Ask Questions

Good morning everyone, Happy Monday! 

This week, I wanted to talk about the value of asking questions.  Asking good questions is a hugely important skill for a leader.  The job of being a leader involves making a lot of decisions. Asking questions will allow an effective leader to come up with good answers to the right questions.

Why ask questions?

First, asking questions of your team will give you a much better idea of what problems need to be solved.  Never forget, the people in the trenches know where all of our opportunities and vulnerabilities lie.   Asking questions will allow you to find out what we should be working on.

Next, once the problem is identified, the best way to solve it is by asking questions of the people who the problem affects.  It is a common trap for the leader to think he or she alone has all of the answers.  If you want the best answers, ask the team.   Even if no one comes up with a stroke of genius, there is tremendous value in getting everyone involved.  Everyone wants to feel they have a voice, and asking questions of everyone on the team can give them this voice.

Don’t be afraid. 

Often managers are afraid to ask questions of their team because they don’t want to look like they don’t know it all.  Let me remind you – you don’t know it all!  No one does.  There is tremendous value in showing the vulnerability to ask a question if there is something you don’t understand.  Don’t be afraid to ask questions up, or down in an organization.  Also, if someone asks you a question you don’t know the answer to…… say you don’t know.  There is no quicker way to lose credibility then by faking answers.

Stay Curious

It is very important for managers to be curious.  Our jobs as managers is to make things better, so we can make more guests happy.  In order to do this, you need to be curious.  There are thousands of tasks that happen in a restaurant.  Our job is to be curious and to constantly question if there is a better way.    Being curious about things going on in the world and in the industry is also a vital part of gaining experience and maintaining relevance.

Have a great week!  Get out there and ask questions of your team and each other!

Here are some good ones to try:

How can I help you?

What could I do that would make your job easier?

Is there anything that gets in the way of you serving our guests?

What do you think we could do to improve the guest experience?

If there was one problem you think we need to solve, what would it be?

What do you think would happen if we did it this way?

How did this way of doing things come about?

What was the idea behind this?

Did we ever think about doing it this way?

Can you explain this to me?