While you may think you’re sharing your wisdom, running an employee training session a certain way could hurt your career. The problem sees you ask the audience a subjective question, where you feel there’s only one right answer, your own.
In this episode of our weekly productivity series, you’ll learn how this technique can make good employees tune you out and never hear your message.
What Productivity Questions Does This Video Answer?
- What question can hurt your career?
- How to be a better supervisor?
- How to lead group discussions?
- What can I do to be a more effective communicator with employees?
Video Transcript for Asking This Question Could Hurt Your Career
If you’re a leader, asking this question could hurt your career. Maybe this is happened to you? You’re in a room and a leader is asking a rhetorical question to a group. It could be something like, “What’s the best way to increase sales?”
People start responding to the question with their ideas and the leader starts going, “No, no, no, not it.” Eventually the leader will give the reason for how you can make more sales.
I really don’t like this type of questioning technique. Because someone basically has an answer in mind that they want to share with the group. But they’re not just going to say, “In my experience this works well.”
They’re going to do a little game show, where they get to feel like they are the expert and everyone else really doesn’t know anything at all
I don’t like this for a few different reasons. One is we can alienate an audience and really turn people off. Also, it hurts innovation. If I’m sitting in that audience, how hard am I gonna try to answer a question, if someone is just going to say, “No, not it.” Come on, you got to think about this.
You also don’t want to just set yourself up if you were the leader, as the only person who has answers. That’s a lonely place. I don’t know if you want to be there.
It’s better to get everyone’s ideas. I think a better way to do this type of thing it’s just simply asked the question and say, “Oh those were some good responses. In my experience…” Then you say your reason. But don’t make it like a game show that your audience feels like they’re stuck sitting in.
About This Video Series
Ken Okel’s ongoing Employee Productivity video series will make you more effective on the job. Every week, you’ll learn a new, easy to understand, problem solving tip that you can use right away, like a problem solving tip for leaders.
Tired of a productivity problem, like why the details matter at work? Let us know and we’ll feature it in an upcoming episode.
About Ken Okel
As a motivational speaker, Ken Okel works with leaders and organizations to boost productivity, performance, and profits. At conferences, conventions, and company meetings, he engages audiences with new ways to maximize their time at work. To see a sample of his keynote and workshop presentations, visit his video page.
