Asking questions and Listening

Asking questions and then practicing poor listening skills is a very bad idea. If you're not willing to sharpen your listening skills, you'd be better off not asking questions at all.

A word of caution: One of the ground rules of good questioning is that when a question is asked and an answer is given, the questioner does not (and often should not) respond. Given an answer, you should simply acknowledge the information, clarify any ambiguities, and assure the answerer that their opinion is valuable and will be considered.

"Thank you for bringing this to my attention. As I understand it, your situation is [restate the problem].You have my word that I will look into this matter and will get back to you with a resolution. Please know that I appreciate your efforts to make our organization better.”

Work,Leadership

Leaders get into trouble when they fall into a pattern of doing the jobs of the people who report to them rather than creating an environment that allows the right people to do the right things.

Look for ways to increase enthusiasm for solving problems, ignite passion for learning, encourage excitement around success, foster fun as a stress reliever, and discourage seeing work as a four-letter word. You'll be doing your job. Then enthusiasm, passion, excitement, fun, and work are synonyms. Do you understand that doodling, muttering under your breath, and standing up during a meeting can all be signs of a person learning? It appears as though there could be a lot for you to learn.

Leader's Tip

Saying thank you to someone who's spent time helping you by answering your questions will increase the likelihood that you'll get more and deeper answers the next time you ask.

Repeated whys push the answerer beyond the surface. Why takes them to the details they need to satisfy their curiosity.Leaders need to discover the ways they can ask why with a spirit of curiosity and learning.

What did you admire about their behaviors? What behaviors did they exhibit that actually got in the way of your doing your job?How you feel about being a leader will always influence how you act as a leader

Understanding how your feelings at any given time are influencing your behavior is one of the greatest challenges of leadership. Without an honest, routine check of your feelings about leadership, you shortchange yourself as well as the people who follow you.

When you stop learning, stop listening, stop looking and asking questions, always new questions, then it is time to die.

—Lillian Smith, American author

Happiness is born from optimism. Optimism is embedded in beliefs such as "Problems can be solved," "Good ultimately triumphs over evil," and "Joy is a birthright of all individuals."
Without an underlying positive belief system, leadership rings hollow. You cannot inspire people to try again if you don't really believe that success is possible. You can't comfort people during tough times if you don't believe that tough times pass. You can't lead if you don't have faith in an uncertain future.

Differentiate yourself by considering ways to acknowledge the importance of your employees.

In addition to sending cards at Christmas, consider sending "We Love Our Employees" cards on Valentines Day or saying thank you with a Thanksgiving Day card.

Recognize sacrifice. If someone stays late to complete a project, mention your appreciation.

You are a little bit crazy. You think out-of-the box. You try new things and if they fail, you admit the mistake, but don’t apologize for having tried.

Seek to understand then to be understood.

This is not only good in management it's a good life practice. It means asking probing questions, repeating back what you hear, and re-stating what the person is telling you until you gain full understanding. Misunderstandings may be good to propel a plot in a movie but they only cause damage elsewhere.

Listen. How many times has someone come in your office to discuss something and found you inattentive? By this I mean, that you're typing on the keyboard, looking at caller id, or glancing at people walking by instead of fully listening. Those are tough habits to break but providing focused, attentive listening is one of the great gifts you can give as a manager.

People Management Tips

• How praise can be used to help people achieve goals  and also retain them.
• How you can get people to support key initiatives by getting them involved in the very  conceptualisation of these activities.
• How every person has an invisible sign around his necks that says 'make me feel important' and so, if you make him feel important, he will be loyal forever.
• How you can achieve what you want by helping people achieve what they want.
• God gave us two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak -- how important it is to listen when you are managing people.
• You will have to make decisions that will benefit the company as well as your staff....and quite often they are in direct conflict with each other. (You cannot be all things to all people....