Asking Questions at Work-Better Questions Equal Better Results

real patriots ask questions carl saganIf you’ve never thought about the impact of asking questions at work in a better way, I’m going to help change that today. Consider the following list of questions you’d hear in the average day:

  • Why do we have to go through this change?
  • Why can’t we find good people?
  • When will that guy do his job right?
  • Why don’t they communicate better?
  • Who messed this up?
  • When is someone going to train me?
  • When are my people going to get their act together?

Any of these questions seem familiar? We’ve all heard a version of them at some point in time. The theme running through these questions is twofold. First, there\’s a definite negative connotation. Second, and most importantly, they are structured to place blame and accountability on someone else.

That’s not a winning plan.

If you’re trying to be successful as a leader, you\’re going to have to hold people accountable. Letting them ask questions like these is a surefire way to ensure that they never learn self accountability.

It doesn’t always fit, but the majority of the time questions that begin with “who, when, and why” are potential problems. In the examples above you’ll see that play out.

The point is to turn the questions around and find ways to hold yourself accountable for the results. Try starting the questions with “how can I…” or “what can I…” and you\’ll see that the responsibility immediately shifts from someone else to you.

You’re the one in charge of making the change at that point.

It’s a radically different mindset to ask questions like these. Why? Because you have to care. And you have to be willing to hold yourself and your people accountable for the results. It isn’t easy, but it’s worth it.

Here is the same set of questions rewritten with accountability in mind:

  • What can I do to make this change easier on others?
  • How can I help us find better people?
  • What can I do to help that guy do his job better?
  • How can I help to strengthen communication?
  • How can I make this right?
  • What can I do to pursue training?
  • How can I help my people be better at their jobs?

Foster a culture of accountability with your people and reap the benefits of stronger individual and team performance.

Finally, here’s a great example of how one company does this on a daily basis.

WD-40 practices the democratic principle of Accountability. To that end we ask every tribe member to own and act passionately on the Maniac Pledge. The pledge states: “I am responsible for taking action, asking questions, getting answers, and making decisions. I won’t wait for someone to tell me. If I need to know, I’m responsible for asking. I have no right to be offended that I didn’t ‘get this sooner.’ If I’m doing something others should know about, I’m responsible for telling them.” Source: WD-40

Challenge: Can you choose a question from the list above and put it into motion today? If so, which one did you pick?

Assume the best

Yesterday I had an interesting incident occur that reminded me just how our worldviews can skew our actions. This has a tie to the business world, so hang with me.

Once upon a time

As is often the case, I was walking out of the grocery store with a ginormous box of diapers (Pampers Baby Dry, if you must know), and a random guy walks up to me, commenting on the size of the box. I let it slip that I have twin girls, and he started a long, well-rehearsed story about how he was a long way from home and trying to get back to his own kids. I could quickly see where the conversation was going, so I told him I didn’t have any cash on me. He responded that he didn’t need cash, just some gas in his vehicle to get home. I told him to meet me across the parking lot at the gas station and I would fill up my gas can for him.

When we got over there I took the can out of my trunk and filled it for him. I walked over to where he was parked and said, “Here, keep the can, too. I hope that helps you get home.” His response will forever be embedded in my brain. He said, “If I had known that all I would get out of talking with you was $3 in gas, I wouldn’t have bothered.”

Now, up until that point I assumed the best about this guy. I assumed he was telling the truth. I assumed he really needed help. I assumed he would accept whatever help I could offer.

At that point I knew that pretty much everything he’d told me so far was probably a lie. He wanted me to fill his tank for him, and I wasn’t willing to do that. Instead of being thankful for what I had offered, he sneered at it.

The business lesson

Some people automatically assume the worst. If I was one of those people, I’d have shut the guy out long before offering to help. However, there was a chance that he really needed some assistance. By assuming the best and offering what I could, I took a chance at helping someone who might have needed it. And the next time I run across someone who needs help, I won’t let this instance change my reaction in the slightest.

Assume the best. Give what you can. If the other person accepts it, great! If the other person does not, walk away (as I did) knowing that you did everything you could to do the right thing.

What about you? Ever worked with someone who was perpetually looking for the worst in people? What was it like?

The Candidate Experience-How Confident are You?

What The Candidate Experience Means to Me

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the candidates for our positions. I do what I can to provide a transparent, high-touch process (click here to listen to me talk more about our hiring process and recruiting philosophy), but sometimes it just gets tough to make sure everyone is in the loop at all steps of the game. I also wonder at times just what the candidates really want from me as their main point of contact during the interview/offer process.

The potential solution

So, with that in mind, I’m considering putting together a short, two question survey to send to all candidates we interviewed after the final selection has been made. It would ask these questions:

  1. On a scale of 1-5 what did you think of our recruiting process with regard to ease of scheduling interviews, timely communication, follow up, etc.?
  2. What could we have done to make the experience better for you?

If you recall, it’s very close to the set of questions suggested by the author of 101 Strategies for Recruiting Success. As with all surveys, we are sure to get some varying responses. I’d expect everything from “you should have picked me” to “I would have liked phone updates more than emails.” But the end result, I’m hoping, would be an idea or two to incorporate into the process to help make it more user-friendly on the candidate side of things.

To save some time and effort, I would only send it to the people we interview. Those who apply get the automatic email response when they apply, and I try to make sure and send the blanket “the position’s been filled” email after we hire someone. In my mind we don’t owe those people anything more, because honestly it would become a full-time job responding to each individual person. While I think it’s important to treat candidates like customers, I’m also realistic enough to know that we can’t offer personalized service to the 50+ people applying to some positions.

There’s an award for that

Just as I was finishing this post, I saw a friend mention The Candidate Experience Awards. I’m going to talk with our people and see if we want to participate, because it looks like an interesting process. I already know we do a good job with how to be a best place to work, but are we doing the best on the front end before the candidate ever joins the team? I think it would be neat to find out.

Anyone else do a survey like this with their candidates? Anyone think they might like to participate in the Candidate Experience Awards? I’d be interested in hearing your perspective. 

Grow Young Professional Employees Who Create a Calm Company Culture

As a manager, it\’s important to create an environment in which all of your employees can thrive. You should strive to develop employees that are positive and proactive—from day one. For your young professionals, the most coddled generation in our nation\’s history, it can often be tricky to dance in the uncomfortable and very necessary space between walking on egg shells to avoid uncomfortable situations and instigating unnecessary conflict.

Here are a few ways you can work with your youngest employees to help them adopt and sustain a possibility-centered mindset so that they—and the rest of your employees—can do their best work.

Reframe Conflict

Let your young professionals know first and foremost that conflict is normal and that when it emerges, it\’s important to address it quickly. For the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors we usually associate with conflict often occur more when we are thinking about the possibility of conflict than when we are actually acknowledging and moving through it. Show your young professionals how to separate fact from fiction in the stories they create about the situations they find themselves in. Help them to give other people the necessary space to speak their perspective without getting defensive. And most importantly, help them develop the skills to focus on how to move forward with others in mutually-beneficial ways rather than rehashing old grievances.

Bring in Some Old-fashioned Forgiveness

When conflict occurs, it\’s important to keep your young professionals moving forward. The only way to do this is if they forgive all parties involved in previous problems—most of all themselves. Encourage them to see forgiveness as the act of unhooking from the story they created about themselves and the other people involved in the problem. Forgiveness is as much a choice as a practice. In addition to letting young professionals see the many health and performance benefits of letting go and moving on, help them to stay in the forgiveness zone by focusing on how they want to feel when they have forgiven…once and for all. Encourage them to recreate this feeling in their bodies until it eventually sticks and their dress rehearsal becomes their final performance.

Kill Fear Mongering

No employees work well when they live in fear. While you may think it\’s benign or perhaps even a good thing for a young professional to believe that a missed deadline could be grounds for termination, fear is a lousy motivator and it makes a really great performance killer. If young professionals direct focus toward speed at the expense of turning out a high-quality product, you might be training them to make underperformance acceptable and habitual. Let them know that you are there for them when they are having issues with an assignment, and encourage proactive, transparent conversations so that you can co-create solutions.

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Alexia Vernon is an author, speaker, International Coach Federation (ICF) certified coach, trainer, and media personality who specializes in helping organizations recruit, retain, educate, and grow their young professional workforce. In her book 90 Days 90 Ways: Onboard Young Professionals to Peak Performance, Alexia demonstrates how to achieve the goal of getting new employees oriented, integrated and trained within 90 days of their employment. As a member of Gen Y and with her unique approach to talent development, Alexia has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including CNN, NBC, Wall Street Journal, CBS MoneyWatch, FOX Business News, Forbes.com, ABCNews.com, TheGlassDoor.com, and Mint.com.  To learn more visit www.AlexiaVernon.com and connect with Alexia on Twitter @AlexiaVernon.

A Few Updates for the Curious

Sometimes I wish I could be everywhere at once. Alas, that isn’t going to be happening any time soon, but it seems like things are staying at least that busy! Here’s what is on my mind at the moment.

  • SHRM12 in Atlanta-I’m going. Are you? If you’d like to meet in person (warning: I’m much more quiet/reserved in person than you would imagine reading this blog), I would love the opportunity to talk with you. I plan to be in town June 24th through the 27th. Shoot me an email and we can connect. I’m also looking at getting a little group together for some fun/easy running and chatting. No speed or pressure! Click here for more on that.
  • HRevolution in Chicago-This isn’t until October, but I’m already getting very excited about the event. Click here to learn more and register. You’ll get to talk with some of the smartest HR/recruiting pros around. Highly recommended.
  • After my recent employee financial wellness post, I realized I had a few more ideas to share and plan to write a sequel soon. Semi-off topic: I recently signed up for PerkStreet’s debit card. I don’t like debt and credit cards, so naturally I was thrilled to find out that there’s a cash back (1-2%) debit card out there. Very cool. More info here.
  • I use MailChimp to get email updates to subscribers every time there’s a new post. I just found out they are in Atlanta and I am hoping I can stop by their office while I’m at the SHRM conference and beg for one of their amazing t-shirts. I’ll probably bring bananas as a bribe. Love the company and their culture!
  • I’ve pulled back on my volunteer work with NASHRM as of late. I’m the Social Media Director and have been running their blog, RocketHR, for almost 3 years now and realized that I won’t be continuing that (at least in 2013, if not sooner). I’m starting the process of succession planning and it’s all kinds of headaches. Lessons learned.
  • Work is keeping me busy. From recent posts you’ve seen that we’re doing some “human resource management planning” and trying to figure out what the department is going to look like in the coming months. That’s fun but exhausting. I’m working on everything from recruiting and employee relations to benefits and performance management. We’re looking closely at moving away from a paper-based performance system to one of those newfangled online thingies. :-)
  • The kids are amazing. That’s the first thing everyone wants to know. The challenges of potty training, self-feeding, and keeping them from drinking the water at the bottom of the shower are keeping me and Melanie busy, but it’s so worth it to have them just walk over and kiss you for no reason at at all.

That’s what is up in my world. I have about twenty different things I’d like to do with the site if I can just find the time. Everything from some great new books I’m ready to review to updating the HR Ninja course and more. Fingers crossed that someday soon I’ll learn the secret of no longer needing to sleep!

No More Mister Nice Guy

Recently I ran across an article that led with an interesting premise: if you want to be better than the competition, you need to be asking better interview questions. That made me stop and think. In the HR blogging space we are very friendly with each other and often provide advice that is informative and uplifting; however, that title takes the conversation in another direction.

  • If your competitors are better, they will win.
  • If the competitor has better HR people, they will have a significant advantage.

So what does that mean for you? It’s time to step up your game. Look at what some of your current processes are, and see how you can fix them to be more competitive. A few examples:

  • Look at your new hire orientation setup. Are you making the best use of time for you, the employee, and the manager? Does the process make the new employee feel welcomed? Where can you trim a little fat from the process without impacting the new hire experience negatively?
  • How about your employee relations practices? Are you assisting managers to ensure they take care of their employees, or do they try to push that off on you? Find ways to start moving the accountability back to the managers. Soon enough, you’ll have more time on your hands to focus on the bigger fish (like this list of 50 human resources challenges).
  • Is diversity and inclusion on your list of things to look into? Why or why not? It’s a real issue, and it shouldn’t be ignored.

We would love to think that it’s all lollipops and kittens, but truthfully it’s a tough world out there. If we’re going to beat the competition, we’re going to need to manage our (ahem!) human resources better. Who’s with me?

Corporate Legends-Your Culture Weapon

Using Corporate Legends to Communicate Culture

We often hear that communicating organizational culture is an important task. However, most people fail to provide examples on how to do that very thing! I’ve been testing different methods for sharing culture (collecting touchstones, for one), but one of my favorite ways to share our corporate beliefs and values are through the “legends” within our organization.

What is a legend?

In this sense of the word, a legend is defined as a person who took extraordinary action to achieve a goal. The guy who drove 400 miles to support a customer’s urgent request. The team that brought 40 employees on board with 48 hours’ notice. The woman who, despite all odds, successfully navigated a corporate audit with a successful conclusion. Basically, it’s the people and actions that embody the high standards that your organization stands for.

What’s the purpose?

Sure, I can tell you what our corporate values are. I can even give you some generic idea of what they mean. However, human communication has a long historical basis in storytelling and traditions. Telling you about how one of our employees really embodies the spirit of our corporate values makes it stick in your brain that much better. If a similar situation arises, you won’t be wondering how to proceed. You’ll be able to recall the legend and what someone else did to achieve success.

How to get started

Start talking with the people who have been at your company for a while. Ask questions that are designed to dig into previous accomplishments. For example:

  • Can you tell me about a time someone went above and beyond the call of duty?
  • What was the biggest success this department has ever had?
  • Has there ever been a big innovation or breakthrough at the corporate or team level? What was it?

If you’re stuck with few examples, you need to get started capturing and communicating the legends that you have. Start reaching out to managers and ask them to share with you when one of their people has a successful project or does something that demonstrates excellence. It’s your job to take those stories and use them to encourage others to embody the same characteristics.

While there might be better ways to communicate organizational culture, using internal legends is fairly straightforward, it’s easy to get started, and it has an immediate impact on the people who hear them. Have a legend of your own? I’d love to hear it! Feel free to share in the comments below.