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The Sometimes Hidden Costs of a Leader Asking Question
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One time when I was running a large organization at HP, I asked my financial analyst partner, “What is the current headcount in my organization?”
He said, “How accurate an answer do you need?”
I said, “What do you mean?” At this point I honestly thought he would have said, “1134.”
But then he said, “If you want a number within 10 percent, I could let you know by the end of the day, but if you want a more accurate number, it will probably take me a couple of weeks to check all the systems, and get inputs from my counterparts around the world, and then check with HR about exits and pending offers …”
That was a big eye opener for me. Here’s why:
So I have two points to make — one for the executives asking the questions, and one for the recipient of those questions.
Here are some straightforward clarifying questions you can ask an executive to find out how much work you should really be doing on the request.
So I can do the best job possible for you…
Whenever you are making a request, you should always be thinking of the cost of getting your outcome.
Know that even asking what seems to you a simple question can send dozens of people running around for weeks.
So each time you make a request, also share the relative importance of the request to other work, and give it a budget. “Get me whatever you can accomplish in two hours,” or, “Drop everything for the next week until this is done.”
Don’t make the person guess. And, don’t inadvertently encourage them to stop doing something that is actually more important unless it is really worth it.
The worst version of this is the infamous “business review.”
When you ask an organization to do a business review, you might put two hours or half a day on your calendar a few weeks out. That’s what it’s worth to you on your calendar.
But you need to be aware that this one request can completely paralyze your whole organization.
The internal review (to impress you), becomes the urgent business priority, and virtually all work on the business itself stops for weeks to prepare.In the last two weeks alone, I have had three different organizations at three different companies tell me that they are preparing for an executive business review and therefore can’t do anything else for the next 2 – 3 weeks.
Regularly, when I talk with mid-level managers about time management challenges, one of their biggest challenges is the fact that they are required to spend so much time preparing for business reviews for executives that they can’t get their work done.
Of course, business reviews have their place.
As an executive, especially if you are on the Board, you need to satisfy yourself that the business is running properly, and that the work you have committed is getting done.
But you need to find a way to ask the questions, get the answers, and feel like you are in the loop of how the business is doing, without creating risk by how you ask.
Because it’s important to realize that way you review the business may be one of the biggest risks to actually succeeding in your business.
Here is how I have dealt with this as an executive. Don’t just ask for a review.
The key thought here, is that the materials you use to review the business should be ones that the business is using to run the business, not some special 100 slide presentation that was only prepared for your review.
My guideline when I was running a billion-dollar business software business was that I never wanted a team to spend more than one (1) week elapsed time, and no one person should spend more than two (2) hours preparing for an internal review.
I want to see what you are actually doing, using the same artifacts you are using to run your part of the business. Don’t create new stuff. Let’s talk about what’s really happening, not some artificial presentation designed to impress me with it’s polish.
The other thing that I see becoming a huge time sink in organizations is when the executives are so addicted to detail that they insist that even the lowest level of detail be dragged up and vetted through every level of management and reviewed and inspected over and over again.
Moving detail up kills organizational effectiveness, is hugely expensive, and introduces more risk than it averts.
As an executive, if you think that your personally examining lots of detail is helping your organization, it isn’t.
I’ll write about detail next week…
This was originally published on Patty Azzarello’s Business Leadership Blog. Her latest book is Rise: How to be Really Successful at Work and LIKE Your Life.