An article by Harvard Business Review ‘Why Curiosity Matters’ says that most leaders stifle employees being curious as it can lead to greater business risk and inefficiency rather than provide time to explore new possibilities and solutions. This breeds an environment where the ethos is to get on with the job. Equally, the fear of asking questions stems from the individual risk of looking incompetent, unknowledgeable, or unprepared; however, asking questions is a sign of intelligence and a desire to learn. Undoubtedly, there will be that annoying colleague who is too afraid to ask questions and instead pretends to know everything, or the arrogant boss with the attitude ‘my way or the highway’ or that of the overwhelmed where time to explore simply cannot be factored in. So how can leadership improve styles to create a safe space for employees to ask questions and vice versa?
Asking questions at work that illicit participation and beneficial answers is a soft skill, prevalent in mentoring that all leaders need to develop. Lead by example, and the culture will follow.
The first step is reflection on one’s current approach. The following questions can provide a sense check.
- When was the last time I invited the team’s view and considered it?
- Who never asks a question, and why is that?
- What do I do to make my team comfortable enough to ask me or each other questions to challenge what we are doing and why?
An interesting statistic is that 80% of front-line managers do not use reverse feedback, inviting opinion on themselves, to learn about their own functioning and set an example for confident humility. Source Headspring The ability to do this is a core competency at the Association of Business Mentorsand a strong theme in our training.
Should time be a limiting factor, then structure a timeframe around a questioning session. Have a collection of your favourites to kick things off, such as;
‘If you were the manager here, what would you do differently?’ or even
‘When you are a manager, how will you do things differently?
Have you ever been exhausted from keeping the conversation flowing because you are the only one asking questions? Have you left a conversation knowing a lot about the other parties, yet they know nothing about you despite giving ample opportunity?
Another of our six core competencies is Curious Questioning and this is important because questions are relationship-building. Building relationships at work with fellow employees is essential for a positive and thriving company culture, boosting productivity, and improving work satisfaction.
Studies show employee satisfaction increases nearly 50% when an employee develops a close relationship on the job. The same study shows that “92% of employers credited curious people with bringing new ideas into teams and organisations and viewed curiosity as a catalyst for job satisfaction, motivation, innovation, and high performance.”
Source nbrii.com
There is weight to the saying, ‘There is no such thing as a stupid question’ however, it is down to the environment created by the leader to encourage their team to believe so. We learn how to do this as mentors very early on. There is such a thing as a stupid question, of course. As found in Wikipedia, they are:
- Questions to which the answer should be painfully obvious to any person with a pulse who has lived on this Earth for more than a decade.
- Questions that include ridiculous or hypothetical assumptions.
- Questions are asked by someone who already knows the answer but is trolling the person they are asking.
However, we avoid belittling, which is an art as is not fearing ignorance. Acknowledging when we don’t know the answer is positive and encourages the theme that we can be guided by curiosity.
Greg Dyke, former Director General of the BBC, championed this by saying, “I don’t know the answer to that question, but I will definitely find out’ HBR 2018
To sum up, the fear of curiosity in the workplace is fueled by a lack of time, an apprehension of not knowing, and an absence of structured brainstorming. If we managed with a mentoring approach, this would not be the case. Surely a win-win for the organisation as a whole?
