Exercise · Coaching and Team Leadership
Instruction or Question
Learn to turn habitual management instructions into open questions that get the employee thinking.
Time30 minutes
ParticipantsIndividually, then pairs
MaterialsParticipant workbook
From the trainingCoaching and Team Leadership
Why this exercise
"Call the client again and offer a discount" — the manager does the thinking, the employee carries it out. "What options do you see for getting the client back to the negotiating table?" — the employee does the thinking and owns the decision. They may well suggest the same discount, but now it is their decision. Instructions are needed in emergencies and on safety issues; in every other case it is worth trying to ask first.
How to run it
- Show the features of a powerful question: open, about the future and possibilities, no hidden advice, short, with a clear purpose, and you genuinely want to hear the answer.
- 7 minutes, individually: rewrite eight habitual instructions as open questions. For example: "Why are you late again?", "Don't argue with the client", "Take this project, you can do it".
- 8 minutes in pairs: read your questions to each other and choose the two best.
- 10 minutes, whole group: pairs read out their best questions, and the group checks them against the features.
Debrief questions
- Which questions turned out to be "advice in disguise"?
- In which of your situations would a question work better than an instruction?
Tips for the facilitator
- The test for hidden advice: can the employee give an answer you do not expect? "You do understand you should have called, don't you?" is advice.
- When someone says "in our industry you have to give orders", agree that instructions are needed and ask them to name situations where a question would work better. There are usually more than half.