by Peter B. Grazier

You are manager, supervisor, or team leader attempting to move your team or your organization toward a more empowered behavior, meaning, people take more independent action to make things happen. A team member comes to you with a question, the kind you have been expected to answer many times before. After all, this is the role of the leader isn’t it…to answer questions and give direction?

This time though you use the magic words “What would you do?” You can preface this question by saying that you have some thoughts, but you’d like to hear theirs.

Granted, there are times when they need to know what you want or think, but many times they have already formed ideas and opinions that should be heard. If they have an idea that has promise, go with it. One’s commitment to embrace a new idea, a change, or some innovation is directly proportional to their involvement in the decision to do it. With time you’ll be surprised by the results.