(To be published by the Leader to Leader
Institute, 2005)
Peter Drucker has a great
way with words. He distills meaningful
concepts into short phrases more effectively
than anyone I have ever met. I have had the
privilege of being on the Board of the
Drucker Foundation (and now the Leader to
Leader Institute) for many years. At one of
our early Drucker Foundation Board meetings,
Peter observed, “The leader of the past knew
how to tell, the leader of the future will
know how to ask.”
Why is asking so
important? Almost all of the leaders that I
meet manage knowledge workers. Peter
has defined knowledge workers as people who
know more about what they are doing than
their boss does. It is hard to tell people
what to do and how to do it – when they
already know more than we do! In today’s
rapidly changing world, we need to ask,
listen and learn from everyone around us. As
Peter recently stated “Leaders need to be
willing to start with asking the question,
‘What needs to be done?’
Asking works! This isn’t
just a theory – as research shows – it is a
fact. My partner, Howard Morgan and I
recently published a study on leadership
development programs involving over 11
thousand leaders and 86 thousand of their
co-workers from eight major corporations.
Our findings were very clear. Leaders that
ask co-workers to provide suggestions for
improvement, listen to their co-workers,
learn from the people around them and
consistently follow-up are seen as becoming
more effective. Leaders that don’t ask –
don’t get much better. A few years ago,
Leader to Leader published a similar
study with relationship customers and found
very similar results. External customer
satisfaction goes up when customer service
representatives ask, listen, learn and
follow-up.
In addition to being
supported by research, asking just makes
common sense. When people ask us for our
input, listen to us, try to learn from us
and follow-up to see if they are getting
better – our relationship with them almost
invariably improves.
I have only one question.
This seems so simple and obvious. Why don’t
we do it?
I have reviewed summary
360º feedback involving thousands of leaders
from over 50 major organizations. If the
item “Asks people what he or she can do to
improve” is included in the company’s
leadership inventory it is almost always
near the bottom (if not in last place) in
terms of employee satisfaction. As a rule –
in spite of Peter Drucker’s good suggestions
- leaders don’t ask!
One of the major reasons
that we don’t ask is our inflated ego. When
I have asked over 50,000 leaders to “rate
themselves” relative to their professional
peers – the results are very consistent –
and very amazing! About 60% of all leaders
rank themselves in the “top 10%” of their
professional peer group, almost 85% say they
are in the “top 20%” and over 98% claim to
be in the “top half”! The performance of the
company has very little to do with the
self-assessment of its leaders. I have done
this exercise with leaders in four companies
that were considered (at that time) as the
“most admired” in America – the results were
about the same. I have also done this
exercise with leaders in two companies that
were facing bankruptcy – the results were
almost identical!
When we become successful
we are often delusional about the reasons
for our success. Successful people tend to
attribute good results to our own motivation
and ability. We tend to attribute poor
results to environmental factors, bad luck
or random chance.
When we over-rate our own
performance and knowledge, we can easily
justify not asking others for their input.
After all, why should we ask others, when
(in our own mind) we already know more than
they do!
Although inflated ego is
one important reason that we don’t ask, it
is not the biggest reason – the biggest
reason is fear.
Recently I asked the VP
of Customer Satisfaction in a major
organization, “Should your employees be
asking their key customers for feedback –
listening – learning and following-up to
ensure service keeps getting better?” “Of
course!” he exclaimed.
“How important it this to
your company?” I inquired – egging him on to
be more enthusiastic. “It’s damn
important!” he cried out.
I then lowered my voice
and asked, “Have you ever asked your wife
for feedback on how you can become a better
husband?” He stopped, thought for a second,
and sighed “No.”
My interrogation
continued, “Who is more important – your
company’s customers or your wife?” “My
wife – of course!” he sadly noted.
“If you believe in asking
so much, why don’t you do it at home?” I
inquired. He ruefully admitted, “Because
I am afraid of the answer.”
Why don’t most of us ask
- even though we know we should? We don’t
ask because – deep down inside – we are
afraid of the answers.
Let me give you a
personal example. I am 56 years old. At my
age one type of input that I should be
asking for every year is called a physical
exam. I managed to avoid this input – not
one year or two years – but for seven years!
How did I successfully avoid a physical exam
for seven years? What did I keep telling
myself – for seven years? I will get that
exam after I quit traveling so much. I will
get that exam after I go on my “healthy
foods” diet. I will get that exam after I
get in shape!
Have you ever told
yourself the same thing? Who are we kidding
– the doctor – our families??? We are only
kidding ourselves.
My suggestions are very
simple:
As a leader – listen to
Peter Drucker - get in the habit of asking
key co-workers for their ideas on “What
needs to be done?” Thank them for their
input, listen to them, learn as much as you
can, incorporate the ideas that make the
most sense and follow-up to ensure that
real, positive change is occurring.
As a coach – encourage
the people that you are coaching to ask,
listen and learn from everyone around them.
Be a great role model for learning – then
ask the people you are coaching to learn in
the same way that you are. As an executive
coach, I find that my clients can learn a
lot more from their key stakeholders than
they ever learn from me!
As a friend and family
member – ask the people that you love how
you can be a better partner, friend, parent
or child. Listen to their ideas. Don’t get
so busy with work that you forget that they
may well be the most important people in
your life.
Improving interpersonal
relationships doesn’t have to take a lot of
our time. It does require having the courage
to ask for important people’s opinions and
the discipline to follow-up and do something
about what we learn.
As Peter Drucker has
suggested we need to ask, “What needs to
be done?”
Who do you need to ask?
When are you going to
start asking?
Post your comments at
amin@aiminlines.co.th
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