

It takes some work and some practice, but questions, properly applied, are a very powerful tool.

Let’s work on your upgrade!

Aaron Huizenga is East Division manager for Lakes Gas in Wisconsin. Reach him at ahuizenga@lakesgas.com.

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