Do you know how to overcome politics in a meeting?
© Copyright Frank D. Kanu 2000-2008
Ask questions! Yes, that’s right—just ask questions.
John works as project lead for a company in a different country; roughly every two weeks the company flies him in to meet with the team. Tensions are usually high:
The company is happy with the progress of the team and John’s managers think he is doing a great job.
Here what John has to say:
Technorati (All Links are external): ask questions asking questions asking questions philosophy corporate offices different cultures different time zones dislike do you agree firstly good leaders have noticed that interesting things job language team lead with questions leader native tongue overcome politics in a meeting philosophy politically politics in a meeting project initiation document questioning technique questions simple questions stakeholders team members tensions what if work wonders business leadership management politics stop telling... start leading! teams
Ask questions! Yes, that’s right—just ask questions.
John works as project lead for a company in a different country; roughly every two weeks the company flies him in to meet with the team. Tensions are usually high:
- The team members have to deal with different cultures
- The team members live in different time zones
- Even so both consider English as their native tongue—we all know it’s not the same language!
- Team members dislike that their lead is not working in the same office building with them.
- When John is back home he is very much out of the loop and does not really know what happens in the office.
The company is happy with the progress of the team and John’s managers think he is doing a great job.
Here what John has to say:
«Some interesting things have happened since I read your book. Firstly your “asking questions« philosophy seems to have stayed with me and I have found myself using this technique more than I used to in the past. Just this week I was at our corporate offices chairing some meetings with topics that were politically sensitive and I found myself asking people questions to get them to open up and talk. Sometimes even simple questions like “Do you agree?” seemed to work wonders. So I thank you for that.
I also have noticed that my manager and his manager—who are both very good leaders—use this questioning technique a lot and they are the stakeholders in my project so as we were going through the project initiation document they were asking lots of “what if” questions. I found it more constructive even though I felt a little uncomfortable but as soon as I realized they’re asking these questions because it’s their job to do so I was happy with it.
Experiencing it from both ends was very interesting and I can see the power in it.»
I also have noticed that my manager and his manager—who are both very good leaders—use this questioning technique a lot and they are the stakeholders in my project so as we were going through the project initiation document they were asking lots of “what if” questions. I found it more constructive even though I felt a little uncomfortable but as soon as I realized they’re asking these questions because it’s their job to do so I was happy with it.
Experiencing it from both ends was very interesting and I can see the power in it.»
Do you know how to ask questions?
How to lead with questions?
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ask questions asking questions asking questions philosophy corporate offices different cultures different time zones dislike do you agree firstly good leaders have noticed that interesting things job language team lead with questions leader native tongue overcome politics in a meeting philosophy politically politics in a meeting project initiation document questioning technique questions simple questions stakeholders team members tensions what if work wondersTechnorati (All Links are external): ask questions asking questions asking questions philosophy corporate offices different cultures different time zones dislike do you agree firstly good leaders have noticed that interesting things job language team lead with questions leader native tongue overcome politics in a meeting philosophy politically politics in a meeting project initiation document questioning technique questions simple questions stakeholders team members tensions what if work wonders business leadership management politics stop telling... start leading! teams
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