The Answer is Not All That Matters
There are plenty people racking their brains, losing sleep on research, and attempting to consume and store copious amounts of information in the off-chance they’re asked a question. If you are that person come in close so I can share with you a secret…
When you’re the one asking the right questions you don’t really need all the answers.
Do you have a question?
Now I’m not saying by any means that you shouldn’t have answers, or that you shouldn’t be knowledgeable. What I am saying is that you should stop acting like the all-knowing super hero. Because if you were never told, nobody likes a know it all. Everyone loves a person who asks meaningful questions.
So what are the right questions you ask? Well that is a very good question (and a very strange sequence but hey). A good question provides clarity, keeping you on the right train of thought. It forces you to consider new ideas, and reconsider old ones. If after you’ve asked a question the group is less sure of the goal you’ve not asked the right question.
Just recently I listened as a mother illustrated to a few of us who were chatting, how the dual language program works at her daughters school. The students alternate weeks learning all of their subjects in English and Spanish. On a Spanish-speaking week there was a reading comprehension test coming up which had all the 3rd grade students tense with anxiety. As set up at their workstations, the woman’s daughter raised her hand and asked one simple but all important question,
“Will the test be in Spanish?” The sighs of relief followed by a victorious “YES” by all of her classmates was clear evidence that the other kids wondered the same thing, yet no one asked. After all during a test you answer questions, you don’t ask them; right? Wrong.
Does knowing what language the test will be in automatically equate to perfect scores? No, I can’t tell you that it does. However I do know that you lose in your mind before you lose to anyone or anything else and a clear understanding of what and how something will happen are the first steps to success.
Having always been a curious person I tend to ask a lot of questions. I often become self-conscious about it, particularly when I’m in a conference room at which point I clam up. Going forward my goal is to narrow my questions to those that provide clarity around the desired results, understanding of the impact to other people or visibility to potentially unforeseen variables.
Asking questions ought to convey to the team that you’re thinking bigger than just the task at hand, helping guide the group in a more strategic plan of action. In the end that stretches farther than a nearsighted answer ever could.
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