Page 117 - Becoming a Successful Manager

108 ESTABLISHING A SOLID DEPARTMENTAL FOUNDATION

that information. Closed questions will yield only minimum infor-
mation. To gain more information, you must get your employee to
talk more than you. You increase your chances of accomplishing
that by employing open questions.

Open Questions

Open questions usually start with “How,” “What,” and “Why.”
These formats require lengthier responses than closed questions.
These require extra attention to the attitude, intent, and tone of
the question. Make sure questions intended for resolving curiosity
are exactly that and not used for building a case or a trap.
Crafting open questions requires more attention than phras-
ing closed questions. Once you say the fi rst word, you have to fi g-
ure out what the rest of the sentence will be. You have to identify
your area of interest and focus. You might begin questions with
the following:

“How will . . . ?”
“What . . . ?”
“Why . . . ?”

Tread carefully with such questions because, as has been demon-
strated, the way you ask them will usually preprogram the answer.
It will stake out the territory for exploration, and your employee
will follow your lead. For example, if you were to ask someone,
“What is the toughest challenge you have to overcome?” it’s logi-
cal for the person to tell you how he or she views the challenge and
plans to deal with it. Then again, if you were to ask, “What do
you need from me to meet your current challenge?” you may fi nd
yourself more involved in this person’s caseload than you care to
be. Open questions can be valuable; just remember to construct
them so that you ask for what you really want to know.